Billie Lourd

Biography

Billie Lourd is an American TV & Movie actress. She is known for her works such as Scream Queens (2015-2016), American Horror Story (2017-), Star Wars sequel trilogy (2015-2019) and others.

Childhood

Billie Catherine Lourd was born on 17th July 1992 in Los Angeles, California to Bryan Lourd(Father) a talent agent  & Carrie Fisher(Mother) an actress by profession.

Image: Billie Lourd Childhood photo

Billie was born in a family of artists, from her mother's side she is a 3rd generation actress. Her mother Carrie Fisher is a popular actress and her mother Debbie Reynolds(of 'Singing in the Rain' fame) was one of the top actresses of her generation in Hollywood.

Mother

Image: Billie Lourd Childhood: With Mother Carrie Fisher & Grandmother Debbie Reynolds

Mother Carrie Fisher (1956-2016) is an actress, most notable for her portrayal of Princess Leia in the original Star Wars movies. Some of her other notable works include Shampoo (1975), The Blues Brothers (1980), Hannah and Her Sisters (1986).

She was born in 1956 to actress Debbie Reynolds and singer Eddie Fisher. She is of Russian-Jewish and Scots-Irish/English descent.

Actress Meryl Streep is a friend of Carrie Fisher, and is godmother to Billie.

Father

Image: Billie Lourd With her father Bryan Lourd

Bryan Lourd , an American talent agent, is the father of Billie Lourd. He was born in 1960 to Sherion Brice  and Harvey H. Lourd, Jr. 

He graduated from University of Southern California with a degree. He is the managing director, co-chairman, and a partner at Creative Artists Agency (CAA) since 1995.

Bryan and Carrie Fisher lived as partners from 1991-1994. The two separated when Bryan realized he was gay and broke up. He married Bruce Bozzi in 2016.

Billie has a sister Ava from her father's marriage to Bruce Bozzi, Bryan legally adopted her after the marriage.

Grandmother

Image: 3 generations of acting: Billie Lourd, Mother Carrie Fisher, Grandmother Debbie Reynolds

Grandmother Debbie Reynolds was an actress and a businesswoman. She is popular for her roles in Singin' in the Rain (1952), How the West Was Won (1962) and others

Billie is the only grandchild of her grandmother 

Grandfather

Singer Eddie Fisher (1928-2010) is Billie's grandfather. He was the son of Jewish immigrants from the Russian empire.

Eddie and Debbie Reynolds gave birth to actress Carrie Fisher and Todd Fisher.

In his autobiography "Been There Done That", Eddie writes that Catherine Fisher Lourd is Billie's birth name and Billy is the nickname.

Her maternal uncle Todd Fisher is a director, cinematographer and an actor. She has two aunts (daughters of her grandfather Eddie Fisher from his marriage to Connie Stevens) in Joely Fisher, and Tricia Leigh Fisher. Both Joely Fisher and Tricia Leigh Fisher are actresses and a singers.

Education

• Harvard-Westlake School: she attended the Harvard-Westlake School in Los Angeles
• New York University Gallatin School of Individualized Study: She graduated from the New York University Gallatin School of Individualized Study with a degree in "Art and Business as Religion" ( a self designed degree) in 2014.

Relationships- Marriage- Children

Austen Rydell

[Billie Lourd and husband Austen Rydell]

Billie dated producer Austen Rydell (son of actor Christopher Rydell; grandson of director Mark Rydell and actress Joanne Linville) in early 2016, the two separated for a brief time and then got back together in late 2017.

The two got engaged on 25th June 2020.

The couple had their first child Kingston Fisher Lourd Rydell, a boy born on 24th September 2020. 

Austen and Billie got married on 12th of March 2022.

Their daughter Jackson Joanne Lourd Rydell was born on 12th of December 2022

Taylor Lautner

Billie and her Scream Queens co-star (and coincidentally her on screen romance) Taylor Lautner dated for about 8 months, they were first spotted together in December 2016, the relationship ended in 2017.

Career

In 2008, she made her debut at the Ball and fashion event 'Le Bal des débutantes' at the Hôtel de Crillon in Paris. She was dressed by Chanel.

Star Wars

It is interesting that Billie Lourd made her debut in a Star Wars franchise movie Star Wars: The Force Awakens(2015), the very franchise that made her mother a star, She also appears in Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017) in the role of Lieutenant Kaydel Ko Connix. Her mother Carrie Fisher also has a role in the movie.

In the 2019 movie Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, she appears as young Princess Leia Organa (CGI of Carrie Fisher)

Scream Queens

[Scream Queens poster]

She plays a main role (Sadie Swenson/ Chanel #3) in the FOX black comedy slasher TV series Scream Queens. It aired from September 2015 to December 2016. It was created by Ryan Murphy, Brad Falchuk, and Ian Brennan. 

The plot is built around Kappa Kappa Tau sorority at the University, The girls in the sorority are targeted by a serial killer and he wears Red Devil mascot of the university.

The Cast included stars like Emma Roberts, Ariana Grande, Abigail Breslin, Jamie Lee Curtis and others.

In 2017, She appeared in the biographical crime drama Billionaire Boys Club as Rosanna Ricci- love interest of Kyle Biltmore, it starred Ansel Elgort, Kevin Spacey, Taron Egerton, Emma Roberts and others.

American Horror Story

[Billie Lourd in American Horror Story]

Billie has made appearances in multiple seasons of the series , playing multiple characters across seasons.

In the 7th season "Cult" she played Winter Anderson in 10 of the episodes and played Linda Kasabian, a former member of the Manson Family cult, in the episode "Charles (Manson) in Charge".

In the 8th season "Apocalypse" she played Mallory- a powerful witch, in 8 episodes.

In the 9th season "1984" she played Montana Duke, an aerobics enthusiast punk rocker in 9 of the episodes.

She played Live Whitley in "American Horror Stories",

In the tenth season "Double Feature", she appears as Leslie Feldman, a mysterious tattoo artist and dentist.

In the 11th season of the series title "NYC", she played Dr. Hannah Wells, a biologist in New York City studying viral strains, in 9 of the episodes.

Booksmart

In Olivia Wilde's High school comedy Booksmart, Billie played Gigi, a friend of Jared (played by Skyler Gisondo), She won Best Supporting Actress for her role in the movie at Hollywood Critics Association Midseason Awards.

She played Wren Butler, a friend of Lily Cotton, the lead role in Ol Parker's 2022 romantic comedy "Ticket to Paradise", George Clooney (David Cotton) and Julia Roberts (Georgia Cotton) played the roles of warring parents of Lily Cotton (played by Kaitlyn Dever)

In the 9th episode of the last season of NBC sitcom Will & Grace, she played Fiona, the granddaughter of the character played by her real life grandmother Debbie Reynolds in the original show.

She plays the role of  Audrey in the comedy movie "And Mrs" directed by Daniel Reisinger.

Commercials

• Old Navy: In December 2019, she appeared in a Holiday themed Old Navy TV commercial
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Interesting Facts & Trivia

• Billie appeared on The Ellen Show in 2017, Ellen has known Billie since she was a little kid.
• Sudden Death of the most influential women in her life: Billie's mother Carrie died on 27th December 2016, her grandmother Debbie Reynolds died the next day on 28th, thus leaving sudden gap in her life filled by these two powerful women.
• Parents Oppose: Both her parents are in the film industry, but initially they opposed Billie's desire to become an actress. In fact her grandmother Debbie Reynolds literally tried to scare Billie out of acting by making Billie read the diary written in Debbie's youth where she had to wear wigs & have her eye brows plucked and face other difficulties.
• Grandma's Obsession: Her grandmother Debbie Reynolds disliked people calling Billie as 'Carrie Fisher's daughter' she preferred people called her 'Debbie Reynolds's granddaughter'
• First Audition: She got her first acting role while she was watching her mother acting live on sets, director impressed by her coolness asked her to audition, her mother too was surprised by Billie's ease.
• Naked Show: For the birthday of her parents she would force her mother to dance in front of the audience( little bit of stripping involved), it became a family tradition.
• She has remarkable facial resemblance to her mother Carrie Fisher.
• Acting together with Mom: Billie made her debut in Star Wars: The Force Awakens(2015) where her mother Carrie was the princess Leia. Billie and Carrie did not talk much on sets so that no one would know they were related, Billie would call her Carrie instead of Mom.
• Tribute to her mother: Billie wore ear buns in the Scream Queens (2015) TV series imitating her mother in Star Wars movies.
• Ancestry: She is of English, French, German, Irish, Russian, Scottish, Welsh descent.
• In the biographical novel The Best Awful, written by her mother Carrie Fisher Billie is referred to by the name 'Honey'.
• Fear of horror movies: She is a 'scaredy-cat' in her own words, she watches Horror movies usually only in the morning, she needs lights to be on and doors to be closed for her to watch horror movies.
• She watched Star Wars when she was 7 years old, she wasn't impressed back then.
• Her mother named her Billie because she did not want her child to feel she had to limit herself to expected ways, she raised Billie in almost gender neutral environment.
• She ate Key Lime Pie & Pork Sandwich all her life as a kid, like most southerners do.
• Her parents allowed her to take acting classes on the promise that she would take up a non acting major in the university.
• Billie feels female directors can be very useful to artists as it would help the director assess the emotional state of an artist better.
• Her father Bryan Lourd, later came out as gay.
• She had a pet dog named 'Tina'
• She helped collect funds & blood for the victims of Las Vegas Shooting of 2017.
• Billie is a humorous person. Her speeches for her mother & grandmother very fun, she has an instagram username- PraiseTheLourd.
• She is a foodie, she loves food.
• She supported Democratic party in 2016 elections
• Billy inherited her mother's Beverly Hills home, she has decided to keep it to honor her mother.
• Charity: Billy sold many of her mother's collections and other items, donated the money to couple of charities.
• Her mother treated Billie like an adult all her life, she would talk to her like two grownups would do.
• Apart from acting she is also interested in Improvisational theatre & Music.
• She feels she would have liked to be a travel agent, if that was still a job.
• Her fitness routine involves: Abs exercises, Yoga, talking her dogs to walk.

Filmography

Movies

TV Series

Awards

Quotes

• I am not a big horror freak. I'm a bit of a scaredy-cat in general. I can't handle scary movies unless I am at home with the lights on and the doors locked or it is in the morning. [2]
• [About her upbringing] She raised me to not think of men and women as different. She raised me without gender. It's kind of the reason she named me Billie. It's not about being a strong woman - it's about being a strong person [2]
• I'm living the dream right now. [2]
• When I first started acting, everyone in my family did not want me to act. [2]
• I grew up with three parents: a mom, a dad and Princess Leia. Initially, Princess Leia was kind of like my stepmom. Now she's my guardian angel. [2]

Sources

1. Billie Lourd on wikipedia
2. Billie Lourd bio on imdb
3.