Billie Lourd Bio
Billie Catherine Lourd (born July 17, 1992) is an American actress who has built a steady career across horror comedy, anthology drama, and major studio science fiction. She first drew wide attention as Chanel #3 in the Fox horror comedy series Scream Queens (2015–2016) and later became a recurring presence in the FX anthology series American Horror Story beginning in 2017. She is also widely recognized for playing Lieutenant Connix in the Star Wars sequel trilogy (2015–2019).
Born into one of Hollywood’s most recognizable families, Lourd is the only biological child of actress Carrie Fisher and talent agent Bryan Lourd. She has continued to expand her résumé with film work in projects such as Booksmart, Ticket to Paradise, and And Mrs, while maintaining a long-running partnership with American Horror Story creator Ryan Murphy.
Early Life and Background
Billie Catherine Lourd was born on July 17, 1992, in Los Angeles, California, the only child of actress Carrie Fisher and talent agent Bryan Lourd. Through her mother, she is the only grandchild of actress Debbie Reynolds and singer Eddie Fisher, and her extended family includes several performers, including uncle Todd Fisher and half-aunts Joely Fisher and Tricia Leigh Fisher. Her godmother is actress Meryl Streep, and writer Bruce Wagner is her godfather.
Lourd was raised in Los Angeles, where she became a childhood neighbor and close friend of Frances Bean Cobain, daughter of musicians Kurt Cobain and Courtney Love. She attended the Harvard-Westlake School in Los Angeles, and in 2008 she was presented as a debutante at Le Bal des débutantes at the Hôtel de Crillon in Paris, dressed by Chanel for the occasion.
She later graduated from New York University Gallatin School of Individualized Study in 2014 with a self-designed degree in “Art and Business as Religion.” Her maternal heritage includes Russian-Jewish and Scots-Irish and English roots, and she also has a sister, Ava, from her father’s marriage to Bruce Bozzi, whom Bryan Lourd legally adopted.
Path to Acting
Growing up surrounded by actors, agents, and writers, Lourd was introduced to entertainment culture from a young age. Her mother’s legacy in science fiction, her grandparents’ careers in music and film, and her godmother Meryl Streep’s stature in the industry gave her an unusually direct view of professional acting. The early exposure helped shape her decision to pursue performance as a career rather than remain strictly behind the scenes.
Her formal training took place at New York University, where she tailored her studies around the arts and the business side of the industry. The combination of family tradition and a self-designed academic path positioned her to step directly into auditions after college. Within a year of graduating, she had landed roles in two of the most high-profile productions of the mid-2010s.
Her earliest steps into the industry came through her mother’s connections, and Lourd has spoken about how her family ties opened initial doors while also creating pressure to prove herself on her own merits. That mix of access and expectation framed her transition from student life to professional screen work beginning in 2015.
Billie Lourd Career
Early Career (2015–2016)
Billie Lourd’s professional screen career began in 2015 with the Star Wars sequel trilogy, where she was cast as Lieutenant Connix in Star Wars: The Force Awakens. On The Ellen DeGeneres Show in 2017, she revealed that she had also auditioned for the lead role of Rey, which ultimately went to Daisy Ridley. Her performance in The Force Awakens was followed by roles in Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017) and Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (2019), completing her run as Connix across the trilogy. In a notable tribute to her mother, she also briefly portrayed Leia Organa in The Rise of Skywalker, with her face digitally replaced by Carrie Fisher’s likeness using footage from Return of the Jedi.
Also in February 2015, Lourd was cast in the Fox horror-comedy series Scream Queens, created by Ryan Murphy. Her character, Chanel #3, is a wealthy sorority sister who wears earmuffs as an homage to Carrie Fisher’s iconic “cinnamon buns” hairstyle from the original Star Wars film. Lourd has described being shocked when she learned the offer was a hiring decision rather than an audition, and she soon relocated to New Orleans to begin shooting. She returned for the show’s second season in 2016 and continued to develop a working relationship with Murphy that would shape much of her later career.
Breakthrough (2017–2019)
Lourd’s breakthrough period began in 2017 when she joined the cast of American Horror Story for the series’ seventh season, Cult, in the role of Winter Anderson. She also portrayed Manson Family member Linda Kasabian in the related series American Horror Stories and other Murphy-connected projects. The role marked her first sustained dramatic turn outside of horror comedy and introduced her to a long-term creative partnership with Ryan Murphy that continues today.
She returned to American Horror Story for its eighth season, Apocalypse, playing Mallory, a powerful witch, and later appeared in the ninth season, 1984, as aerobics instructor and punk rocker Montana Duke. Murphy has stated that her work in 1984 impressed him so much that he decided to create a miniseries around her. In 2019, she played Gigi in Olivia Wilde’s high school comedy Booksmart and made a guest appearance on the NBC sitcom Will & Grace as Fiona, the granddaughter of a character her real-life grandmother Debbie Reynolds had played during the show’s original run.
Beyond these credits, Lourd took on the role of Rosanna in the biographical crime drama Billionaire Boys Club, which was released on July 17, 2018, after delays related to allegations involving co-star Kevin Spacey. She also appeared in a holiday-themed television commercial for Old Navy in December 2019, signaling her growing mainstream visibility.
Notable Works and Milestones
Across this stretch, Lourd’s signature works include her Star Wars trilogy run as Lieutenant Connix, her Scream Queens role as Chanel #3, and her multi-season arc on American Horror Story. Her ability to move between studio blockbusters, genre television, and indie comedy has become a defining feature of her career. The 2019 role in Booksmart, in particular, showed her range beyond the horror and science fiction spaces that had first made her name.
Billie Lourd Award Nominations
Verified award nominations for Billie Lourd are limited in the available records, and specific nomination counts cannot be confirmed at this time. She has been associated with ensemble television work on American Horror Story and with the Star Wars franchise, both of which have received industry recognition, but no individual nominations are confirmed in the supplied sources.
Billie Lourd Awards Won
Verified individual awards won by Billie Lourd are not documented in the supplied sources. Her work on Scream Queens, the Star Wars sequel trilogy, and American Horror Story has been widely discussed in entertainment media, but no confirmed wins are listed. This section is included to confirm that no verified awards data is available, rather than to suggest none have been received.
Billie Lourd Family
Billie Lourd comes from one of the most recognized families in Hollywood. Her mother, Carrie Fisher, was an actress and writer best known for playing Princess Leia in the Star Wars franchise, and her father, Bryan Lourd, is a leading talent agent. Through her mother, she is the granddaughter of actress Debbie Reynolds and singer Eddie Fisher, and her extended family includes uncle Todd Fisher, half-aunts Joely Fisher and Tricia Leigh Fisher, and a sister, Ava, adopted by her father during his marriage to Bruce Bozzi.
On her father’s side, Lourd also has deep roots in the entertainment industry, and through her marriage to actor Austen Rydell she became the daughter-in-law of actor Christopher Rydell and the granddaughter-in-law of director Mark Rydell and actress Joanne Linville. Her godmother is actress Meryl Streep, and writer Bruce Wagner is her godfather.
Personal Life
Lourd began dating actor Austen Rydell in early 2016. After a brief split, she dated Scream Queens co-star Taylor Lautner from December 2016 to July 2017, before reconciling with Rydell later in 2017. The couple became engaged in June 2020 and were married in March 2022.
Together, they have two children: a son born in September 2020 and a daughter born in December 2022. Lourd has spoken publicly about balancing motherhood with her ongoing work on American Horror Story and her film career.
