Why The Actor Who Plays Melania Trump On The Late Show Looks So Familiar

For the 2024 Democratic National Convention, Stephen Colbert brought "The Late Show" to Chicago, the same city as the event. However, he had a surprise guest from the Republican side — Melania Trump! She greeted Colbert during her "Late Show" appearance before adding, "And hello Chicago, the greatest city in the world! Because this week, there is no chance my husband will be here." Melania was apparently at the DNC to gather information on "the Kamala-nomenon," and she even joked about her husband Donald Trump's guilty verdict in his fraud trial, quipping, "Oh Stephen, I'm a Trump. We don't really do 'true.'" As you may have guessed, sadly, it was not the real Melania. 

Instead, it was actor and singer Laura Benanti, who has a history of parodying Melania on Colbert's talk show after first stepping into the former model's shoes in 2016. Benanti was able to use the skills that got her a stint on Broadway in a 2021 Melania appearance, where she sang about moving back to New York to a negative reception. You may also recognize Benanti from her other TV and movie roles, such as in "Nashville" and "No Hard Feelings." She was a cast member in "The Gilded Age" Season 2 as well. Since the weird rules that a first lady must follow may not necessarily extend to TV appearances, we can dream that maybe the real Melania will collaborate with Benanti on a sketch someday.

On Broadway, Laura Benanti got her start in "The Sound of Music" back in 1998. Some of her other stage credits include parts in productions of "Into the Woods," "She Loves Me," and "My Fair Lady." While playing the lead of Eliza Doolittle in "My Fair Lady," in 2018, Benanti was interviewed by Entertainment Weekly and described just how special it was to her. In particular, the actor reminisced about how she and her mom would listen to the album together. "We did that probably every day for a really long time, an embarrassingly long time, like until I was like 14 or 15," Benanti recalled. "This has been my dream part literally my entire life. It's genuinely a dream come true and I'm not just saying that." 

However, the first time she was called to audition, the actor declined due to recently welcoming a daughter. She was glad that the opportunity came about again when she was ready, reasoning, "It was a wonderful lesson in if you let something go, if it's meant to be yours, it will come back. And if it's not meant to be yours, it won't." Not only did Benanti's mother introduce her to "My Fair Lady," she is also a performer as well as the vocal coach who taught Benanti how to sing. The mother-daughter duo has even performed together.

In July 2024, Laura Benanti and her mother Linda Benanti performed a show called "Mothers Know Best." As Laura excitedly told Playbill, "My mom is the funniest, most talented person I know. If you like me, you'll like her even more!" Despite the Benanti family's demonstrable talent, Laura isn't sure about letting her children follow the same career path. In a February 2024 People interview, to advertise her solo show "Laura Benanti: Nobody Cares," she expressed fear at her eldest daughter Ella Rose joining the world of show business (Laura and her husband Patrick Brown also share another daughter named Louisa Georgia). 

Ella has expressed interest, but the "Go On" star listed several downsides of beginning a professional acting career too early: "One of the main themes I explore in the show is people pleasing, which I think in some ways was centered in me playing ingénues for so long. I was 18 when I started acting professional [sic] and really sort of, internalized these characters and decided the most important thing I could be was likable and not intimidating in any way, especially as it pertained to men." That had a negative effect on her. Laura also felt being on Broadway while her peers pursued higher education meant she didn't have enough strong female friendships, leading her to get married young (and resulting in the first of two divorces before her marriage to Brown). Thus, Laura will allow Ella to become a professional performer only when she's 27 years old.