Vanessa Marano started acting in the theater when she was seven years old, performing in numerous plays at A.C.T. in Agoura Hills, California. She began her professional career with several national commercials.

Marano is most recognized for her roles as April, the daughter of Luke in the highly popular “Gilmore Girls,” and as Francesca, the daughter of the Emmy(r) Award-winning Lisa Kudrow, in the HBO Original series “The Comeback.” Recently she starred in “Scoundrels” as the scheming, school-skipping daughter of Virginia Madsen. Marano has had recurring roles in shows including “Dexter,” “Without a Trace,” “Trust Me” and “The Young and The Restless.” Guest-starring credits include “Parenthood,” “Medium,” “Love Bites,” “Ghost Whisperer,” “Past Lives,” “Six Feet Under,” “Malcolm in the Middle” and “Grounded for Life.”

Marano starred as a young girl who becomes a quadriplegic in the critically acclaimed television movie “The Brooke Ellison Story,” directed by Christopher Reeve, and is working with Lucy Liu on a miniseries playing the troubled foster teenager, Immy, in “Marry Me.” Her first film was the animated hit “Finding Nemo,” followed by the independent films “Easy,” “The Clique,” “Stopping Power,” “Dear Lemon Lima” and most recently “The Secret Lives of Dorks.”

Marano speaks Italian and is enrolled in her sophomore year in college.