Billie Lourd Bio
Billie Catherine Lourd (born July 17, 1992) is an American actress, best known for starring as Chanel #3 in the Fox horror comedy series Scream Queens (2015–2016) and for her roles in the FX horror anthology series American Horror Story (2017–present). She also appears as Lieutenant Connix in the Star Wars sequel trilogy (2015–2019). Lourd is the only child of actress Carrie Fisher.
Born into a family with deep roots in Hollywood, Billie Catherine Lourd has built a versatile screen career that spans studio blockbusters, horror television, and independent comedy. Across more than a decade of work, she has become recognized for her comedic timing, her willingness to embrace genre storytelling, and her recurring collaborations with producer 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. She is also the only grandchild of actress Debbie Reynolds and singer Eddie Fisher, and the niece of Todd Fisher, Joely Fisher, and Tricia Leigh Fisher, all of whom have worked in show business. Through her father’s subsequent marriage to Bruce Bozzi, Lourd has a sister, Ava, who was legally adopted by Bryan Lourd. From her mother’s side, Lourd is of Russian-Jewish and Scots-Irish/English descent. Her godmother is actress Meryl Streep, and writer Bruce Wagner is her godfather.
Lourd was raised in Los Angeles, where she was a childhood neighbor and close friend of Frances Bean Cobain, daughter of Kurt Cobain and Courtney Love. She attended Harvard-Westlake School in Los Angeles for her high school years. In 2008, she was a debutante at Le Bal des débutantes at the Hôtel de Crillon in Paris and was dressed by Chanel for the occasion. She went on to graduate in 2014 from New York University Gallatin School of Individualized Study with a self-designed degree titled “Art and Business as Religion.”
Path to Acting
Growing up surrounded by actors, agents, and writers, Lourd absorbed the rhythms of the entertainment industry from a young age, even as she did not immediately pursue performance as a career. Her formal training came through her self-designed liberal arts degree at NYU, which encouraged her to study creativity, storytelling, and entrepreneurship in equal measure. The combination of academic preparation and family exposure helped her approach auditions with a clear sense of craft.
Lourd’s transition into professional acting began in her early twenties, when she auditioned for major studio projects. In a 2017 appearance on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, she revealed that she had auditioned for the lead role of Rey in Star Wars: The Force Awakens, a part that ultimately went to Daisy Ridley. Although she did not win that role, the audition process positioned her for other opportunities within the Star Wars universe and beyond.
Billie Lourd Career
Early Career (2015–2016)
Lourd made her screen debut in the 2015 Star Wars sequel film The Force Awakens, playing Lieutenant Connix, a supportive officer in the Resistance. She went on to reprise the role in Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017) and Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (2019), appearing in all three films of the sequel trilogy. In the final installment, she also briefly played her mother Carrie Fisher’s character using digitally replaced imagery drawn from Return of the Jedi.
In February 2015, Lourd was cast in the Fox horror-comedy series Scream Queens, created by Ryan Murphy. Her character, a wealthy and disaffected sorority sister called Chanel #3, wears earmuffs as a tribute to Carrie Fisher’s iconic “cinnamon buns” hairstyle from the original Star Wars. Lourd returned for the show’s second season in 2016, and the role introduced her to a wider television audience.
Breakthrough (2017–2019)
In 2017, Lourd joined the seventh season of American Horror Story as Winter Anderson, and also portrayed Manson Family member Linda Kasabian. She returned to the series for its eighth season, Apocalypse, playing the powerful witch Mallory, and continued with its ninth season, 1984, in which she portrayed aerobics enthusiast and punk rocker Montana Duke. Ryan Murphy has stated that her work in 1984 impressed him so much that he decided to create a miniseries for her.
Outside the horror genre, Lourd appeared in the 2018 biographical crime-drama film Billionaire Boys Club, playing Rosanna, the love interest of Kyle Biltmore. The film’s release had been delayed by sexual harassment allegations against co-star Kevin Spacey before arriving on July 17, 2018. In 2019, she played Gigi in the high school comedy Booksmart, directed by Olivia Wilde. She also guest-starred in the ninth episode of the eleventh and final season of NBC’s Will & Grace as Fiona, the granddaughter of the character her real-life grandmother Debbie Reynolds had portrayed during the show’s original run. That same month, she appeared in a holiday-themed television commercial for Old Navy.
Notable Works and Milestones
Lourd’s signature projects include the Star Wars sequel trilogy, Scream Queens, and her ongoing role in American Horror Story, where she has appeared in multiple seasons. Her transition from genre television to mainstream studio features, including Ticket to Paradise, has marked her as a flexible performer comfortable across comedy, horror, and drama.
Billie Lourd Award Nominations
Billie Lourd has received industry recognition for her work across horror and comedy television, including nominations associated with her performances in the Star Wars sequel trilogy and the FX anthology series American Horror Story. Specific nomination counts and categories are not fully verified in the available sources and are therefore not detailed here.
Billie Lourd Awards Won
Billie Lourd’s verified award totals are not fully detailed in the available sources, and any summary table of specific wins has been omitted to avoid inaccuracy.
Billie Lourd Family
Lourd is the only child of actress Carrie Fisher and talent agent Bryan Lourd. Her maternal grandparents were actress Debbie Reynolds and singer Eddie Fisher, and her maternal aunts and uncles include Todd Fisher, Joely Fisher, and Tricia Leigh Fisher. Through her father’s marriage to Bruce Bozzi, Lourd has a sister, Ava. Her godmother is actress Meryl Streep, and her godfather is writer Bruce Wagner. Through her marriage to actor Austen Rydell, Lourd is the daughter-in-law of actor Christopher Rydell and the granddaughter-in-law of director Mark Rydell and actress Joanne Linville.
Personal Life
Lourd began dating actor Austen Rydell in early 2016. After a brief split during which she dated Scream Queens co-star Taylor Lautner from December 2016 to July 2017, she and Rydell reconciled later in 2017. The couple became engaged in June 2020, and their son was born in September 2020. They were married in March 2022, and in December 2022, Lourd gave birth to a daughter.
