Sheryl Lee plays Laura Palmer in Twin Peaks, the murdered high-school student whose death drives the series.
Lee also plays Laura’s identical-looking cousin, Madeleine Ferguson, in the original series. This double role is a frequent source of confusion: Laura and Madeleine are separate characters, although both are portrayed by Lee.
Laura appears in the story through photographs, memories, dream sequences and flashbacks as investigators uncover secrets in the town. Lee’s performance helped make Laura more than a mystery victim by revealing contrasting sides of her public and private life.
Lee later returned as Laura for Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me, the 1992 prequel film, and for Twin Peaks: The Return in 2017. Her casting is central to the show’s unusual structure, in which a character can dominate the narrative even after her death.