Ali Larter has been in the business for over two decades and has quite the resume.
In a recent interview with People magazine, the 49-year-old “Landman” star spoke about filming her many bikini scenes on the show, noting she doesn’t “think there’s an actress alive that’s like, ‘Woo! Got a bikini scene!'”
“Those are the hardest for me,” she continued. “I don’t enjoy them. It’s just part of the story that I’m telling, and I’m an actress, so I get on board. But those are definitely my least favorite.”
Here is a look back at her career, starting from her modeling days in the 1990s to her transition into acting.
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The actress got her start in the industry as a model when she was 13 years old. Her modeling career took her around the world before she decided to step away from the fashion industry and pursue acting.
Following a few small roles, including appearances on “Suddenly Susan” and “Dawson’s Creek,” Larter had her big break when she starred as Darcy in the 1999 movie, “Varsity Blues.”
“‘Varsity Blues’ is what began it all, and it was a really feel good movie… I think it was a simpler time in a way and I think that, again, it was a feel good movie, but I love that even for Darcy, I was able to show her vulnerability,” Larter told People about the film in November 2025. “This was a girl who was trying to find her way out, and then you see her deeply embarrassed and crying over the choices that she’s made for herself as a young girl.”
The movie centers on a high school football team and their coach, played by Jon Voight, who will go to great lengths to secure his team’s win.
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Larter’s character appears in one of the film’s most memorable moments, attempting to entice the team’s quarterback, played by James Van Der Beek, by wearing a whipped cream bikini. When watching the clip back during an interview with Entertainment Tonight in January, she joked she has “scarred” her son and father for life.
“Even going into ‘Varsity Blues,’ I was just learning this industry,” she told People in November 2025. “I spent so much in my twenties in different acting studios with different acting coaches, learning the different processes, and taking little bits of each thing to put into my toolbox that as I got more and more experience, I knew where to draw from. It was just sweet. It was a great kickoff.”
After getting her start on “Varsity Blues,” Larter landed a leading role in her first franchise film series, starring as Clear Rivers in the first “Final Destination” movie in 2000.
The movie tells the story of a group of people who are kicked off of a flight to Paris due to a fight which starts after one of the passengers has a premonition that the plane will explode midflight and kill everyone on board. Once off the plane, those left behind, including Larter’s character, witness the plane explode just after takeoff.
One by one, those who cheated death later die in bizarre accidents, leading Clear and the only remaining survivor to realize they are also in danger.
Larter then reprised the role of Clear Rivers in the 2003 sequel, but didn’t return for the remaining films in the franchise. The film required a lot of stunts, many of which Larter performed herself.
“I think that they realized that I could do that stuff,” she told Entertainment Tonight earlier this month. “I’m very athletic. I’ve played sports my entire life. And when I’m learning something or doing stunts, I’m there. I’m excited to learn. Um, my personality is someone who has a growth mentality. I love learning new things.”
Larter appeared in her first-ever comedy in the 2001 movie, “Legally Blonde,” alongside Reese Witherspoon, Selma Blair and others.
The light-hearted film follows Witherspoon’s character, Elle Woods, on her journey to try to win back her boyfriend by attending Harvard Law School, and in the end finding out she was capable of much more than she initially believed.
Larter portrayed Brooke Windham, a fitness mogul, who is on trial for murdering her husband. The character was seen as a blonde bombshell who is devoted to exercise and her appearance.
“You never know,” she told Entertainment Tonight about the film’s success. “But I knew the script was really funny, and I did want to work with Reese and I wanted to play this character, because I remember going in and auditioning for it and like slapping my butt in it and like kind of really going for it.”
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The movie went on to become a classic, inspiring a sequel and a prequel series set to release soon on Amazon Prime. In addition, a third film, focusing on Elle in her 40s, is currently in the works.
“I have not heard a thing. I mean, we all hope. Who knows where it will go,” she told InStyle in November 2025 about the third film. “We’re kind of aging up, so I don’t know. I don’t know, but maybe Michelle [Randolph] will be playing me soon.”
Larter joined her second franchise when she starred in “Resident Evil: Extinction,” the third film in the “Resident Evil” series, continuing to appear on the franchise until the 2016 installment, “Resident Evil: The Final Chapter.”
The movie takes place in a post-apocalyptic world after the spread of a man-made virus, and follows a group of survivors as they battle zombies and monsters, as well as the corporation responsible for the spread of the virus.
Larter portrayed Claire Redfield, who teams up with the main character in the third film to help civilians get to safety.
“It’s something that’s incredible,” she told ABC in January 2017. “I’ve traveled around the world with this movie, and to be able to be in something that is female-led, where you would typically see men in these roles, and then after three movies together, you don’t see us pit against each other. It’s about women building each other up, and you don’t fall into those cliché traps.”
In between her starring roles in big franchise films, Larter also starred in four seasons of the hit NBC show “Heroes.”
The show revolved around a group of ordinary people who realize they have supernatural powers and must work together to prevent a catastrophic event.
Larter plays multiple characters on the show, including Niki Sanders, a single mom who works as an online stripper to support her son and who develops superhuman strength. Niki also has dissociative identity disorder, and sometimes turns into her more violent alter ego, Jessica.
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“It’s a woman who’s being put into a corner who is doing whatever she can to take care of her family,” she said of Niki in a November 2025 interview with People. “Then, the way that connected with audiences on a worldwide level, to believe that there’s that power within you, that there’s something special in all of us. That was just a show that hit at the right time.”
In later seasons, she portrays Tracy Strauss, a political operative who has the ability to freeze people.
Larter’s latest success is her starring role in the Paramount + hit, “Landman,” which follows wealthy oil tycoons and the laborers on the oil rigs in West Texas as the industry begins to take over the state.
The series stars Billy Bob Thornton as Tommy Norris, a former laborer turned landman, who Larter’s character, Angela Norris, was married to and is still very much connected to.
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Angela is known for her confident, no-nonsense attitude and her sensual style, often seen on-screen in bikinis, or other tight, revealing and provocative outfits.
“In the end, anytime you have to put on a bathing suit and walk in front of anybody, it’s really difficult,” she told People in November 2025. “When I look around, the sexiest women I know are the women that own it. So, part of getting there with Angela is owning it.”
She added: “But no matter what it’s like, I’ve got to spend all this time fighting off my own insecurities, my own anxiety, to be able to put on that bikini and walk into these scenes.”
Larter previously shared a photo of herself from her on-set trailer on Instagram in a red bikini, sharing in the caption that “playing a character that is so comfortable in her body drives me.”
