Maggie Lawson was born and raised in Louisville, Kentucky. When she was eight she began appearing in local community and dinner theater productions and at 10 she earned an on-air commercial gig at a Louisville TV station, which soon led to a steady six-year role as a TV personality who filed news reports targeted for her fellow kids. At 17 she moved to Los Angeles for her first professional TV appearance in a recurring role on the sitcom Unhappily Ever After. She finished her senior year in high school with a correspondence course. In 2000 she starred in twin roles as a model and a nerdy student in the movie Model Behavior. In her free time she enjoys singing and songwriting.
Her father, Mike, is a hotel manager, and her mother, Judy, is a homemaker.