Search icon

Entertainment

11th Nov 2019

Broadway and SNL actor Laurel Griggs dies following asthma attack

Jade Hayden

“She’s now with the angels.”

Broadway and SNL actor Laurel Griggs has died following an asthma attack, according to her family.

The 13-year-old, who is best known for her role as Ivanka in award-winning musical Once, was rushed to hospital in New York City on November 5.

Doctors were unable to revive her.

PEOPLE reports that Griggs’ grandfather, David B. Rivlin, confirmed the teenager’s passing in a Facebook post.

“It’s with heavy heart that I have to share some very sad news,” he wrote.

“My beautiful and talented granddaughter, Laurel Griggs, has passed away suddenly from a massive asthma attack. Mount Sinai was valiant in trying to save her but now she’s with the angels.

“The world lost a real princess who only wanted to make the future happy for all. Acting was just a childhood dream come true and she had big plans for the future.”

Griggs made her broadway debut when she was just six-years-old when she starred as Polly in Rob Ashford’s musical production of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof alongside Scarlett Johansson.

She performed in Once for 17 months between 2013 and 2015, and later appeared in Cafe Society with Blake Lively, Steve Carrell, and Kristen Stewart.

Griggs also appeared in multiple episodes of long-running sketch show, Saturday Night Live. 

Eliza Holland Madore, who also played Ivanka in Once, wrote that she is “deeply saddened by the sudden loss of one of my Ivanka sisters.”

“Laurel- you were always smiling and always made other people laugh.

‘I’m so incredibly grateful that I got to know you. You will never be forgotten, and we will never stop loving you. Everybody in the Once Family is going to keep you alive through us. R.I.P.”