Within a few weeks of moving to New York City, Lauria successfully made his television debut as Winthrop on the NBC sitcom 30 Rock.

Soon after, he landed a recurring role on the NBC romantic sitcom Lipstick Jungle as Roy Merritt, where he co-starred with Brooke Shields, Andrew McCarthy and Robert Buckley.

Lauria landed his first starring role as Luke Cafferty, #44 of the East Dillon Lions, in the Emmy award-winning NBC/DirecTV drama Friday Night Lights,[6] for which he moved to Pflugerville, Texas in order to film.

[7] He co-starred as Charlie Carnegie on the ABC drama pilot Gilded Lilys created and produced by Shonda Rhimes.

[8] From 2012 to 2015, Lauria had a recurring role as Ryan York, a veteran of the Afghanistan war, on the fourth, fifth and sixth seasons of the NBC family drama Parenthood, reuniting with former Friday Night Lights showrunner Jason Katims.