Ladera Ranch is a census-designated place and a planned community located in south Orange County, California just outside the city limits of San Juan Capistrano, Rancho Santa Margarita and Mission Viejo.

The community has several features that differentiate it from most others. For example, many traffic speed-reducing measures were put into use. Roundabouts, for example, are commonplace on smaller intersections. Narrow street widths are characteristics of Ladera Ranch's small residential streets. Landscaped street medians are common, even on two-lane collector streets like O'Neill, Crown Valley, and Sienna Parkways.

Within Ladera Ranch are two different types of areas: villages and neighborhoods. Individual builders produce an area that is called a neighborhood. There are ten or more neighborhoods per village, and there are nine villages. They are:

Five of the nine villages have clubhouses themed on a particular architecture style that is emphasized within that village. There are also parks, pools, playgrounds and open areas within each village. The Covenant Hills village is a gated community which is closed to the general public, but accessible to all card-carrying residents of Ladera Ranch. There are no other gated villages in the community.

Julie Moran (born Julie Bryan on January 10, 1962, in Thomasville, Georgia),America's Junior Miss 1980, was a correspondent on the entertainment news show Entertainment Tonight from 1994–2001. Before joining ET, she co-hosted NBA Inside Stuff with Ahmad Rashad and later replaced Frank Gifford as host of ABC's Wide World of Sports. While at ABC Sports, she covered such events as the Super Bowl, figure skating, horse racing including the Triple Crown, and the Goodwill Games.

She left her 50-hour-a-week job with Entertainment Tonight to raise her two daughters with her husband, actor Rob Moran. She currently hosts The Insider's List With Julie Moran on the Fine Living TV channel, and appears in infomercials for products such as the Slim in 6 fitness program and Timeless Secret beauty products.

In 1994, she was named one of People magazine's "50 Most Beautiful People."