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Anne Hathaway

Anne Hathaway has built a screen career around an ability to move between openness, comic precision and sharper, more guarded characters. Born in Brooklyn on November 12, 1982, and raised in Millburn, New Jersey, she became fascinated with the stage after watching her mother perform as Fantine in a touring production of Les Misérables. Hathaway acted in school and theatre productions before making her film debut in The Princess Diaries, playing Mia Thermopolis, an awkward teenager who discovers she is heir to the throne of Genovia. That 2001 breakthrough established Hathaway as an appealing family-film lead, but her career soon widened beyond princess roles. In Brokeback Mountain, she played Lureen, whose journey from lively rodeo performer to hardened wife gave the film one of its quietly revealing transformations. The Devil Wears Prada then showed how effectively she could anchor a glossy studio comedy opposite a formidable ensemble, while Rachel Getting Married stripped away that polish. Her raw performance as Kym, returning from rehabilitation for her sister’s wedding, earned Academy Award, Golden Globe, Critics’ Choice and SAG nominations. Hathaway’s range became especially clear in 2012. She brought a sly survivor’s edge to Selina Kyle in The Dark Knight Rises, then played Fantine in the film adaptation of Les Misérables. Her performance won the Academy Award, Golden Globe, Screen Actors Guild Award and BAFTA Award for Best Supporting Actress, bringing her career back to the musical that had first sparked her interest in performing. She has continued to alternate between large-scale filmmaking and character-driven work. Interstellar cast her as NASA scientist Amelia Brand, Ocean’s 8 made clever use of her comic vanity as a famous actress, and Eileen gave her the role of an emotionally troubled psychiatrist. In The Idea of You, she played a divorced mother beginning a romance with a younger pop star. Across comedy, drama, musicals, animation, action and science fiction, Hathaway’s filmography is less about staying in one lane than finding new variations on intelligence, ambition and vulnerability.