Anne Hathaway

Anne Jacqueline Hathaway (born November 12, 1982) is an American actress.

She made her acting debut in the 1999 television series Get Real, but her first prominent role was in Disney’s family comedy The Princess Diaries (starring opposite Julie Andrews), which established her career.

She continued to appear in family films over the next three years, with lead roles in Ella Enchanted and The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement in 2004. Hathaway would later venture away from the “G-rated” image her early acting career bestowed upon her, starring in the adult-themed films Havoc and Brokeback Mountain. She later starred in The Devil Wears Prada, opposite Meryl Streep; Becoming Jane, in which she portrays Jane Austen, and Get Smart, opposite Steve Carell. In 2008 she earned widespread critical acclaim for her star turn in the film Rachel Getting Married, for which she won numerous awards and is nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress.

Her acting style has been compared to that of Judy Garland and Audrey Hepburn and she cites Hepburn as her favorite actress and Streep as her idol. People magazine named her one of 2001’s breakthrough stars, and in 2006, she was listed as one of the world’s 50 Most Beautiful People.

Hathaway was born in Brooklyn, New York, to Gerald Hathaway, a lawyer, and Kate McCauley, an actress who inspired Hathaway to follow in her footsteps. The family moved to Millburn, New Jersey, when she was six years old. She has an older brother, Michael, and a younger brother, Thomas. Hathaway has mainly Irish and French ancestry, with more distant German and Native American roots.

Hathaway most recently appeared in the comedy Bride Wars, released on January 9, 2009, in which she starred opposite Kate Hudson; Hathaway has described the film as “hideously commercial – gloriously so.” She appeared with Hudson on the February/March 2009 cover of Modern Bride despite her admission that she is “not the type of girl who dreams about her wedding.” Her future projects include a film adaptation of the Julie Buxbaum novel The Opposite of Love, a Tim Burton-directed adaptation of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass alongside Helena Bonham Carter and Johnny Depp, and the romantic comedy The Fiancé, in which she will play a woman who ends her engagement only to have her overzealous parents try to get her back together with her ex.

In January 2008, Hathaway joined beauty giant Lancôme as the face of their fragrance Magnifique. In October of that year, Hathaway hosted Saturday Night Live, with musical guest The Killers.

Hathaway is involved with various charities, including The Creative Coalition, The Step Up Women’s Network, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, The Human Rights Campaign, and The Lollipop Theatre Network, an organization that screens films to critically ill children. In 2008, she was honored at Elle magazine’s “Women in Hollywood” tribute, and has also been honored for her work with The Step Up Women’s Network and The Human Rights Campaign.

Source [ Wikipedia ]