ANNE HATHAWAY

Anne Hathaway, in full Anne Jacqueline Hathaway, (born November 12, 1982, Brooklyn, New
York, U.S.), American actress known for her versatility, appearing in films that ranged
from fairy tales to adult-oriented dramas and comedies.
Hathaway’s family moved from Brooklyn, New York, to Millburn, a New Jersey suburb, when
she was six years old. Her father, Gerald, was a lawyer, and her mother, Kate McCauley, was a
stage actress. When she was young, Hathaway toured with her mother during a production of
the musical Les Misérables, which spurred her to pursue a career in theatre. She studied with
New York’s prestigious Barrow Group, and at age 16 she landed her first television role, on the
family drama Get Real (1999–2000).
After graduating from high school in 2000, Hathaway began to pursue film work. Her big-screen
debut came with The Princess Diaries (2001), in which she played Mia Thermopolis, a klutzy
teenager who discovers that she is heir to a royal throne. In 2004 Hathaway starred in that
movie’s sequel, The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement, and played another fairy-tale role
in Ella Enchanted. Afraid of being typecast, Hathaway sought out more adult fare, and her next
major part was in Ang Lee’s critically acclaimed Brokeback Mountain (2005). The drama, in
which Hathaway played the wife of a cowboy (Jake Gyllenhaal) who is secretly in love with
another man (Heath Ledger), was nominated for an Academy Award for best picture.
In 2006 Hathaway starred alongside Meryl Streep in the critically and commercially
successful The Devil Wears Prada. Other notable performances included the lead role
in Becoming Jane (2007), a fictionalized account of the life of author Jane Austen, and her
portrayal of Kym, a recovering drug addict, in Rachel Getting Married (2008)—for which she
earned her first Academy Award nomination. Hathaway further expanded her range with
the romantic comedies Bride Wars (2009) and Valentine’s Day (2010). In 2010 she returned to
her fairy-tale roots as the White Queen in Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland and portrayed a
free-spirited woman afflicted with Parkinson disease in the romance Love and Other Drugs. She
starred in the romantic drama One Day the following year.
For The Dark Knight Rises (2012), the final installment in Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy,
Hathaway inhabited the role of the crafty Catwoman. She later appeared in a 2012
film adaptation of Les Misérables as the forlorn Fantine—the same role she had seen her
mother play onstage when she was a child—and captured an Academy Award for best
supporting actress. She provided the voice of a macaw in the animated Rio (2011) and its
sequel, Rio 2 (2014). Hathaway then joined the ensemble cast of Nolan’s space
drama Interstellar (2014), playing a scientist attempting to locate a habitable planet after Earth is
rendered unlivable by war and famine. She returned to comedy with The Intern (2015), in which
she was featured as a fashion entrepreneur who hires a retiree (Robert De Niro).
In 2016 Hathaway reprised her role as the White Queen in Alice Through the Looking Glass and
portrayed a woman who discovers that she has a strange connection to a gigantic beast in the
comedy Colossal. She garnered enthusiastic reviews for her performance as a self-absorbed
actress in Ocean’s 8 (2018), a female-driven reboot of the Ocean’s Eleven franchise from the
earlier 2000s. Her credits from 2019 included Serenity, a thriller in which her character solicits
her ex-husband (Matthew McConaughey) to commit murder; the comedy The Hustle, about two
rival con artists; Modern Love, an Amazon anthology series in which Hathaway appeared in an
episode as a woman struggling with mental illness; and Dark Waters, a fact-based drama
concerning a legal case about a chemical company’s alleged pollution of a community. In 2020
she starred in both The Last Thing He Wanted, a crime drama based on a novel by Joan Didion,
and the family comedy The Witches, an adaptation of aRoald Dahl children’s book. The
following year Hathaway was cast in the heist film Locked Down and appeared in the sci-fi
anthology TV series Solos. She later starred with Jared Leto in WeCrashed (2022), a TV
miniseries about the rise and fall of WeWork, a company that promoted shared office space.
In addition to her acting, Hathaway became known for her singing talent. In 1999 she performed
at New York’s Carnegie Hall as part of an honours chorus. She made her New York
stage debut in the musical Carnival in 2002. Hathaway’s nonsinging stage roles
included Viola in a New York Shakespeare in the Park production of Twelfth Night in 2009 and a
fighter pilot in director Julie Taymor’s 2015 production of Grounded at the Public Theater. In
2011 Hathaway and actor James Franco cohosted the Academy Awards ceremony.