Anne Hathaway 安妮·海瑟薇
Born: Nov 12, 1982 in Brooklyn, New York
Major Genres: Comedy, Drama
First Major Screen Credit: The Princess Diaries (2001)
An actress whose first big screen gig also proved to be her breakthrough, Anne Hathaway became a familiar face to millions of moviegoers thanks to her starring role in Garry Marshall's 2001 hit The Princess Diaries. Cast as a clumsy high school girl who finds out she is the princess of a small country, Hathaway was able to prove her comedic timing opposite no less than Julie Andrews.
Hailing from Brooklyn, where she was born November 12, 1982, Hathaway became involved in the theater at a young age, and as a teenager performed with the Barrow Group, a prestigious New York theatre company. She did her first industry work in the short-lived but
critically praised TV series Get Real before auditioning for Marshall, who, according to legend, cast the actress as the accident-prone princess after she fell off a chair during her audition. The success of The Princess Diaries opened a number of doors for Hathaway, but she chose the one that led to Vassar College, where she enrolled in 2000. In the years that followed Hathaway's studies in English and Women's Studies took notable precedence over her screen career - but alas the call of Hollywood was too much to resist and it didn't take long for the studious young actress to once again step before the cameras.
Though a supporting performance in the 2002 box-office disappointment Nicholas Nickleby offered the radiant Hathaway little chance to shine, a lead performance as the eponymous character in the fantasy-themed romantic comedy Ella Enchanted (2004) found her stepping into some big slippers for the unique take on the Cinderella legend. If one large-scale Hollywood production wasn't enough to usher in Hathaway's return to film, fans could rest easy knowing that in
addition to returning to familiar territory in The Princess Diaries 2 (2004) she would be moving into edgier territory with the gritty street drama Havoc (also 2004). A supporting role as Jake Gyllenhall's character's devestated wife in Ang Lee's Oscar-winning drama Brokeback Mountain helped to add notable depth to the proceedings, and in 2006 Hathaway ventured into the world of high fashion in director David Frankel's The Devil Wears Prada. An ultra-stylish adaptation of author Lauren Weisberger's wildly popular novel, The Devil Wears Prada capitalized on Hathaway's endearingly convincing onscreen naïveté by casting her as a unassuming small town girl who lands a job working bitterly cynical and outspoken fashion magazine editors in all of New York City.
The Devil Wears Prada (2006), in which she starred opposite Meryl Streep, has become the highest-grossing film of her career, and Becoming Jane, in which she stars as Jane Austen, was released in 2007.
Hathaway's 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". (answers.com)
