Anne Hathaway
Occupation : Actress
Birth Date : 12 November , 1982
Birth Place : Brooklyn, New York, USA
Height : 5' 8"
Sex : F
Nationality : American
Education : Millburn Highschool
Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, N.Y. (major in English)
Father : Gerald Hathaway (attorney)
Mother : Kate McCauley (actress)
Brother : Tom Hathaway
Claim to fame : feature debut as the awkward teenager, Mia Thermopolis, in Disney's 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 thefantasy-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 heled to add notable depth to the proceedings, and in 2006 Hathaway would venture 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 capitolized 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.
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