Anne Hathaway is an American actress. After several stage roles, she appeared in the 1999 television series Get Real. After it was canceled, she played Mia Thermopolis in the The Princess Diaries (2001). Over the next three years, Hathaway reprised that role for The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement, and starred in family films, appearing as the title character in Ella Enchanted (both 2004).

Hathaway had supporting roles in Havoc and Brokeback Mountain (both 2005). She starred in The Devil Wears Prada (2006) and appeared in Becoming Jane (2007) as Jane Austen. In 2008, she was acclaimed for her lead role in Rachel Getting Married, for which she won awards, and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress. In 2010, she starred in the box office hits Valentine's Day and Tim Burton's Alice In Wonderland.

People magazine named her one of its breakthrough stars of 2001 and she first appeared on its list of the world's 50 Most Beautiful People in 2006.

Hathaway was born in Brooklyn, New York, to Gerald Hathaway, a lawyer, and Kate (née 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.

Hathaway was raised a Catholic with what she considered "really strong values," and has stated she wanted to be a nun during her childhood. However, at the age of fifteen, she decided not to become a nun after learning that her brother, Michael, is gay. Despite her Catholic upbringing, she felt that she could not be part of a religion that disapproved of her brother's sexual orientation. In 2009, she stated that she is a non-denominational Christian because she had not "found the religion" for her and later stated her religious beliefs as "a work in progress".

As a child, Hathaway was in a Montessori program at Brooklyn Heights Montessori School as a preschooler and was then able to enter first grade at the Wyoming Elementary School in Millburn, New Jersey while she was technically still a kindergartner. Hathaway graduated from Millburn High School where she participated in many school plays; her high school performance as Winnifred in Once Upon a Mattress garnered her a Paper Mill Playhouse Rising Star Award nomination for Best Performance by a High School Actress. During this time, Hathaway was in plays including Jane Eyre and Gigi at New Jersey's Paper Mill Playhouse (which is located in Millburn, across the street from Hathaway's middle school). She spent several semesters studying as an English major and Women's Studies minor at Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, New York, before transferring to New York University's Gallatin School of Individualized Study, referring to her college enrollment as one of her best decisions, because she enjoyed being with others who were trying to "grow up". Hathaway was a member of the Barrow Group Theater Company's acting program and was the first teenager ever admitted into the program.

A soprano, Hathaway performed in 1998 and 1999 with the All-Eastern U.S. High School Honors Chorus at Carnegie Hall and has performed in plays at Seton Hall Prep in West Orange, NJ. Three days after her 1999 performance at Carnegie Hall, she was cast in the short-lived Fox television series Get Real, at the age of sixteen.

Hathaway is a trained stage actress and has stated that she prefers performing on stage to film roles. Her acting style has been compared to Judy Garland and Audrey Hepburn. She cites Hepburn as one of her favorite actresses and Meryl Streep as an icon for her.

Hathaway's first role in a motion picture was as Jean Sabin in The Other Side of Heaven, opposite Christopher Gorham. Before production of Heaven began in New Zealand, she auditioned for the lead role of Mia Thermopolis in The Princess Diaries, directed by Garry Marshall. Hathaway auditioned for the role during a flight layover on the way to New Zealand and won the role after only one audition. Marshall claimed that he loved her immediately because she fell off her chair during the audition and believed her clumsiness would make her perfect for the role. (However, in a 2008 conversation with Steve Carell, Hathaway denied that she fell during this audition, although she openly admits to being a "klutz".) The Princess Diaries was released before The Other Side of Heaven in the hopes that its success would increase interest in Heaven. Across the world, The Princess Diaries was a commercial success, and a sequel was planned shortly after. Many critics praised Hathaway's performance in Diaries; a BBC critic noted that "Hathaway shines in the title role and generates great chemistry." The Other Side of Heaven was received weakly by critics, but it performed well for a religion-themed film.

In February 2002, Hathaway starred in the City Center Encores! concert production of Carnival! in New York City, receiving positive reviews for her portrayal of Lili. Also in 2002, Hathaway began voicing the audio book releases of The Princess Diaries and has since voiced the first three books of the series. She also provided the voice of the character Haru in the English version of Hiroyuki Morita's The Cat Returns.

Hathaway continued to appear in family-oriented films over the next three years, subsequently becoming known in mainstream media as a children's role model. In 2002, she appeared in Nicholas Nickleby, opposite Charlie Hunnam and Jamie Bell, which opened to positive reviews. The Northwest Herald referred to it as "an unbelievably fun film", and the Deseret News said that the cast was "Oscar-worthy". Despite critical acclaim, the film never entered wide release and failed at the North American box office, totaling less than $4 million in ticket sales.

Hathaway's next film role was as the titular character in Ella Enchanted (2004), the film adaptation of the novel, which opened to mostly indifferent reviews. Hathaway sang two songs in the film as well as three on the soundtrack, including a duet with Jesse McCartney.

In 2004, Hathaway dropped out of her role in The Phantom of the Opera, because the production schedule of the film overlapped with The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement, which she was contractually obligated to make. Disney began production on The Princess Diaries 2 in early 2004, and it was released in August of that year. The film opened to negative reviews, but commissioned $95.1 million against a $40 -million budget.

A bust shot of a young woman standing in a side view, her head turned to look to the camera. Her long hair is pulled back from her face and cascades down her back. She wears a black sleeveless dress with a gold trim around the back and under her arm. She wears jeweled silver floral shaped earrings and smiles softly. There is a crowd of people, slightly out of focus, in the background.
Hathaway at the 2007 Deauville American Film Festival

Hathaway began appearing in more dramatic roles after The Princess Diaries 2. She said that "anybody who was a role model for children needs a reprieve", although she noted that "it's lovely to think that my audience is growing up with me". She voiced Little Red Riding Hood in Hoodwinked! (2005), which received generally positive reviews. That same year, Hathaway starred in the R-rated Havoc, in which she played a spoiled socialite. Hathaway was featured in nude and sexual scenes in the film. Although the content of the film was different from her previous films, Hathaway denied that her role was an attempt to be seen as a more mature actress, citing her belief that doing nudity in certain movies is merely a part of what her chosen form of art demands of her; and because of that belief she does not consider appearing nude in appropriate films to be morally objectionable.

After Havoc, Hathaway was in the drama Brokeback Mountain. Havoc was not released in theaters in the United States (but was later released in other countries) because of its weak critical reception, but Brokeback Mountain won rave reviews for its depiction of a homosexual relationship in the 1960s and received several Academy Award nominations. Hathaway would later assert that the content of Brokeback Mountain was more important than its award count and that making the film made her more aware of the kind of stories she wanted to tell as an actress.

Hathaway was in the 2006 comedy The Devil Wears Prada, in which she starred as an assistant to a powerful fashion magazine editor portrayed by Meryl Streep, whom Hathaway described as being "just divine". Hathaway said that working on the film made her respect the fashion industry a great deal more than she had previously, though she claimed that her personal style is something she "still can't get right". In an interview with Us Weekly, Hathaway discussed the weight loss regime she and co-star Emily Blunt followed for the film, she stated, "I basically stuck with fruit, vegetables and fish [to slim down]. I wouldn't recommend that. Emily Blunt and I would clutch at each other and cry because we were so hungry."
Hathaway was cast in the 2007 comedy Knocked Up, but dropped out before filming began and was replaced by Katherine Heigl. Writer/director Judd Apatow stated in a May 2007 issue of The New York Times Magazine that Hathaway dropped out "because she didn't want to allow us to use real footage of a woman giving birth to create the illusion that she is giving birth". In an August 2008 interview with Marie Claire magazine, Hathaway commented that she "didn't believe that it was necessary to the story".

Hathaway was in the 2007 drama Becoming Jane, in which she was English writer Jane Austen. Tim Burton considered Hathaway for the part of Johanna in his 2007 film Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, but the role went to Jayne Wisener, a then-unknown actress, reportedly because Burton decided he wanted an unknown, younger actress for the part.

A broadly smiling young woman, wearing a white lame strapless gown and small earrings, waves presumably at a crowd. Her is parted on the left side and pulled up and back, off of her bare shoulders. The background is out of focus and unclear.
Hathaway on the red carpet in 2009 at the 81st Academy Awards

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. Hathaway's first film of 2008 was a modern adaptation of the 1960s Mel Brooks television series Get Smart, in which she starred opposite Steve Carell, Dwayne Johnson, and Alan Arkin. The film was a hit at the box office and received mostly positive reviews, prompting talk of a sequel. She also made a cameo appearance in the corresponding film Get Smart's Bruce and Lloyd: Out of Control. In October 2008, she premiered the drama Passengers, alongside Patrick Wilson, as well as the drama Rachel Getting Married, opposite Debra Winger. Rachel Getting Married premiered at the 2008 Venice and Toronto Film Festivals and garnered her widespread critical acclaim for her performance as Kym, including nominations for both an Academy Award and a Golden Globe. Hathaway stated that the film appealed to her because of its real depiction of relationships and because of the strong emotional connection she felt with her character.

Hathaway appeared in the comedy Bride Wars, released on January 9, 2009. Hathaway described the film as being "hideously commercial – gloriously so". She appeared with co-star Kate 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." In addition to providing her voice for episodes of The Simpsons (which garnered her an Emmy nomination in 2010 for outstanding voice-over performance) and Family Guy in 2010, Hathaway also appeared as Viola in the New York Shakespeare Festival's summer 2009 production of Twelfth Night at the Delacorte Theater in New York's Central Park, opposite Audra McDonald as Olivia, Raul Esparza as Duke Orsino, and Julie White as Maria.

Hathaway's 2010 film projects include a Tim Burton-directed adaptation of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass alongside Helena Bonham Carter and Johnny Depp, the romantic comedy The Fiancé, an adaptation of the Julie Buxbaum novel The Opposite of Love, the Garry Marshall-directed ensemble comedy Valentine's Day, and an adaptation of Gerald Clarke's biography Get Happy: The Life of Judy Garland, in which she will play the title role on the stage and screen. It was reported on December 8, 2009 that Hathaway was up for the role of Felicia Hardy in Spider-Man 4. Hardy would not have transformed into the Black Cat, as in the comics; instead, Raimi’s Felicia was expected to become a brand-new superpowered figure called the Vulturess. On January 5, 2010, it was reported that Spider-Man 4 would be rewritten and Hathaway would not appear in the film, as she was "too expensive".

Birth name: Anne Jacqueline Hathaway
Born: November 12, 1982
Origin: Brooklyn, New York, United States
Occupation: Actress
Years active: 1999–present