Rachel Weisz

Rachel Hannah Weisz (; born 7 March 1970 ) is an English actress. She is the recipient of various accolades, including an Academy Award, a Laurence Olivier Award, and a BAFTA Award.

Weisz began acting in British stage and television in the early 1990s, and made her film debut in ''Death Machine'' (1994). She won a Critics' Circle Theatre Award for her role in the 1994 revival of Noël Coward's play ''Design for Living'' and she went on to appear in the 1999 Donmar Warehouse production of Tennessee Williams' drama '' Suddenly, Last Summer''. Her film breakthrough came with her starring role as Evelyn Carnahan in the Hollywood action films ''The Mummy'' (1999) and ''The Mummy Returns'' (2001). Weisz went on to star in several films of the 2000s, including ''Enemy at the Gates'' (2001), '' About a Boy'' (2002), ''Constantine'' (2005), ''The Fountain'' (2006) and ''The Lovely Bones'' (2009).

For her performance as an activist in the 2005 thriller ''The Constant Gardener'', she won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, and for playing Blanche DuBois in a 2009 revival of ''A Streetcar Named Desire'', she won the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actress. In the 2010s, Weisz continued to star in big-budget films such as the action film '' The Bourne Legacy'' (2012) and the fantasy film ''Oz the Great and Powerful'' (2013), and garnered critical acclaim for her performances in the independent films '' The Deep Blue Sea'' (2011), ''Denial'' (2016), and ''The Favourite'' (2018). For her portrayal of Sarah Churchill in the latter, she won the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role and received a second Academy Award nomination. In 2021, Weisz played Melina Vostokoff in the Marvel Cinematic Universe film '' Black Widow''.

Weisz was engaged to filmmaker Darren Aronofsky, with whom she has a son, from 2005 to 2010. She married actor Daniel Craig in 2011, with whom she has a daughter, and became a naturalised US citizen the same year.

Early life and family

Weisz was born on 7 March 1970 in Westminster, London, and grew up in Hampstead Garden Suburb. Her father, George Weisz (1929–2020), was a Hungarian Jewish mechanical engineer. Her mother, Edith Ruth (born Teich; 1932–2016), was a teacher-turned-psychotherapist originally from Vienna, Austria. Her parents both emigrated to the United Kingdom as children around 1938, prior to the outbreak of World War II, in order to escape the Nazis. Her maternal grandfather's ancestry was Austrian Jewish; her maternal grandmother's ancestry was Italian Roman Catholic. The scholar and social activist James Parkes helped her mother's family to leave Austria for England. Weisz's mother was raised in the Catholic church and formally converted to Judaism upon marrying Weisz's father. Weisz's maternal grandfather was Alexander Teich, a Jewish activist who had been a secretary of the World Union of Jewish Students. Her younger sister Minnie Weisz is a visual artist.

Weisz's parents valued the arts; they also encouraged their children to form opinions of their own by engaging their participation in family debates. Weisz left North London Collegiate School and attended Benenden School for one year, completing A-levels at St Paul's Girls School.

Known for being an " English rose","Profile of Rachel Weisz"
''Hello''. Retrieved 12 June 2012 Weisz began modelling at the age of 14. In 1984, she gained public attention when she turned down an offer to star in ''King David'' with Richard Gere.

Weisz went to Trinity Hall, Cambridge, where she read English. She graduated with upper second-class honours. During her university years she was a contemporary of Sacha Baron Cohen, Alexander Armstrong, Emily Maitlis, Sue Perkins, Mel Giedroyc, Richard Osman and Ben Miller (whom she briefly dated), and appeared in various student dramatic productions, co-founding a student drama group called Cambridge Talking Tongues. The group won a ''Guardian'' Student Drama Award at the 1991 Edinburgh Festival Fringe for an improvised piece called ''Slight Possession'', directed by David Farr.

Career

Early work and breakthrough (1992–1998)

In 1992, Weisz appeared in the television film ''Advocates II'', followed by roles in the ''Inspector Morse'' episode " Twilight of the Gods", and the BBC
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