Renée Zellweger

Academy Award-winning actress known for Bridget Jones and Judy.

Renée Kathleen Zellweger is an American actress born on April 25, 1969. She has won two Academy Awards, two British Academy Film Awards, and four Golden Globe Awards. She rose to prominence with starring roles in films such as Jerry Maguire and Bridget Jones's Diary.

Quick Facts

Birth name: Renée Kathleen Zellweger
Born: 25 April 1969
Birthplace: Katy, Texas, U.S.
Education: University of Texas at Austin (BA)
Occupation: Actress
Years active: 1992–present

Facts from the source article.

Did You Know?

From 1999 to 2000, Zellweger was engaged to Jim Carrey.
In May 2005, she married singer Kenny Chesney; the marriage was annulled four months later.
She took part in a 2005 HIV prevention campaign by the Swiss Federal Office of Public Health.

Early life

Renée Zellweger was born in Katy, Texas, to Emil Erich Zellweger, a Swiss-born mechanical and electrical engineer, and Kjellfrid, a Norwegian nurse and midwife of Kven and Sámi descent. She attended Katy High School, where she was a cheerleader and played soccer and powderpuff football. In 1986, her essay "The Karankawas and Their Roots" placed third in the Houston Post High School Natural Science Essay Contest. She studied English literature at the University of Texas at Austin, intending to teach or work in journalism.

To fund her education, she worked as a cocktail waitress at a strip club. A drama elective required for her degree sparked her interest in acting, and she graduated in 1992 with a Bachelor of Arts. While in college, she earned her Screen Actors Guild card for a Coors Light commercial and had a bit part in My Boyfriend's Back that was cut. Her first post-graduation job was a beef commercial.

Career

Zellweger's early work included the miniseries Murder in the Heartland and uncredited roles in Dazed and Confused. Her first main role was in The Return of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1995), playing a teenager. Joe Leydon of Variety called her "the most formidable scream queen since Jamie Lee Curtis." In Love and a .45 (1994), she played a woman planning a robbery; Marc Savlov of the Austin Chronicle noted her character resembled Juliette Lewis's in Natural Born Killers. That role earned her an Independent Spirit Award for Best Debut Performance. She then moved to Los Angeles, having previously delayed the move due to doubts about her talent. She appeared in Empire Records (1995), which Rotten Tomatoes described as a "silly and predictable teen dramedy."

Public image

Zellweger has appeared on magazine covers including Vanity Fair, Vogue, Detour, Allure, and Harper's Bazaar. She frequently wears dresses by Carolina Herrera, a close friend she met at a Costume Institute gala, and attends New York Fashion Week. Vanity Fair named her part of "Hollywood's Next Wave of Stars" in 1997. People magazine listed her among the 50 most beautiful people in 2003. Forbes ranked her 72nd on its "Top 100 Celebrities" list in 2006 and placed her 20th among "the 20 richest women in entertainment" in 2007. Israeli singer Ariel Horowitz wrote a song called "Renee" after watching Jerry Maguire, which became popular in Israel in 2002. After the 2014 Elle Women in Hollywood Awards, media speculated she had undergone cosmetic surgery; she responded, "Perhaps I look different. Who doesn't as they get older?!"

Awards and nominations

Renée Zellweger's acting has earned her two Oscars, two BAFTAs, four Critics' Choice Awards, four Golden Globes, an Independent Spirit Award, four Screen Actors Guild Awards, a British Independent Film Award, and honors from the London Film Critics Circle, National Board of Review, National Society of Film Critics, New York Film Critics Circle, and Santa Barbara International Film Festival. She is only the fourth actress to win Best Actress after previously winning Best Supporting Actress.