Cate Blanchett

Catherine Élise Blanchett is an Australian actor and producer whose stage and screen work has made her one of the most acclaimed performers of her generation. Born in Melbourne on May 14, 1969, she studied at Australia's National Institute of Dramatic Art after an early path that included university study and travel. Her training led quickly to Australian stage work, where she established herself before moving into film in the late 1990s.

Blanchett's international breakthrough came with Elizabeth, in which she played Queen Elizabeth I. The performance brought her first Academy Award nomination and announced a screen presence that combined theatrical command with emotional precision. She followed with a broad range of roles, including The Talented Mr. Ripley, The Gift, Bandits and The Shipping News, while gaining a vast popular audience as Galadriel in Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings trilogy. Her ability to move between prestige drama, fantasy spectacle and offbeat supporting parts became a hallmark of her career.

In 2004 Blanchett won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for playing Katharine Hepburn in Martin Scorsese's The Aviator. She continued to gather major nominations for Notes on a Scandal, I'm Not There and Elizabeth: The Golden Age, the latter returning her to the monarch who had defined her first wave of international fame. Her performance as a woman in social and psychological collapse in Woody Allen's Blue Jasmine brought her the Academy Award for Best Actress in 2014. Later acclaimed film roles included Carol, for which she received another Oscar nomination, and Tár, in which she played a celebrated conductor facing professional and moral unraveling.