Anne Hathaway

Actor

Anne Hathaway starred in the 2001 Disney comedy The Princess Diaries (with Julie Andrews and Mandy Moore) as an awkward American teen who suddenly learns she's really a princess. The movie was a box office success and Hathaway was suddenly a rising star: tall, dark-haired, with a screen persona that mixed naivete with determination. She co-starred in 2002's Nicholas Nickleby (based on the novel by Charles Dickens) and was then cast as the lead in 2004's Ella Enchanted, in which she sang a duet with pop star Jesse McCartney. She also starred in a 2004 sequel to her original hit, The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement. In a conscious move to break away from her position as a star for young audiences, Hathaway took on darker, edgier roles in 2005, appearing in Havoc (with Channing Tatum) and Brokeback Mountain (as Jake Gyllenhaal's long-suffering wife). She starred opposite Meryl Streep in the comedy The Devil Wears Prada in 2006, and the next year she played author Jane Austen in the mostly-made-up biopic Becoming Jane.

Extra credit: Hathaway also starred as Meghan Green in the short-lived Fox TV family drama Get Real (1999)... Anne Hathaway was also the name of William Shakespeare's wife.