Cate Blanchett

Cate Blanchett

Catherine Elise Blanchett AC is an Australian actress, producer, and theatre director. She is known for her roles in blockbusters and independent films, and on the stage. She has received numerous accolades, including two Academy Awards, three Golden Globe Awards, and three British Academy Film Awards. She made her Broadway debut in 2017 with The Present, for which she received a Tony Award nomination.

About Cate Blanchett in brief

Summary Cate BlanchettCatherine Elise Blanchett AC (born 14 May 1969) is an Australian actress, producer, and theatre director. She is known for her roles in blockbusters and independent films, and on the stage. She has received numerous accolades, including two Academy Awards, three Golden Globe Awards, and three British Academy Film Awards. She made her Broadway debut in 2017 with The Present, for which she received a Tony Award nomination. She was named one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2007, and in 2018, she was ranked among the world’s highest-paid actresses. Her most commercially successful films include Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings trilogy, The Hobbit trilogy, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, Cinderella, Thor: Ragnarok and Ocean’s 8. She and her husband, Andrew Upton, served as the artistic directors of the Sydney Theatre Company from 2008 to 2013. The Australian government awarded Blanchestt the Centenary Medal in 2001 and she was appointed a Companion of the Order of Australia in 2017. In 2012, Blanchest was appointed Chevalier of the order of Arts and Letters by the French government. Her ancestry includes English, some Scottish, and remote French roots. Her father died of a heart attack when she was 10, leaving her mother to raise the family on her own. She studied economics and fine arts at the University of Melbourne but dropped out after one year to travel overseas. She graduated from the National Institute of Dramatic Art in 1992 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts.

In 1993, she won the Sydney Critics’ Newcomer Award for her performance in Timothy Daly’s Dances in Mamet’s Oleanna. Her first role was opposite Geoffrey Rush, in the stage play David Oleanna for the Sydney theatre company. Her performance as Electra in Electra became one of her most acclaimed at NIDA. She came to international attention for portraying Elizabeth I in the drama film Elizabeth. She later won the Academy Award for Best Actress for playing a neurotic former socialite in Woody Allen’s comedy-drama Blue Jasmine. In 2015, she received the Museum of Modern Art and received the British Film Institute Fellowship. Her husband Andrew Upton is a former director of the Australian National Theatre Company. He was the artistic director of Sydney’s Theatre Company between 2008 and 2013, and served as its artistic director from 2008 until 2013. He is also a former executive director of The National Theatre of Australia and the National Council for the Arts in Australia and New Zealand. He has worked as a producer and director at the Sydney Opera House, and has directed numerous plays, including Hamlet and Hamlet. He also served as a director of NIDA’s David Mamet Company from 1992 to 2013, including in Hamlet in 1994 and in The Maids in 1994. In 2013, he was awarded the Best Actor in a play by Timothy Daly for his performance in The Dances of Oleanna, making him the first actor to win both Best Actor and Best Actress awards in both categories.