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Elizabeth Banks Profile |
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Birth Date: February 10, 1974
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Birth Place: Pittsfield, Massachusetts, USA
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Birth Name: Elizabeth Maresal Mitchell
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Biography |
Elizabeth Banks was born in
Pittsfield, Massachusetts, on February 10, 1974. Growing up
in her small Berkshires town near the New York State border,
Elizabeth rode horses, was nominated to be the local Harvest
Queen and generally stayed out of trouble. After graduating
from Pittsfield High School in 1992, she moved away from
home for the first time to attend college at the University
of Pennsylvania. In 1996, she graduated magna cum laude.
Elizabeth chose to pursue a career as an actress, and next
relocated to San Francisco, where she studied at the
American Conservatory Theater. Two years later, Elizabeth
moved to New York and began taking bit parts in movies like
Surrender Dorothy (1998), Shaft (2000), Wet Hot American
Summer (2001), and Ordinary Sinner (2001), as well as on TV
shows, including Third Watch, Sex and the City and Law &
Order: Special Victims Unit. During this time, Elizabeth
began to be credited as Elizabeth Banks, taking a stage name
because there was already an established actress named
Elizabeth Mitchell.
Following a final move to Los Angeles, Elizabeth began to
have roles in much bigger projects, even if those roles
remained small. She had a brief appearance in Spider-Man
(2002) as J. Jonah Jameson’s put-upon secretary, Betty
Brant. That same year, she acted alongside Madonna in Guy
Ritchie’s Swept Away, and alongside Leonardo DiCaprio in
Steven Spielberg’s Catch Me If You Can.
2003 marked Elizabeth’s first substantial role in a major
film: She played Marcela Howard, Jeff Bridges’ wife, in
Seabiscuit. She later appeared as Glenn Close’s daughter in
the Merchant-Ivory production Heights (2004). Also in 2004,
Elizabeth reprised her Betty Brant role in Spider-Man 2, and
was considered to play Invisible Girl in another Marvel
comic adaptation, Fantastic Four (2005) -- though the part
eventually went to Jessica Alba.
Meanwhile, Elizabeth continued to expand her onscreen
credits. In 2005, she had her first starring role in The
Baxter, and appeared in other smaller films like Sexual
Life, The Sisters and Daltry Calhoun. She also had a
memorable role as an oversexed bookseller in the comedy hit
The 40 Year Old Virgin.
Elizabeth’s career milestone came in the sci-fi horror flick
Slither (2006), in which she played Starla Grant, the
ultimate stand-by-your-man wife whose husband is infested by
space aliens. Elizabeth has also been cast in Invincible
(2006) and The H-Man Cometh (2006), and she will reprise her
role in the third installment of the Spider-Man series. |
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Other
Information |
Graduated Magna Cum Laude, University of Pennsylvania
Graduated from American Conservatory Theater's Advanced
Training Program in 1998. |
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