Anne Hathaway
Born: 1982
Where: Brooklyn, New York
Hathaway had to overcome a difficult obstacle in the theatre to land her winning role in the American hit The Princess Diaries.
At five foot eight she was too tall to get parts as children...but she looked so young that she was never cast as adults in auditions for Broadway shows.
However, she was perfect for TV and made her primetime acting debut as eldest daughter Meghan Green in the short-lived Fox drama series "Get Real".
Segueing to the big screen, Hathaway was cast in the independently produced fact-based tale of a missionary to Tonga The Other Side of Heaven.
Audiences, however, first saw the actress as Mia, an awkward San Francisco teen who learns she's actually royalty, in the comedy The Princess Diaries, directed by veteran Garry Marshall.
She held her own with such talented co-stars as Julie Andrews (as her grandmother), Hector Elizondo (as an adviser) and Heather Matarazzo as Mia's pal.
She was next seen in Nicholas Nickleby with Christopher Plummer, Jim Broadbent and Miranda Richardson and was also cast in the lead role of Ella in Ella Enchanted alongside Joanna Lumley.
Recent work includes providing the voice of schoolgirl Haru in the Japanese children's fantasy The Cat Returns and the Ang Lee drama Brokeback Mountain.
