Marianne Jean-Baptiste

Born: 1967
Where: London, England

Marianne attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London, but was hardly known in Britain and completely unknown in the US until the 1996 release of Mike Leigh's Secrets & Lies.

Cast as Hortense, an Afro-British young woman who seeks out her birth mother and discovers the latter is a lower-class white woman. Hortense is then slowly integrated into her birth mother's family.

Secrets & Lies bought her international recognition as well as Best Supporting Actress Oscar, BAFTA and Golden Globe nominations.

In 1991, Marianne wrote and starred in a one-woman show, Ave Africa, while still attending RADA.

That same year she had her feature film debut in London Kills Me, which focused on the lives of homeless teens living in the London Underground, and was directed by Hanif Kureishi.

In addition to acting, Marianne is also a composer and singer. She supplied the music for Leigh's Career Girls in 1997, and has recorded a blues album as well.

In 2001, Marianne appeared on stage in The Vagina Monologues in London.