Catherine ‘Cate’ Blanchett is academy award and Golden Globe-winning Austrailian actress who is as at home on the red carpet and runway as she is onscreen. A prolific performer, she’s worked with some of Hollywood’s most elite auteurs, including Wes Anderson, Martin Scorsese, Woody Allen and even Japanese animation legend Hayao Miyazaki. Though she got her big break into the mainstream with her Oscar-winning role as Queen Elizabeth I in Elizabeth and Elizabeth: The Golden Age, she is probably best known as the elf queen Galadriel in The Lord of the Rings saga, Hollywood royalty look-alike Katharine Hepburn in The Aviator and most recently as the Norse goddess of death Hela in Marvel’s Thor: Ragnarok.
After going through childhood and young adulthood trying to find a path, Blanchett caught the acting bug as, of all things, an extra in the Egyptian boxing film Kaboria. When she got back to Australia, she enrolled in the National Institute of Dramatic Arts and graduated in 1992 with a BFA in acting. Her professional career began in theater, opening the David Mamet play Oleanna opposite Australian acting veteran Geoffrey Rush. Cate immediately began racking up awards and accolades as she moved from major projects to even bigger ones. It wasn’t long before she began nabbing film roles, eventually starring alongside Ralph Fiennes in Oscar and Lucinda. Though she became renown in her native land, she didn’t hit the international stage until Elizabeth, at which point Hollywood, immediately seeing the major box office potential of her signature sharp cheekbones and piercing blue eyes, scooped her up.
Blanchett has been married to writer Andrew Upton since 1997 and the two have four kids together. As a prominent member of multiple film associations and advocacy groups, she is an outspoken feminist and art patron. In 2016, she became a United Nations Goodwill Ambassador and initiated a refugee awareness campaign as well as an international petition to expand asylum legislation.
Her most recent project is Ocean’s 8, a continuation of the classic Ocean’s 11 franchise almost exclusively starring women. It hits theaters June 8th.