Rachel Weisz Biography

British actress and model Rachel Weisz is best known for her performances in The Mummy, Stealing Beauty and The Constant Gardener.

Synopsis

Born in 1970, Rachel Weisz started acting as a drama student in college. Soon after, she transitioned into TV, best known for her role in the BBC series Scarlet and Black. In 1995, she went from the small screen to the silver screen by appearing in the film Chain Reaction. From there, she has appeared in several films, including The Mummy (1999), Stealing Beauty (1996) and The Constant Gardener (2005), for which she received an Academy Award.

Early Career

Actress Rachel Weisz was born on March 7, 1970, in London, England. Her father's family fled Hungary to England to escape Nazi persecution. In college, she founded a student drama group and appeared in several plays in the West End. Her stage work includes the role of the mentally unstable Catherine in Tennessee Williams' Suddenly Last Summer and Evelyn in Neil LaBute's The Shape of Things.

Career Highlights

After appearing on television, notably on the BBC series Scarlet and Black with Ewan McGregor, Weisz made her cinematic debut in 1995's Chain Reaction. She followed with a riveting performance as a spoiled teenager in Bernardo Bertolucci's Stealing Beauty. Other notable films include Swept from the Sea, The Mummy franchise, Enemy at the Gates, About a Boy and Constantine. In 2005, her starring turn in The Constant Gardener, a film adaptation of John le Carré's thriller set in the slums of Kenya, earned her an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.
Since then Weisz has continued working steadily, starring in films such as The Fountain, The Lovely Bones, The Bourne Legacy, and Oz the Great and Powerful.
In 2009 Weisz returned to the stage for a revival of A Streetcar Named Desire, playing the character Blanche DuBois, which earned her an Olivier Award for Best Actress.

Personal Life

Rachel Weisz has a son, Henry Chance (b. 2006) with American filmmaker Darren Aronofsky, whom she had a long-term relationship with between 2001 to 2010. In June 2011, she married British actor Daniel Craig.