Rachel Weisz Biography
Rachel Weisz was born on 7th March 1971, in London, England, to Edith, an Austrian psychoanalyst and George, a Hungarian inventor.
Rachel was a model when she was 14 and began acting during her studies at Cambridge University. While there, she formed a theater company named Talking Tongues, which won the Guardian Award, at the Edinburgh Festival, for its take on 'Neville Shouthall' 's "Washbag". Rachel went on to star on stage in the lauded
Sean Mathias revival of
Noel Coward's "Design For Living." It was a role that won her a vote for Most Promising Newcomer by the London Critics' Circle.
She has starred in many movies, including
The Mummy,
Enemy at the Gates, and
Stealing Beauty. Rachel can also be seen in the movies
The Shape of Things,
About a Boy,
Constantine, and
The Constant Gardener, for which she won an Academy Award, Golden Globe, and Screen Actor's Guild Award for Best Supporting Actress. Currently, she is living with maverick director
Darren Aronofsky in Brooklyn and the two of them have a son, Henry Chance.
Trivia

Last name is pronounced "Vice."

Studied English at Trinity Hall, Cambridge University.

Dated director
Sam Mendes. [2001]

Studying English at Cambridge University, Weisz formed the Talking Tongues theater company and at 1991's Edinburgh Festival won a student drama award for a play she wrote and acted in.

Lives in a US$450,000 London apartment and drives a Jaguar.

She has recently become a patron of The X Appeal, which is the official charity of the Royal College of Radiologists.

Her father invented respirators that supplied their own oxygen and machines that sense land mines.

1998: Named as one of European films' Shooting Stars by the European Film Promotion Board.

She was awarded the 1994 London Critics Circle Theatre Award (Drama Theatre) for Most Promising Newcomer for her performance in Design for Living.

Educated at the prestigious St Paul's Girls School in London. Was in the same class as actress
Emily Mortimer.

Lives in New York with director
Darren Aronofsky (2004).

Ranked #30 in Stuff magazine's 102 Sexiest Women in the World (2002).

Drives an old, black Jaguar 4.2 Sovereign with pepper-pot wheels.

Her Austrian-born mother is of part Italian descent

Is the face of Revlon (2005).

Announced on
The Tonight Show with Jay Leno that she was five months pregnant and engaged to
Darren Aronofsky. [January 6, 2006]

When asked who her idols were, she named
Gena Rowlands,
Katharine Hepburn,
Jack Nicholson,
Shirley MacLaine,
Ingrid Bergman,
Jimi Hendrix and
Janis Joplin.

Rachel and her fiancé,
Darren Aronofsky, became the parents of a son, Henry Chance on May 31, 2006.

Invited to join AMPAS in 2006.

Replaced
Kate Moss as the new face of the Burberry campaign.

Was a radical feminist at University.

Her favorite movie is
Nicolas Roeg and
Donald Cammell's psychedelic 1970 masterpiece
Performance.

Good friends with fellow British actors
Jude Law and
Susan Lynch.

Is very good friends with fashion designers
Narciso Rodríguez and
Donna Karan.

Was offered a large part in the
Richard Gere movie
King David when she was only 14. Her parents wouldn't let her do it.

She was offered the role of "Becky" in
Clerks II. She couldn't do it because of scheduling conflicts. The role eventually went to
Rosario Dawson.

Is of Hungarian (from her father's side) and Austrian (from mother's side) descent.

Divides her time between New York and London, where she has a home on the same street as fellow British actor and good friend
Jude Law.

Is semi fluent in German.

While filming
The Mummy and
The Mummy Returns, she formed a strong friendship with fellow co-stars
John Hannah and
Oded Fehr. They remain good friends.

Has a younger sister named Minnie Weisz.

Very good friends with the Fiennes family having worked with both
Joseph Fiennes in
Enemy at the Gates and twice with
Ralph Fiennes in
Sunshine and
The Constant Gardener.

Beat out
Nicole Kidman for the role of Georgie Jutland in
Dirt Music.

Won her Oscar for playing a pregnant woman in
The Constant Gardener while she was pregnant in real-life with her first child.

Chosen by Empire magazine as one of the 100 Sexiest Stars in film history (#37). [2007].

Had a role in the film
Smart People, but dropped out before filming began. As a result,
Sarah Jessica Parker was given her role.

Ranked #85 on Askmen.com's 100 Most Desirable Women in the World (2008).
Source provided by imdb (Copyright) - The Internet Movie Database.