Helena Bonham Carter, daughter of Raymond Bonham Carter, a merchant banker, and Elena Bonham Carter (née Propper de Callejón), a psychotherapist, was born in Golders Green, London, England on May 26, 1966 and is the youngest of three children. She is the great-granddaughter of former Prime Minister Herbert H. Asquith and her blue-blooded family tree also contains Barons and Baronesses, diplomats, and a director, Bonham Carter's great-uncle Anthony Asquith, who made Pygmalion and The Importance of Being Earnest, among others. Cousin Crispin Bonham-Carter is also an actor.

After experiencing family dramas that included her father's stroke-which left him wheelchair-bound-and attending South Hampstead High School and Westminster School in London, Bonham Carter devoted herself to an acting career. That trajectory actually began in 1979 when, at age 13, she entered a national poetry writing competition and used her second place winnings to place her photo in the casting directory "Spotlight." She soon had her first agent and her first acting job, in a commercial, at age 16. She then landed a role in the made-for-TV movie A Pattern of Roses, which subsequently led to her casting in the Merchant Ivory films A Room with a View and Lady Jane, which was her first leading role.

Often referred to as the "corset queen" or "English rose" because of her early work, Bonham Carter has continued to surprise audiences with magnificent performances in a variety of roles from her more traditional corset-clad character in The Wings of the Dove and Shakespearian damsels to the dark and neurotic anti-heroines of Fight Club and many of Tim Burton's films. Though consistently a versatile and engaging actress, Bonham Carter has never won a major American film award. However, she has received a number of critical awards and has been nominated for five Golden Globes, an Oscar, a SAG Award, and two Emmys.

Bonham Carter was nominated for a Golden Globe for the fifth time for her role in partner Tim Burton's film adaptation of the Steven Sondheim musical, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, for which Burton and co-star Johnny Depp were also nominated. Since their meeting while filming Planet of the Apes, Bonham Carter and Burton have made four movies together. They live in adjoining residences in London, sharing a connecting hallway, and have two children: Billy Ray Burton, 4, and Nell Burton, who was born December 15, 2007. Ironically, a mutual love of Sweeney Todd was part of the initial attraction for the pair. Despite that, Bonham Carter has said in numerous interviews that her audition process for the role of Mrs. Lovett was the most grueling of her career and that, ultimately, it was Sondheim who she had to convince that she was right for the role.


Lived with Kenneth Branagh. [1994 - September 1999] She is a first cousin of Baroness Jane Bonham-Carter, and only a distant cousin of Crispin Bonham-Carter: Crispin's father, Peter Malcolm Bonham-Carter, is a third cousin of Helena Bonham Carter. The first ancestors that Crispin and Helena have in common, are John Bonham-Carter (1788-1838) and his wife Joanna Maria Smith (1791-1884). Speaks French fluently. She is the granddaughter of Violet Bonham Carter, a Life Peeress in her own right, and the niece of Mark Bonham-Carter, who was created a Life Peer in his own right as well. Her half-Spanish mother 'Elena Propper de Callejon' is niece of Baroness Liliane de Rothschild, née Fould-Springer. Engaged to director Tim Burton (2001 - present) 2 children. In 2005, her voice appeared in two stop-motion animated films. They were Corpse Bride (2005) and Wallace & Gromit in The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (2005). Both films were nominated for the Academy award for best animated film. The award went to Wallace & Gromit in The Curse of the Were-Rabbit. Member of the jury at the Cannes Film Festival in 2006. She is the daughter of a prominent British banker and the great-granddaughter of Asquith, the Liberal prime minister. Is close friends with Johnny Depp, who often works with her fiancé, Tim Burton. In fact, Depp is the godfather of her child with Burton, Billy Ray. She gave birth to a baby girl, Nell Burton, on December 15th, 2007. She was 41, and her fiancé Tim Burton was 49. Given indefinite leave from the set of Terminator Salvation in New Mexico after her relatives were on a South African safari holiday on Wednesday, 20 August, 2008, when the minibus they were travelling in spun out of control and flipped after a tyre burst. Helena's cousin, Fiona Bonham Carter, 51, escaped with a broken shoulder but Fiona's son Marcus Egerton-Warburton, 14; mother Brenda, 74; stepfather Francis Kirkwood, 75; and sister-in-law Kay Boardman, 54, all died. She based her performance of Marla Singer in Fight Club (1999) on Judy Garland in the later stages of her life. To help her get into the mindset, director David Fincher would often call her Judy on-set. Describes her character in the Harry Potter films, Bellatrix Lestrange, as a sadist and a racist, obsessed with blood purity. Underwent extensive vocal lessons and studied baking in preparation for her role in Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007). Returned to work five months after giving birth to her daughter Nell in order to begin filming Terminator Salvation (2009). Became romantically involved with her director Tim Burton after their Planet of the Apes (2001) wrapped. Instead of moving in with her in her Hampstead home in London, Burton bought two next-door houses which the couple both share today (2010).