Rachel Weisz

From Grokipedia

Rachel Weisz (born 7 March 1970) is an English actress and producer known for her versatile performances across independent cinema, blockbusters, and theatre. She rose to international prominence with her portrayal of Evelyn Carnahan in the action-adventure film The Mummy (1999) and its sequel The Mummy Returns (2001), establishing her as a leading actress in both commercial and critically acclaimed projects.

Born in London to a Hungarian-Jewish mechanical engineer father and an Austrian-Jewish psychoanalyst mother, Weisz grew up in Hampstead and attended Benenden School before studying English literature at Trinity Hall, Cambridge. She began modeling at age 14 and, during her university years, co-founded the theatre company Talking Tongues, which earned the Student Drama Award for her play Slight Possession at the 1991 Edinburgh Festival Fringe. She made her professional stage debut in 1992 and transitioned to television and film in the mid-1990s, appearing in early roles such as in Stealing Beauty (1996) and Chain Reaction (1996).

Weisz's career highlights include critically praised performances in Enemy at the Gates (2001), About a Boy (2002), and The Fountain (2006), but she achieved major recognition for her role as Tessa Quayle in The Constant Gardener (2005), for which she won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress and the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture, and received a nomination for the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role. She received a second Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress for her role as Lady Sarah in The Favourite (2018). On stage, she earned the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actress for portraying Blanche DuBois in a 2009 revival of A Streetcar Named Desire. More recently, Weisz starred in and produced the psychological thriller miniseries Dead Ringers (2023), earning a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress in a Limited Series; in 2025, she is set to reprise her role as Evelyn Carnahan in a new installment of The Mummy franchise.

In brief

Rachel Hannah Weisz (; born 7 March 1970) is a British actress. Known for her roles in independent films and blockbusters, she has received several awards, including an Academy Award, a British Academy Film Award, a Golden Globe Award, a Screen Actors Guild Award, and a Laurence Olivier Award. Weisz began acting in stage and television productions in the early 1990s, and made her film debut in Death Machine (1994).

She won a Critics' Circle Theatre Award for her role in the 1994 revival of Noël Coward's play Design for Living, and went on to appear in the 1999 Donmar Warehouse production of Tennessee Williams' drama Suddenly Last Summer. Her film breakthrough came with her starring role as Evelyn Carnahan in the Hollywood action films The Mummy (1999) and The Mummy Returns (2001). Weisz went on to star in several films of the 2000s, including Enemy at the Gates (2001), About a Boy (2002), Runaway Jury (2003), Constantine (2005), The Fountain (2006), Definitely, Maybe (2008), The Lovely Bones (2009) and The Whistleblower (2010).