Her name is Anne Hathaway. She was born on November 12, 1982, in Brooklyn, New York. She was named after William Shakespeare’s wife.
When she is 6, the family moves to Millburn, New Jersey. Her father is a labor lawyer. Her mother, Kate, is a stage actress.
Then comes the night that changes everything. Around age 8, Anne sits in the audience while her mother plays Fantine in the first national tour of Les Misérables. She is hooked on the stage from that moment.
Her parents are not eager for her to act. She begs to join her mother’s tour as the little girl in the show. They say no.
Not long after, her mother walks away from her own acting career to raise Anne and her 2 brothers.
Anne keeps going anyway. She becomes the first teenager ever accepted into the Barrow Group theater company’s acting program.
As a teen, she sings soprano with an honors choir at Carnegie Hall. Just 3 days after that performance, she is cast in her first TV series.
In 2001, she auditions for a Disney movie during a flight layover. She gets the part. The Princess Diaries earns $165 million worldwide, and at 18, she is suddenly famous.
But she wants serious roles, not just princess parts. For The Devil Wears Prada in 2006, she is reportedly the 9th choice. The film earns more than $326 million.
In 2008, she plays a young woman just out of rehab in Rachel Getting Married. It brings her first Oscar nomination.
Then, in 2012, she is cast as Fantine in the film version of Les Misérables.
On her first day of filming, she wears her mother’s old cast jacket from the tour. Her mother had given it to her when she got the part.
On February 24, 2013, at age 30, Anne Hathaway wins the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for the same role her mother once played on stage.
Here’s what makes it hard: the moment she reaches the top, the internet turns on her. Critics call her acceptance speeches annoying and awkward. She later admits that public speaking makes her anxious.
She does not quit. She grows. She keeps auditioning, even as a star, assuming every film could be her last.
In 2026, she returns as Andy Sachs in The Devil Wears Prada 2 and plays Queen Penelope in Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey. Both become 2 of the year’s biggest hits.
Today, her films have earned more than $6.8 billion worldwide.
A mother gave up her stage so her children could have a home. Her daughter carried that dream all the way to the Oscars.
Sometimes the dreams we set down are not lost. They are passed on.