Anna Paquin

Born Anna Helene Paquin in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada on July 24th, 1982, Anna was the third and youngest child to parents Brian and Mary Paquin. 

Source: http://annapaquin.net/anna/

At the young age of 4, Anna’s family moved to Lower Hutt, New Zealand. Having only played a skunk in a school play at 7, she tagged along with her sister, Katya to an open casting call for The Piano in New Zealand and won the role of Flora McGrath at 9. The role would earn her Golden Globe, LAFCA and Academy Award nominations for Best Supporting Actress. On March 21st, 1994 at the age of 11, she surprised the world (and herself) when she became the second youngest winner of an Academy Award. Unsure about a career in film, besides a commercial filmed for MCI, Anna would not be on screen again until 1996 when she played Young Jane Eyre in Franco Zeffirelli’s version of Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre, and starred in the family drama Fly Away Home as Amy Alden. Anna’s parents divorced during the filming of Fly Away Home, which Anna has referred to as the unhappiest moment of her life. The next year, she had a minor role in Amistad as Queen Isabella II of Spain and cut off her hair for the role of Frankie in the TV movie The Member of The Wedding.

At 15, Anna moved to Los Angeles with her mother to further pursue a career in acting. That same year, she would take her first adult role as Donna in the film adaptation of Hurlyburly with Sean Penn and Kevin Spacey. She then went on to play roles in the acclaimed A Walk On The Moon, the independent film All The Rage (also referred to as It’s The Rage), and the teen comedy She’s All That in 1999. She also voiced Sheeta in Disney’s English dub of Castle in The Sky, which would not see DVD release until 2003. While finishing her last year of high school at Windward School in Los Angeles, she starred in Almost Famous, Finding Forrester and X-Men. Aside from her Oscar-winning role in The Piano, X-Men became the role Anna would be most known for around the world starring as the film adaptation of beloved comic character Rogue. After graduating in 2000, she moved to New York City to begin college at Columbia University. She completed a year and is currently deferred.

Next, she co-starred with Joaquin Phoenix in the indie Buffalo Soldiers in 2001. The film premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival just three days before the tragic events of 9/11 which delayed release of the film in the United States until 2003. She also filmed Darkness that year which was slowly released around the world between 2002 and 2004. Towards the end of 2001, Anna would make her New York stage debut as Lisa in the off-Broadway play The Glory of Living directed by Philip Seymour Hoffman, which earned her a nomination for Best Actress at the Drama Desk Awards. She has referred to Hoffman as one of the Gods of her universe for “beating into submission every last little bad habit I had as an actor”. A few months later in 2002, she would make her second appearance on stage, only this time in London where she starred with Jake Gyllenhaal and Hayden Christensen in Kenneth Lonergan’s This Is Our Youth as Jessica. After returning to New York to take a short break before going to shoot X2 in Vancouver, Anna was offered the role of Mary D’Annunzio in Spike Lee’s 25th Hour. She jumped at the chance to work with Spike Lee and even pierced her navel for the role. In 2003, Anna returned to the big screen reprising Rogue in X-Men’s sequel X2: X-Men United.

In 2004, she returned to the off-Broadway stage not once but twice, first starring in Roulette and shortly after that The Distance From Here. That same year, she voiced the male character James Ray Steam in the English dub of Steamboy and participated in the 24 Hour Plays on Broadway. Next up was After Ashley in 2005 where she starred opposite Kieran Culkin as Julie Bell. The independent film The Squid and The Whale, that was filmed in the summer of 2004 also saw limited release in New York and Los Angeles in 2005. She filmed her starring role in Kenneth Lonergan’s Margaret during her break from filming the third X-Men later that year. Lonergan wrote the main role of Lisa Cohen in Margaret with Anna in mind to play the role. The film finished shooting in late 2005 and was supposed to be released in fall 2006, but was pushed back to 2007, and again to 2008. Margaret finally saw a very limited release in Los Angeles and New York on September 30th, 2011 and in the UK on December 2nd, 2011. It returned to New York again in late December to sold out showings, and has since seen re-releases in other cities across the globe. Anna’s role in Margaret lead her to tie with Meryl Streep for Actress Of The Year at the London Critics Awards.

Along with the release of X-Men The Last Stand in 2006, Anna decided to give producing a shot. She formed the production company, Paquin Films, with her brother, Andrew. The company’s first film is Blue State, a comedy starring Breckin Meyer and Anna, was filmed in Winnipeg in April 2006. The film made it’s premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival in April 2007, and hit other film festivals through 2007 as well before skipping a theatrical release and hitting DVD in February 2008. In October 2006, Anna participated in the 24 Hour Plays on Broadway again alongside Kieran Culkin, Gaby Hoffmann and others. In late 2006, Anna completed the HBO film Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee in the role of Elaine Goodale Eastman with Aidan Quinn and Adam Beach, the film made it’s premiere on HBO in May 2007. The role would lead to a Golden Globe, SAG and Emmy nomination. She also finished Trick ‘R Treat in late 2006 as Laurie with Brian Cox and Dylan Baker, the film was originally set for release October 5th, 2007, and after a push back to an undetermined date in 2008, Warner Brothers decided to drop distribution of the film in April 2008. In June 2009, it was announced that the film would finally get a release on DVD in October 2009 and also have very limited theatre runs at film festivals.

In late February 2007, it was announced that Anna will make her debut into television series starring as Sookie Stackhouse in HBO’s “True Blood”. Anna fought for the role of Sookie despite being the least obvious casting choice as a naturally pale brunette, or in her words, “the palest brunette on the planet.” The pilot filmed in June 2007 and HBO picked up the series in August 2007. Filming began for the series in late September but was halted in November after the WGA strike began, it resumed in March 2008 when the WGA strike ended in February, the first season completed filming in July 2008. “True Blood” premiered on HBO September 7th, 2008. After the second episode aired, HBO announced that it had picked up the show for a second season. The show is currently in production for it’s 5th season and is returning to HBO in June 2012.

Awards season 2008 saw Anna being nominated for Best Actress In A Drama Series at the International Press Academy’s Satellite Awards and the Hollywood Foreign Press Association’s Golden Globe Awards for her role as Sookie Stackhouse. She went on to win both awards. Her Golden Globe win marked her first major award win in 15 years. In October 2008, it was announced that Anna would be playing the late Nobel Prize nominee and Holocaust heroine, Irene Sendler, in Miss Irena’s Children. The film was shot from November-December 2008 and was the first US film to shoot in Riga, Latvia. It debuted on CBS on April 27th, 2009 and is currently available on DVD. The role earned her a Golden Globe nomination.

During the hiatus between the second and third seasons of True Blood, Anna appeared in the film, “Open House” in the small role of Jennie. The film marks her brother’s writing and directorial debut. The film will see a 2010 release and a world premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival. In November 2009, Anna filmed The Romantics in Long Island, New York. Anna plays a lead role as Lila. The film is about eight friends who gather for a wedding, and also stars Josh Duhamel, Katie Holmes, Malin Akerman, Elijah Wood, Dianna Agron, Candice Bergen and Adam Brody. Despite it wrapping in December 2009, the film will be making it’s world debut at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival and will be screening out of competition. The film received a limited theatrical release in September 2010 and it’s DVD release in February 2011.

During True Blood’s hiatus between it’s third and fourth seasons, Anna married her True Blood co-star, Stephen Moyer on August 21st, 2010. She also filmed a cameo role in Scream 4 along with Kristen Bell. Scream 4 was released on April 15th, 2011. The year would also mark her first short film, The Carrier, co-starring with Chad Michael Murray, Diane Farr and Rita Wilson. During the hiatus between the fourth and fifth season, she filmed Straight A’s with Ryan Phillippe and Luke Wilson. The film is currently set for a 2012 release. 2011 also saw the formation of a new production company with Stephen Moyer called SCAMP. SCAMP’s first film production was Free Ride, which Anna also starred in. The film is currently in the post-production.
Despite the fifth season of True Blood still being in production, it was announced in February 2012 that Anna would be joining Tom Hiddleston and Elijah Wood for the adaptation of the noir novel, Black Wings Has My Angel by Elliott Chaze.