My Favorite Female Actors
by maandr | created - 19 Feb 2014 | updated - 16 Aug 2016 | Public
1. Cate Blanchett
Actress | Carol
Cate Blanchett was born on May 14, 1969 in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, to June (Gamble), an Australian teacher and property developer, and Robert DeWitt Blanchett, Jr., an American advertising executive, originally from Texas. She has an older brother and a younger sister. When she was ten ...
Seen: Blue Jasmin 10/10 I'm Not There. 10/10 The Aviator 9/10 The Lord of the Rings 9/10 The Talented Mr. Ripley 9/10 Carol 9/10 The Curious Case of Benjamin Button 9/10 The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou 8/10 The Good German 8/10 Babel 8/10 Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull 7/10
2. Kate Winslet
Actress | Titanic
Ask Kate Winslet what she likes about any of her characters, and the word "ballsy" is bound to pop up at least once. The British actress has made a point of eschewing straightforward pretty-girl parts in favor of more devilish damsels; as a result, she's built an eclectic resume that runs the gamut...
Seen: Revolutionary Road 10/10 Carnage 9/10 The Reader 9/10 Steve Jobs 8/10 Finding Neverland 8/10 Titanic 8/10 Das Leben des David Gale 8/10
3. Jodie Foster
Actress | The Silence of the Lambs
Jodie Foster started her career at the age of two. For four years she made commercials and finally gave her debut as an actress in the TV series Mayberry R.F.D. (1968). In 1975 Jodie was offered the role of prostitute Iris Steensma in the movie Taxi Driver (1976). This role, for which she received ...
Seen: The Silence of the Lambs 9/10 Taxi Driver 9/10 Contact 9/10 Carnage 9/10 Panic Room 8/10 Inside Man 8/10
4. Rooney Mara
Actress | The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Actress and philanthropist Rooney Mara was born on April 17, 1985 in Bedford, New York. She made her screen debut in the slasher film Urban Legends: Bloody Mary (2005), went on to have a supporting role in the independent coming-of-age drama Tanner Hall (2009), and has since starred in the horror ...
Seen: The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo 10/10 Carol 9/10 The Social Network 8/10 Her 8/10
5. Julianne Moore
Actress | Far from Heaven
Julianne Moore was born Julie Anne Smith in Fort Bragg, North Carolina on December 3, 1960, the daughter of Anne (Love), a social worker, and Peter Moore Smith, a paratrooper, colonel, and later military judge. Her mother moved to the U.S. in 1951, from Greenock, Scotland. Her father, from ...
Seen: Boogy Nights 9/10 Map to the Stars 8/10 A Single Man 8/10 The Big Lebowski 8/10 Hannibal 8/10 Don Jon 7/10 Crazy Stupid Love 7/10
6. Meryl Streep
Actress | Out of Africa
Considered by many critics to be the greatest living actress, Meryl Streep has been nominated for the Academy Award an astonishing 21 times, and has won it three times. Meryl was born Mary Louise Streep in 1949 in Summit, New Jersey, to Mary Wolf (Wilkinson), a commercial artist, and Harry William ...
Seen: Kramer vs. Kramer 9/10 The Deer Hunter 8/10
7. Helena Bonham Carter
Actress | Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
Helena Bonham Carter is an actress of great versatility, one of the UK's finest and most successful.
Bonham Carter was born May 26, 1966 in Golders Green, London, England, the youngest of three children of Elena (née Propper de Callejón), a psychotherapist, and Raymond Bonham Carter, a merchant ...
Seen: Fight Club 9/10 The King's Speech 9/10 Alice in Wonderland 8/10 Harry Potter 8/10
8. Ellen Burstyn
Actress | Requiem for a Dream
Ellen Burstyn was born in Detroit, Michigan, to Correine Marie (Hamel) and John Austin Gillooly. She is of Irish, French/French-Canadian, Pennsylvania Dutch (German), and Native American ancestry.. She worked a number of jobs before she became an actress. At 14, she was a short-order cook at a ...
Seen: Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore 9/10 Requiem for a Dream 9/10 The Exorcist 9/10 Interstellar 8/10
9. Nicole Kidman
Actress | Moulin Rouge!
Elegant Nicole Kidman, known as one of Hollywood's top Australian imports, was actually born in Honolulu, Hawaii, while her Australian parents were there on educational visas.
Kidman is the daughter of Janelle Ann (Glenny), a nursing instructor, and Antony David Kidman, a biochemist and clinical ...
Seen: Eyes Wide Shut 8/10 The Others 8/10 Stoker 8/10
10. Kirsten Dunst
Actress | Spider-Man
Kirsten Caroline Dunst is an American actress, who also holds German citizenship. She was born on April 30, 1982 in Point Pleasant, New Jersey, to parents Inez (née Rupprecht), who owned an art gallery, and Klaus Dunst, a medical services executive. She has a younger brother named Christian Dunst, ...
Seen: Fargo 9/10 Melancholia 9/10 The Two Faces of January 8/10 The Vampire Cronicals 8/10 Spider-Man 8/10 Small Soldiers 7/10
11. Emma Stone
Actress | La La Land
Emily Jean "Emma" Stone was born on November 6, 1988 in Scottsdale, Arizona to Krista Jean Stone (née Yeager), a homemaker & Jeffrey Charles "Jeff" Stone, a contracting company founder and CEO. She is of Swedish, German & British Isles descent. Stone began acting as a child as a member of the ...
Seen: Birdman 9/10 The Help 8/10 Easy A 8/10 Crazy Stupid Love 7/10 Superbad 7/10 Zombieland 7/10 Ghosts of Girlfriends Past 7/10 The Rocker 7/10
12. Marion Cotillard
Actress | La Môme
Academy Award-winning actress Marion Cotillard was born on September 30, 1975 in Paris. Cotillard is the daughter of Jean-Claude Cotillard, an actor, playwright and director, and Niseema Theillaud, an actress and drama teacher. Her father's family is from Brittany.
Raised in Orléans, France, she ...
Seen: Midnight in Paris 8/10 Inception 8/10 The Social Network 8/10 Big Fish 7/10 The Dark Knight Rises 7/10
13. Emily Mortimer
Actress | Mary Poppins Returns
British actress Emily Kathleen Anne Mortimer was born in Hammersmith, London, England, to writer and barrister Sir John Mortimer and his second wife, Penelope (née Gollop). She was educated at St Paul's Girls' School in West London, and it was whilst there she began acting. Mortimer moved on from ...
Seen: Shutter Istland 9/10 Match Point 9/10 City Island 8/10 Hugo Cabret 8/10
14. Scarlett Johansson
Actress | Lost in Translation
Scarlett Ingrid Johansson was born on November 22, 1984 in Manhattan, New York City, New York. Her mother, Melanie Sloan is from a Jewish family from the Bronx and her father, Karsten Johansson is a Danish-born architect from Copenhagen. She has a sister, Vanessa Johansson, who is also an actress, ...
Seen: Lost in Translation 9/10 Match Point 8/10 Vicky Cristina Barcelona 8/10 The Prestige 8/10 We Bought a Zoo 7/10 Hitchcock 7/10 Don Jon 7/10
15. Carey Mulligan
Actress | Never Let Me Go
Carey Hannah Mulligan is a British actress. She was born May 28, 1985, in Westminster, London, England, to Nano (Booth), a university lecturer, and Stephen Mulligan, a hotel manager. Her mother is from Llandeilo, Wales, and Carey also has Irish and English ancestry.
Her first major appearance was ...
Seen: The Great Gatsby 8/10 Inside Llewyn Davis 8/10 Drive 8/10
16. Emma Watson
Actress | The Perks of Being a Wallflower
Emma Charlotte Duerre Watson was born in Paris, France, to British parents, Jacqueline Luesby and Chris Watson, both lawyers. She moved to Oxfordshire when she was five, where she attended the Dragon School. From the age of six, Emma knew that she wanted to be an actress and, for a number of years,...
Seen: Harry Potter 9/10 The Perks of Being a Wallflower 8/10 This Is the End 7/10
17. Jennifer Connelly
Actress | A Beautiful Mind
Jennifer Connelly was born in the Catskill Mountains, New York, to Ilene (Schuman), a dealer of antiques, and Gerard Connelly, a clothing manufacturer. Her father had Irish and Norwegian ancestry, and her mother was from a Jewish immigrant family. Jennifer grew up in Brooklyn Heights, just across ...
Seen: Aloft 8/10 Once Upon a Time in America 8/10 Requiem for a Dream 8/10 A Beautiful Mind 8/10 Blood Diamond 8/10 The Day the Earth Stood Still 6/10
18. Mélanie Laurent
Actress | Inglourious Basterds
Mélanie Laurent was born in Paris, France. She is the daughter of Annick, a ballet teacher, and Pierre, a voice actor, who is most recognized for the French version of The Simpsons (1989). She has a younger brother, Mathieu, and has both Sephardi Jewish (from Tunisia) and Ashkenazi Jewish (from ...
Seen: Inglourious Basterds 8/10 Aloft 8/10 Now You See Me 7/10
19. Michelle Williams
Actress | Blue Valentine
A small-town girl born and raised in rural Kalispell, Montana, Michelle Ingrid Williams is the daughter of Carla Ingrid (Swenson), a homemaker, and Larry Richard Williams, a commodity trader and author. Her ancestry is Norwegian, as well as German, British Isles, and other Scandinavian. She was ...
Seen: My Week With Marylin 9/10 Take This Waltz 8/10 Shutter Island 8/10 Imaginary Heroes 8/10
20. Sigourney Weaver
Actress | Alien Resurrection
Sigourney Weaver has created a host of memorable characters, both dramatic and comic, ranging from Ripley in Alien to Dian Fossey in Gorillas in the Mist to Gwen/Tawny in Galaxy Quest and most recently, 14-year-old Kiri in Avatar: The Way of Water. With a career spanning over 50 years, Weaver has ...
Seen: Alien 9/10 Imaginary Heroes 8/10 The Village 7/10 Avatar 7/10
21. Felicity Jones
Actress | Rogue One
Felicity Rose Hadley Jones is an English actress and producer. Jones started her professional acting career as a child, appearing at age 12 in The Treasure Seekers (1996). She went on to play Ethel Hallow for one series in the television show The Worst Witch and its sequel Weirdsister College. ...
Seen: Theory of Everything 9/10
22. Alicia Vikander
Actress | Ex Machina
Alicia Vikander is a Swedish actress, dancer and producer. She was born and raised in Gothenburg, Västra Götalands län, Sweden, to Maria Fahl, an actress of stage and screen, and Svante Vikander, a psychiatrist. Through her mother, she is one quarter Finnish, and had a maternal great aunt who moved...
Seen: The Danish Girl 9/10
23. Vera Farmiga
Actress | Up in the Air
Vera Farmiga is an American actress who has received an Academy Award nomination for her role in Up in the Air (2009) and Primetime Emmy Award nominations for her roles in Bates Motel (2013) and When They See Us (2019).
She was born Vera Ann Farmiga, the second of seven children, on August 6, 1973, ...
Seen: The Departed 8/10 Up in the Air 8/10
24. Natalie Portman
Actress | Black Swan
Natalie Portman is the first person born in the 1980s to have won the Academy Award for Best Actress (for Black Swan (2010)).
Natalie was born Natalie Hershlag on June 9, 1981, in Jerusalem, Israel. She is the only child of Avner Hershlag, an Israeli-born doctor, and Shelley Stevens, an ...
Seen: Léon 8/10 V for Vendetta 8/10 Thor: The Dark World 7/10
25. Penélope Cruz
Actress | Vicky Cristina Barcelona
Known outside her native country as the "Spanish enchantress," Penélope Cruz Sánchez was born in Madrid to Eduardo Cruz, a retailer, and Encarna Sánchez, a hairdresser. As a toddler, she was already a compulsive performer, re-enacting TV commercials for her family's amusement, but she decided to ...
Seen: Vicky Christina Barcelona 8/10 Blow 8/10
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