My favorite actresses

1. Katharine Hepburn

Katharine Houghton Hepburn was born on May 12, 1907 in Hartford, Connecticut to a suffragist, Katharine Martha (Houghton), and a doctor, Thomas Norval Hepburn, who both always encouraged her to speak her mind, develop it fully, and exercise her body to its full potential. An athletic tomboy as a ...

2. Isabelle Huppert

Actress | Elle

Isabelle Huppert was born March 16, 1953, in Paris, France, but spent her childhood in Ville d'Avray. Encouraged by her mother Annick Huppert (who was a teacher of English), she followed the Conservatory of Versailles and won an acting prize for her work in Alfred de Musset's "Un caprice". She then...

3. Carrie Coon

Actress | Gone Girl

Originally from Copley, OH, Carrie Coon is a Chicago-based theatre, television and film actress. She received a BA in English and Spanish from the University of Mount Union, followed by her MFA in Acting at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Coon was nominated for a Tony Award in the Best ...

4. Julia Louis-Dreyfus

Actress | Seinfeld

Julia Louis-Dreyfus was born on January 13, 1961, in the New York City borough of Manhattan, to Judith (LeFever), a special needs tutor and author, and Gérard Louis-Dreyfus, a billionaire businessman. Her parents divorced when she was young, and she spent her childhood in Washington, D.C., and New ...

5. Keri Russell

Actress | Mission: Impossible III

Most recently, Keri can be seen starring in "The Diplomat" for Netflix in which Keri plays the titular role of an American Diplomat in London. She also stars in an episode of the limited anthology series "Extrapolations" created by Scott Burns. She also recently starred in "Cocaine Bear" for ...

6. Frances McDormand

Actress | Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

Frances Louise McDormand was born on June 23, 1957, in Gibson City, Illinois. She was adopted by Canadian-born parents Noreen Eloise (Nickleson), a nurse from Ontario, and Rev. Vernon Weir McDormand, a Disciples of Christ minister from Nova Scotia, who raised her in the suburbs of Pittsburgh. She ...

7. Gillian Anderson

Actress | The X Files

Gillian Anderson was born in Chicago, Illinois, to Rosemary Alyce (Lane), a computer analyst, and Homer Edward Anderson III, who owned a film post-production company. Gillian started her career as a member of an amateur actor group while at high school. In 1987, her love of the theatre took her to ...

8. Julianna Margulies

Actress | ER

Julianna Margulies was born on June 8, 1966 in Spring Valley (near New York City), as the youngest of three daughters of Francesca (Goldberg), a teacher and dancer in American Ballet, and Paul Margulies, an advertising writer and philosopher. She is of Ashkenazi Jewish heritage (from Romania, ...

9. Christine Baranski

Actress | Mamma Mia!

Christine Baranski is an American actress from Buffalo, New York. She has had a relatively lengthy career in both film and television. She has been nominated for 15 Emmy Awards, winning once. One of her most popular roles was that of neuroscientist Dr. Beverly Hofstadter in the sitcom " The Big ...

10. Paige Turco

Actress | Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze

Paige Turco was born in Boston, Massachusetts on May 17, 1965. When she was a year old her father passed away and her mother moved them to Springfield, Massachusetts. As a child she studied to become a ballerina. She performed as a soloist with the New England Dance Conservatory, The Amherst Ballet...

11. Grace Park

Actress | Battlestar Galactica

Grace Park (born March 14, 1974) is an American-Canadian actress. She gained recognition as Lt. Sharon 'Boomer' Valerii and Lt. Sharon 'Athena' Agathon on Battlestar Galactica (2004), as well as Shannon Ng in the Canadian television series teen soap Edgemont (2000). From 2010 to 2017, Park starred ...

12. Olivia Colman

Actress | The Favourite

Olivia Colman was born on January 30, 1974 in Norwich, Norfolk, England, UK. She is an actress and producer, known for The Favourite (2018), Tyrannosaur (2011) and The Lost Daughter (2021). She has been married to Ed Sinclair since August 2001. They have three children.

13. Eva Green

Actress | Casino Royale

French actress and model Eva Gaëlle Green was born on July 6, 1980, in Paris, France. Her father, Walter Green, is a dentist who appeared in the 1966 film Au hasard Balthazar (1966). Her mother, Marlène Jobert, is an actress turned children's book writer. Eva's mother was born in Algeria, of French...

14. Gina Rodriguez

Actress | Deepwater Horizon

Named the "next big thing" and one of the "top 35 Latinos under 35," by The Hollywood Reporter, Gina Rodriguez's profile has been rising steadily since her breakout performance as the titular character in FILLY BROWN during the Sundance Film Festival in 2012.

Gina Rodriguez was born in Chicago, ...

15. 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 ...

16. Jurnee Smollett

Actress | The Burial

Jurnee Smollett is an award-winning actress and activist of rare talent and conviction. In the fall of 2020, she starred in J.J. Abrams, Jordan Peele and Misha Green's critically acclaimed drama for HBO, "Lovecraft Country." Smollett's performance was lauded by industry insiders and critics alike. ...

17. Laura Dern

Actress | Jurassic Park

Laura Dern was born on February 10, 1967 in Los Angeles, the daughter of actors Bruce Dern and Diane Ladd. Dern was exposed to movie sets and the movie industry from infancy, and obtained several bit parts as a child. Her parents divorced when Dern was two and Dern lost contact with her father for ...

18. Michaela Coel

Actress | Chewing Gum

Michaela was born on October 1st 1987 as Michaela Boakye-Collinson to Ghanaian parents and brought up in Tower Hamlets by her mother, a devout member of the Pentecostal church who instilled her religion into Michaela and her sister - something that she would later draw on for her play 'Chewing Gum ...

19. Téa Leoni

Actress | The Family Man

Elizabeth Téa Pantaleoni was born on February 25, 1966 in New York City. Her father, Anthony Pantaleoni, was a corporate lawyer, and her mother, Emily Ann (Patterson), worked as a dietitian and nutritionist. She is of Italian (from a paternal great-great-grandfather), Polish, English, Irish, ...

20. Kiernan Shipka

Actress | Carriers

Kiernan Brennan Shipka is an American actress. She is known for playing Sally Draper on the AMC series Mad Men (2007), B. D. Hyman in the FX anthology series Feud (2017), and voicing Jinora in the Avatar: The Last Airbender (2005) spin-off, The Legend of Korra (2012). She stars as Sabrina Spellman ...

21. Julia Roberts

Actress | Pretty Woman

Julia Fiona Roberts never dreamed she would become the most popular actress in America. She was born in Smyrna, Georgia, to Betty Lou (Bredemus) and Walter Grady Roberts, one-time actors and playwrights, and is of English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh, German, and Swedish descent. As a child, due to her ...

22. Regina King

Actress | Ray

Regina King was born in Los Angeles, California, to Gloria, a special education teacher, and Thomas King, an electrician. She began her career in the television show 227 (1985), followed by a role in Boyz n the Hood (1991). She began to be recognized by a mainstream audience after her role as Cuba ...

23. Elisabeth Moss

Actress | The Invisible Man

Elisabeth Moss is an American actress. She is best known for the AMC series Mad Men (2007), Hulu series The Handmaid's Tale (2017) and the films The One I Love (2014) and The Invisible Man (2020).

Initially, Moss had aspirations of becoming a professional dancer. In her adolescence, she traveled to ...

24. Renée Elise Goldsberry

Actress | Hamilton

Renee Goldsberry was born in San Jose, California, and raised in both Houston, Texas, and Detroit, Michigan. She graduated from Carnegie-Mellon University with a bachelors degree in acting, and went on to attend graduate school at the University of Southern California, where she received her ...

25. 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 ...

26. Sonja Sohn

Actress | Slam

Sonja Sohn was born on May 9, 1964 in Fort Benning, Georgia, USA. She is an actress and director, known for Slam (1998), The Wire (2002) and Baltimore Rising (2017). She was previously married to Adam Plack.

27. Bae Doona

Actress | Cloud Atlas

Doona Bae was born in Seoul, South Korea. Her mother, Hwa-Young Kim, is a stage actress. Bae started out as a model. She soon moved to T.V. and movies, and it proved the right move. Her first movie was The Ring Virus (1999). Barking Dogs Never Bite (2000) (aka "Barking Dogs Never Bite") and Take ...

28. Tilda Swinton

Actress | We Need to Talk About Kevin

The iconoclastic gifts of the highly striking and ferociously talented actress Tilda Swinton have been appreciated by art house crowds and international audiences alike. After her stunning Oscar-winning turn as a high-powered corporate attorney in the George Clooney starring and critically-lauded ...

29. Lucy Liu

Actress | Kill Bill: Vol. 1

Born to immigrants in New York City, Lucy Liu has always tried to balance an interest in her cultural heritage with a desire to move beyond a strictly Asian-American experience. Her mother, Cecilia, a biochemist, is from Beijing & her father, Tom Liu, a civil engineer, is from Shanghai. Once ...

30. Sidse Babett Knudsen

Actress | Borgen

Sidse Babett Knudsen is a Danish actress who works in theatre, television, and film. Knudsen made her screen debut in the 1997 improvisational comedy Let's Get Lost, for which she received both the Robert and Bodil awards for Best Actress.

Following the critical success of her debut, Knudsen has ...

31. Kathryn Hahn

Actress | Afternoon Delight

Kathryn Marie Hahn is an American actress and comedian. She became a worldwide phenomenon when she starred as Agatha Harkness in the Marvel Cinematic Universe miniseries WandaVision (2021) for which she received critical acclaim and a nomination for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding ...

32. Constance Wu

Actress | Crazy Rich Asians

Constance Wu was born and raised in Richmond, Virginia. Her mother is a computer programmer and her father is a college professor. Both are immigrants from Taiwan. Constance grew up in Richmond performing in the local community theater scene. At 16, she moved to New York City to study at the famed ...

33. Tiffany Haddish

Actress | Girls Trip

Tiffany Sara Cornilia Haddish is an American stand-up comedian and actress. She was named one of the 100 most influential people in the world by Time magazine in 2018, and The Hollywood Reporter listed her among the 100 most powerful people in entertainment in both 2018 and 2019.

After ...

34. Phoebe Waller-Bridge

Actress | Solo: A Star Wars Story

Phoebe Mary Waller-Bridge is an English actress, producer, and writer. She created, wrote, and starred in the Channel 4 sitcom Crashing (2016) and the BBC comedy-drama series Fleabag (2016-2019). She was also the show-runner and executive producer for the first series of the BBC America thriller ...

35. Angela Bassett

Actress | Strange Days

Captivating, gifted, and sensational, Angela Bassett's presence has been felt in theaters and on stages and television screens throughout the world. Angela Evelyn Bassett was born on August 16, 1958 in New York City, to Betty Jane (Gilbert), a social worker, and Daniel Benjamin Bassett, a ...

36. Amanda Peet

Actress | 2012

Amanda Peet was born and raised in New York City. She is the daughter of Penny (Levy), a social worker, and Charles Peet, a lawyer, and has an older sister. Her father was of mostly English and German ancestry, and her mother was from a Jewish family (from Germany, Russia, and Hungary). Peet's ...

37. Chloë Sevigny

Actress | We Are Who We Are

Chloë Sevigny is an Academy Award-nominated and Golden Globe-winning actress and director who is known for her groundbreaking work across film, television and theatre. Sevigny has spent her career working with innovative and revolutionary filmmakers and artists including Lars von Trier, Jim ...

38. Greta Gerwig

Writer | Barbie

Greta Gerwig is an American actress, playwright, screenwriter, and director. She has collaborated with Noah Baumbach on several films, including Greenberg (2010), Frances Ha (2012), for which she earned a Golden Globe nomination, and Mistress America (2015). Gerwig made her solo directorial debut ...

39. Mireille Enos

Actress | World War Z

Mireille Enos was born in Houston, Texas, to Monique, a teacher, and Jon Goree Enos. Her Texas-born American father, and French mother, met while her father was serving on a Mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. She is the fourth of five children and grew up in Houston, Texas...

40. Taraji P. Henson

Actress | The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Taraji Penda Henson is an American actress and singer. She studied acting at Howard University and began her Hollywood career in guest roles on several television shows before making her breakthrough in Baby Boy (2001). She played a prostitute in Hustle & Flow (2005), for which she received a ...

41. Olivia Williams

Actress | The Ghost Writer

Olivia began her career on the stage at the RSC and The National Theatre, breaking into TV with the Andrew Davies adaptation of Emma (1996).

From a damp basement in Camden Town she won the role of Abby in the $120 million blockbuster The Postman (1997) starring alongside Kevin Costner. In the ...

42. January Jones

Actress | X: First Class

January Jones was born on January 5, 1978 in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. She is the daughter of Karen Sue (née Cox), a sporting goods store manager, and Marvin Roger Jones, a gym teacher and fitness director. She is of Czech, Danish, English, Welsh, and German ancestry. She was named after the ...

43. Teyonah Parris

Actress | Dear White People

Teyonah Parris was born on September 22, 1987 in Hopkins, South Carolina, USA. She is an actress and producer, known for Dear White People (2014), Chi-Raq (2015) and If Beale Street Could Talk (2018). She is married to James Parris.

44. Allison Janney

Actress | The Help

Allison Janney is an award-winning actress who has earned a solid reputation in stage productions and in many supporting roles on screen, and who more recently has become prominent by portraying one of the major characters in the popular TV series The West Wing (1999).

Entertainment Weekly magazine ...

45. Adina Porter

Actress | American Horror Story

Adina Porter was born and raised in New York City, more specifically, The South Bronx. She is a first generation American; her father was born and spent his youth in Sierra Leone, Africa, while her mother was born in Bermuda. As a young child, Porter entertained her parents by staging plays in the ...

46. Natalie Paul

Actress | The Sinner

Natalie Paul was born on May 12, 1986 in Brooklyn, New York. She is an actress and director, known for The Sinner (2017), The Deuce (2017) and You (2018).

47. Helen Mirren

Actress | The Queen

Dame Helen Mirren was born in Queen Charlotte's Hospital in West London. Her mother, Kathleen Alexandrina Eva Matilda (Rogers), was from a working-class English family, and her father, Vasiliy Petrovich Mironov, was a Russian-born civil servant, from Kuryanovo, whose own father was a diplomat. ...

48. Iman Meskini

Actress | Skam

Iman Meskini was born on March 9, 1997 in Ski, Norway. She is an actress, known for Skam (2015), Pørni (2021) and Christmas on Cobbler Street (2023).

49. Anna Chlumsky

Actress | My Girl

Anna Maria Chlumsky is an American actress. She began her career as a child actress, best known playing the lead role of Vada Sultenfuss in My Girl (1991) and its 1994 sequel. Between 1999 and 2005, Chlumsky's career entered a hiatus while she attended college. She returned to acting with roles in ...

50. Kerry Bishé

Actress | Argo

Kerry Lynne Bishé is a New Zealand-born American actress, known for her lead role as Donna Clark in the AMC television series Halt and Catch Fire (2014). Bishé played the lead/narrator role on the final season of ABC's medical sitcom Scrubs (2001) and starred in the critically acclaimed drama film ...

51. Annette Bening

Actress | American Beauty

Annette Bening was born on May 29, 1958 in Topeka, Kansas, the youngest of four children. Her family moved to California when she was young, and she grew up there. She graduated from San Francisco State University and began her acting career with the American Conservatory Theatre in San Francisco, ...

52. Clea DuVall

Actress | The Faculty

Clea DuVall was born in Los Angeles on September 25, 1977, to Rosemary (Hatch) and actor Steph DuVall. DuVall's teenage years presented her with many challenges. Her parents divorced when she was twelve, and, when her mother remarried, DuVall moved out because she did not feel at home in the ...

53. Diane Lane

Actress | Unfaithful

Diane Lane was born on January 22, 1965, in New York. She is the daughter of acting coach Burton Eugene "Burt" Lane and nightclub singer/centerfold Colleen Farrington. Her parents' families were both from the state of Georgia. Diane was acting from a very young age and made her stage debut at the ...

54. Merle Dandridge

Actress | Half-Life 2

Merle was born in Okinawa, Japan to a mother of Korean and Japanese descent and an African-American father serving in the U.S. Air Force. After graduating high school in Papillion, Nebraska, she attended the Theatre Conservatory at Roosevelt University in Chicago on a full-ride scholarship and ...

55. Michelle Yeoh

Actress | Everything Everywhere All at Once

Michelle Yeoh was born in Ipoh, Malaysia. She's the daughter of Janet Yeoh & Kian Teik Yeoh. She's of Hokkien descent, speaking English and Malay before Chinese. A ballet dancer since 4, she moved to London to study at the Royal Academy as a teen. After a brief dance career, she won the Miss ...

56. Julianne Nicholson

Actress | August: Osage County

Nicholson was born and raised in Medford, Massachusetts (outside Boston), and is the eldest of four siblings. She is the daughter of Kate (Gilday) and James O. Nicholson, Jr., and is of Irish heritage. Nicholson moved to New York which led to a modeling career in Paris. She attended Hunter College ...

57. Bianca Lawson

Actress | Save the Last Dance

Bianca Lawson was born on March 20, 1979 in Los Angeles, California, USA. She is an actress and producer, known for Save the Last Dance (2001), The Feast of All Saints (2001) and Rogue (2013).

58. Dawn-Lyen Gardner

Actress | Queen Sugar

A native of Los Angeles, CA

She began acting in commercials and television at an early age, at the urging of a family friend who was a commercials casting director. She went on to study acting at the prestigious Juilliard School in New York City, where she was awarded the Liz Smith Prize.

Originated ...

59. Rutina Wesley

Actress | True Blood

Rutina Wesley is known for the character Tara Thorton, on the gritty Southern vampire drama, True Blood (2008). She was born in the city most renowned for glitz and glamour, Las Vegas, Nevada and was exposed to the arts at a very early age; in fact entertainment runs through her veins. Her father, ...