Anne Jacqueline Hathaway is an American actress. She made her acting debut in the 1999 television series Get Real, but her first prominent role was in Disney's family comedy The Princess Diaries starring opposite Julie Andrews, which established her career.
She continued to appear in family films over the next three years, with lead roles in Ella Enchanted and The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement in 2004. Hathaway would later venture away from the "G-rated" image her early acting career bestowed upon her, starring in the adult-themed films Havoc and Brokeback Mountain. She later starred in The Devil Wears Prada opposite Meryl Streep, Becoming Jane, in which she portrays Jane Austen, and Get Smart opposite Steve Carell.
Her acting style has been compared to that of Judy Garland and Audrey Hepburn and she cites Hepburn as her favorite actress and Streep as her idol.People magazine named her one of 2001's breakthrough stars and in 2006 she was listed as one of the world’s 50 Most Beautiful People.
Hathaway was born in Brooklyn, New York, and moved to Millburn, New Jersey, when she was six years old. She is the daughter of Gerald Hathaway, a lawyer, and Kate McCauley, an actress who inspired Hathaway to follow in her footsteps.[8] She was named after the wife of playwright William Shakespeare. She has an older brother, Michael, and a younger brother, Thomas. Hathaway has mainly Irish and French ancestry, with more distant German and Native American roots.
Hathaway was raised a Catholic with what she considered "really strong values," and has stated she wanted to be a nun during her childhood.However, at the age of fifteen she decided not to become a nun after learning that her brother Michael was gay.Despite her Catholic upbringing, she felt that she could not be part of a religion that disapproved of her brother's sexual orientation. She has stated that she is a non-denominational Christian.
A very intelligent child, she was involved in a Montessori program as a preschooler and was then able to enter first grade when she was technically still a kindergartner.Hathaway graduated from Millburn High School where she participated in many school plays. She performed in plays such as Jane Eyre and Gigi at New Jersey's Papermill Playhouse. Hathaway's high school performance as Winifred in "Once Upon a Mattress" garnered her a New Jersey Rising Star Award nomination from the community theatre for best performance by a high school actress She spent several semesters studying as an English major and women's studies minor at Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, New York before transferring to New York University's Gallatin School of Individualized Study.She referred to her college enrollment as one of her best decisions because she enjoyed being with others who were trying to "grow up."Hathaway was a member of the Barrow Group Theater Company's acting program and was the first teenager ever admitted into the program.She is a trained stage actress and has stated that she prefers appearing on stage to film roles.