Anne Hathaway broke through in the 2001 Disney comedy The Princess Diaries (with Julie Andrews and Mandy Moore), as an awkward American teen who learns she's really a princess. The movie was a box office success and Hathaway was suddenly a rising star: tall, dark-haired, with a screen persona that mixed naivete with determination. She then co-starred in 2002's Nicholas Nickleby (based on the novel by Charles Dickens), and was cast as the lead in 2004's Ella Enchanted, in which she sang a duet with pop star Jesse McCartney. She also starred in a 2004 sequel to her original hit, The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement. In a conscious move to break away from her position as a star for young audiences, Hathaway took on darker, edgier roles in 2005, appearing in Barbara Kopple's Havoc (with Channing Tatum) and Ang Lee's Brokeback Mountain (as Jake Gyllenhaal's long-suffering wife). Her other roles include a star turn opposite Meryl Streep in the comedy The Devil Wears Prada (2006), as author Jane Austen in the mostly-made-up biopic Becoming Jane (2007), in an Oscar-nominated performance as the lead in Rachel Getting Married (2008) and as the White Queen in Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland (2010).

Extra credit: Hathaway also starred as Meghan Green in the short-lived Fox TV family drama Get Real (1999)... Anne Hathaway was also the name of William Shakespeare's wife.