Elizabeth Banks

Elizabeth Banks has built a screen career around range: sharp comedy, blockbuster spectacle, horror and character drama, followed by an increasingly substantial body of work behind the camera. Born Elizabeth Mitchell in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, in 1974, she found acting after breaking her leg during a Little League game and trying out for a school play. She later studied communications and theater arts at the University of Pennsylvania before earning an MFA from the American Conservatory Theater. She adopted the name Banks because Elizabeth Mitchell was already registered with the Screen Actors Guild. After making her film debut in the 1998 independent feature Surrender Dorothy, Banks appeared in Wet Hot American Summer, Seabiscuit and Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man trilogy, playing Betty Brant. The 40-Year-Old Virgin brought her wider exposure and made especially good use of the directness and comic confidence that would become central to many of her performances. She also took recurring television roles in Scrubs and 30 Rock, earning a Primetime Emmy nomination for her work on the latter. Her film roles have rarely stayed in one lane. Banks played Laura Bush in Oliver Stone’s W., the unnerving stepmother Rachel in The Uninvited and Effie Trinket across all four Hunger Games films. She voiced Wyldstyle in The Lego Movie and its sequel, while Love & Mercy gave her a more grounded dramatic role as Melinda Ledbetter Wilson. Banks has also shaped projects as a producer and director. She co-founded Brownstone Productions in 2002, produced and appeared in Pitch Perfect, and made her feature directorial debut with Pitch Perfect 2. She later directed, produced, wrote and starred in Charlie’s Angels, then directed and produced the comedy horror film Cocaine Bear. Since 2019, she has also hosted and executive produced the ABC revival of Press Your Luck. Whether acting, directing or producing, Banks has made versatility the defining feature of her career.