Jennifer Lawrence

Jennifer Lawrence is an American actress and producer who became one of the defining Hollywood stars of the 2010s, moving from acclaimed independent films to enormous blockbuster franchises with roles in Winter's Bone, The Hunger Games, X-Men and Silver Linings Playbook. Born Jennifer Shrader Lawrence on August 15, 1990, in Louisville, Kentucky, Lawrence began pursuing acting while still a teenager. After heading to New York in search of opportunities, she appeared in commercials and smaller television roles before joining the cast of The Bill Engvall Show. Her early film work included The Poker House and The Burning Plain, but the role that really changed her career arrived in 2010. Lawrence played Ree Dolly in Winter's Bone, a teenager searching for her missing father while trying to prevent her family from losing their home. The performance earned Lawrence her first Academy Award nomination for Best Actress and announced the arrival of a major new talent. And things were about to get considerably bigger. In 2011, Lawrence joined the X-Men franchise as Raven Darkhölme, better known as Mystique, in X-Men: First Class. She would return to the character in X-Men: Days of Future Past, X-Men: Apocalypse and Dark Phoenix. Then came Katniss Everdeen. Lawrence landed the lead role in the movie adaptation of Suzanne Collins' The Hunger Games, which arrived in cinemas in 2012. Playing Katniss transformed Lawrence from a rising star into one of the most recognisable actresses in the world. She returned for The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, Mockingjay – Part 1, and Mockingjay – Part 2, carrying one of the decade's biggest movie franchises. At practically the same time, Lawrence was building an extraordinary awards career. She starred opposite Bradley Cooper in David O. Russell's Silver Linings Playbook in 2012, playing Tiffany Maxwell. Her performance earned Lawrence the Academy Award for Best Actress at just 22, making her the second-youngest winner. Lawrence reunited with Russell and Cooper for American Hustle, earning another Academy Award nomination, before playing inventor Joy Mangano in Joy, which brought her yet another Best Actress nomination. Not a bad few years at the office. Her career continued with a mixture of blockbusters and more unusual projects, including the science-fiction romance Passengers opposite Chris Pratt, Darren Aronofsky's divisive psychological horror film Mother! and the spy thriller Red Sparrow. After stepping away from acting for a period, Lawrence returned to the screen in Adam McKay's Don't Look Up, starring alongside Leonardo DiCaprio as astronomer Kate Dibiasky. She followed that with the drama Causeway and then showed off her comedy chops in 2023's No Hard Feelings, playing Maddie Barker. Lawrence has also increasingly moved into producing. Her later projects, including Causeway, No Hard Feelings and Die, My Love, have seen her combine on-camera work with producing responsibilities behind the camera. Few actors have risen as rapidly as Jennifer Lawrence. In a few years, she went from an acclaimed performance in a relatively small independent movie to playing Mystique, becoming Katniss Everdeen, and winning an Oscar. That's a hell of a run. But perhaps the most impressive part of Lawrence's career is that she has never let herself be completely defined by any one of those successes. For millions of moviegoers, she'll always be Katniss. For others she's Mystique. And for anyone who watched her collect an Oscar for Silver Linings Playbook, she's also one of the standout actresses of her generation.