Reese Witherspoon

Laura Jeanne Reese Witherspoon, born March 22, 1976, in New Orleans, has built a screen career around drive, precision and a keen understanding of comedy. Those qualities were visible early. After appearing in television commercials as a child and taking acting lessons, she landed the lead role of Dani Trant in The Man in the Moon through an open casting call in 1991. Her 1990s work quickly showed a willingness to move between tones. Freeway gave her the hard-edged role of Vanessa Lutz, while Pleasantville cast her as the image-conscious Jennifer. Then came Election, where her tightly wound, relentlessly ambitious Tracy Flick earned Witherspoon her first Golden Globe and Independent Spirit Award nominations, as well as Best Actress honors from the National Society of Film Critics and the Online Film Critics Society. Legally Blonde turned that comic control into broad recognition. As Elle Woods, Witherspoon played optimism and determination without treating either as a joke, helping make the 2001 comedy a career turning point. Sweet Home Alabama and Legally Blonde 2 followed, but Walk the Line revealed another side of her range. Playing June Carter Cash, Witherspoon performed her own vocals after six months of singing preparation and won Best Actress at the Academy Awards, Golden Globes, BAFTAs and Screen Actors Guild Awards. Her career has not followed a simple upward line. After a period she described as creatively unfocused, Witherspoon returned to more demanding dramatic territory with Mud, Devil’s Knot and Wild. She also produced Wild through Pacific Standard and received a second Academy Award nomination for portraying Cheryl Strayed on her Pacific Crest Trail hike. Witherspoon’s expansion into production has become central to her later work. She produced Gone Girl and co-produced and starred in Big Little Lies, before taking prominent television roles in The Morning Show and Little Fires Everywhere. Across comedy, drama, voice acting and producing, her work is often strongest when a polished exterior gives way to stubbornness, vulnerability or steel.