Jennifer Connelly's birthday

American actress Jennifer Lynn Connelly was born on December 12th, 1970, in Cairo, New York. Before starting her film career, Connelly began to model at the age of ten, mainly doing ad campaigns and commercials, as well as magazine covers. When she was twelve, her mother took her to acting auditions, and Connelly landed her first acting role in the crime film Once Upon a Time in America (1984.)

She later became known for her portrayal in the musical fantasy film Labyrinth (1986,) opposite David Bowie. Despite the film’s poor performance at the time, it later became a cult classic. During this period, Connelly also appeared in Etoile (1988,) Some Girls (1988,) and The Hot Spot (1989.)

After graduating high school. Connelly enrolled at Yale University, studying English literature. She transferred to Stanford University two years later to study drama, eventually leaving to return to her acting career. In 1991, she starred in the romantic comedy Career Opportunities and the Disney’s superhero film The Rocketeer.

Connelly started to gather praise from the critics for her performances in Far Harbor (1996,) Inventing the Abbotts (1997,) and critically acclaimed Dark City (1998.) Her three film releases of 2000 were also well received by the critics and performed well at the box office: Requiem for a Dream, Pollock and Waking the Dead.

The actress gained worldwide recognition when she was cast in 2001’s biopic, A Beautiful Mind, based on the book by the same name. The movie was a huge success and won her an Academy Award, a Golden Globe and a BAFTA for Best Actress in a Supporting Role.

Connelly’s next roles were in the Marvel superhero film Hulk (2003), the supernatural horror film Dark Water (2005), Little Children (2006), Blood Diamond (2006), The Day the Earth Stood Still (2008), romantic comedy He’s Just Not That Into You (2009), Creation (2009) and the animated feature 9 (2009.) In 2010, Connelly was cast as the titular character in the drama Virginia, which wasn’t well received by critics.

Since then, Connelly has continued to have a very prolific career over the course of the last two decades, starring in Stuck in Love (2012,) Shelter (2014; directed by her husband Paul Bettany,) Noah (2014,) Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017,) Alita: Battle Angel (2019) and most recently she can be seen in Top Gun: Maverick (2022). She returned to the small screen in 2020 to star in TNT’s post-apocalyptic dystopian series Snowpiercer.