Elizabeth Banks

Elizabeth Banks was born Elizabeth Maresal Mitchell in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, on February 10, 1974. Growing up in her small Berkshires town near the New York State border, Elizabeth rode horses, was nominated to be the local Harvest Queen and generally stayed out of trouble. After graduating from Pittsfield High School in 1992, she moved away from home for the first time to attend college at the University of Pennsylvania. In 1996, she graduated magna cum laude. Elizabeth chose to pursue a career as an actress, and next relocated to San Francisco, where she studied at the American Conservatory Theater. Two years later, Elizabeth moved to New York and began taking bit parts in movies like Surrender Dorothy (1998), Shaft (2000), Wet Hot American Summer (2001), and Ordinary Sinner (2001), as well as on TV shows, including Third Watch, Sex and the City and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.

During this time, Elizabeth began to be credited as Elizabeth Banks, taking a stage name because there was already an established actress named Elizabeth Mitchell. Following a final move to Los Angeles, Elizabeth began to have roles in much bigger projects, even if those roles remained small. She had a brief appearance in Spider-Man (2002) as J. Jonah Jameson's put-upon secretary, Betty Brant. That same year, she acted alongside Madonna in Guy Ritchie's Swept Away, and alongside Leonardo DiCaprio in Steven Spielberg's Catch Me If You Can. 2003 marked Elizabeth's first substantial role in a major film: She played Marcela Howard, Jeff Bridges' wife, in Seabiscuit. She later appeared as Glenn Close's daughter in the Merchant-Ivory production Heights (2004). Also in 2004, Elizabeth reprised her Betty Brant role in Spider-Man 2, and was considered to play Invisible Girl in another Marvel comic adaptation, Fantastic Four (2005) -- though the part eventually went to Jessica Alba. Meanwhile, Elizabeth continued to expand her onscreen credits.

In 2005, she had her first starring role in The Baxter, and appeared in other smaller films like Sexual Life, The Sisters and Daltry Calhoun. She also had a memorable role as an oversexed bookseller in the comedy hit The 40 Year Old Virgin. Elizabeth's career milestone came in the sci-fi horror flick Slither (2006), in which she played Starla Grant, the ultimate stand-by-your-man wife whose husband is infested by space aliens. Elizabeth has also been cast in Invincible (2006) and The H-Man Cometh (2006), and she will reprise her role in the third installment of the Spider-Man series.