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Entertainment Weekly (sometimes abbreviated as EW) is an American magazine, published by the Time division of Time Warner, that covers film, television, music, broadway theatre, books and popular culture. Unlike celebrity-focused publications Us Weekly, People Weekly, and In Touch Weekly, EW's primary concentration is on entertainment media news and critical reviews. Unlike Variety and The Hollywood Reporter, which are aimed at industry insiders, EW targets a more general audience.

History[link]

Created by Jeff Jarvis and founded by David Morris, who served as publisher until October 2007^[1], the magazine's original television advertising soliciting pre-publication subscribers portrayed it as a consumer guide to popular culture, including movies, music, and book reviews, sometimes with video game and stage reviews, too. ("the post-modern Farmers' Almanac").^{[clarification needed]}

The first issue was published on February 16, 1990, and featured singer k.d. lang on its cover. The title word "entertainment" was not capitalized on the cover until mid-1992 and has remained so since. By 2003, the magazine's weekly circulation averaged 1.7 million copies per week. In March 2006, managing editor Rick Tetzeli oversaw an overhaul of EW's graphics and layout to reflect a more-modern look.^{[citation needed]}

Typical content and frequency[link]

The magazine features celebrities on the cover and addresses topics such as television ratings, movie grosses, production costs, concert ticket sales, ad budgets, and in-depth articles about scheduling, producers, showrunners, etc.

It publishes several "double issues" each year (usually in January, May, June and/or August) that are available on newsstands for two weeks; because the magazine numbers its issues sequentially, it counts each double issue as "two" issues so that it can fulfil its marketing claim of 52 issues per year for subscribers.

Layout[link]

Entertainment Weekly follows a typical magazine format by featuring a letters to the editor and table of contents in the first few pages, while also featuring advertisements. While many advertisements are unrelated to the entertainment industry, the majority of ads are typically related to up-and-coming television, film or music events.

News and Notes[link]

These beginning articles open the magazine and as a rule focus on current events in pop culture. The whole section typically runs eight to ten pages long, and features short news articles, as well as several specific recurring sections:

• "The Must List" is a two-page spread highlighting ten things (books, movies, songs, etc.) that the staff loves from the week; it usually features one pick from EW readers.
• "First Look", subtitled "An early peek at some of Hollywood's coolest projects", is a two-page spread with behind-the-scenes or publicity stills of upcoming movies, television episodes or music events.
• "The Shaw Report" is a small sidebar feature, written by Jessica Shaw that rates several trios of related trends: one that is "in"; one that is "five minutes ago" (recently fashionable but no longer so); and one that is "out".
• "The Hit List", written each week by critic Scott Brown, highlights ten major events, with short comedic commentaries by Brown. Typically, there will be some continuity to the commentaries. This column was originally written by Jim Mullen and featured twenty events each week, and Dalton Ross later wrote an abbreviated version.
• "The Hollywood Insider" is a one-page section that reports breaking news in entertainment. It gives details, in the separate columns, on the most-current news in television, movie and music.
• "The Style Report" is a one-page section devoted to celebrity style. Because its focus is on celebrity fashion or lifestyle, it is graphically rich in nature, featuring many photographs or other images. Recently,^{[clarification needed]} the page converted to a new format: five pictures of celebrity fashions for the week, graded on the magazine's review "A"-to-"F" scale (see Reviews section below). A spin-off section, "Style Hunter", which finds reader-requested articles of clothing or accessories that have appeared in pop culture recently, appears frequently.
• "The Monitor" is a two-page spread devoted to major events in celebrity lives with small paragraphs highlighting events such as weddings, illnesses, arrests, court appearances, and deaths. Deaths of major celebrities are typically detailed in a one-half- or full-page obituary titled "Legacy". This feature is nearly identical to sister publication People's "Passages" feature.
• The "celebrity" column, the final section of "News and Notes", is devoted to a different column each week, written by two of the magazine's more-prominent writers:

• "The Final Cut" is written by former executive editor and author Mark Harris. Harris' column focuses on analyzing current popular-culture events, and is generally the most serious of the columns. Harris has written about the writer's strike and the 2008 presidential election, among other topics.
• "Binge Thinking" was written by screenwriter Diablo Cody. After several profiles of Cody in the months leading up to and following the release of her debut film, Juno (2007), she was hired to write a column detailing her unique view of the entertainment business.
• If You Ask Me..." Libby Gelman-Waxer (Paul Rudnick) was brought in to write his former Premiere column for Entertainment Weekly in 2011.^[2]

Feature articles[link]

There are typically four to six major articles (one to two pages each) within the middle pages of the magazine. These articles are most commonly interviews, but there are also narrative articles as well as lists. Feature articles tend to focus mostly on movies, music and television and less on books and the theatre. In the magazine's history, there have only been a few cover stories (e.g., John Grisham, Stephen King) devoted to authors; there has never been a cover solely devoted to the theater.

Reviews[link]

There are seven sections of reviews in the back pages of each issue (together encompassing up to one half of the magazine's pages). In addition to reviews, each reviews section has a top-sellers list, as well as numerous sidebars with interviews or small features. Unlike a number of European magazines that give their ratings with a number of stars (with normally 4 or 5 stars for the best review), EW grades the reviews academic-style, so that the highest reviews will get a letter grade of "A" and the lowest reviews get an "F", with plus or minus graduations in between assigned to each letter except "F".

The sections are:

• "Movies" typically features all the major releases for that weekend, as well as several independent and foreign films that have also been released. Lisa Schwarzbaum and Owen Gleiberman are the two primary film critics, with occasional reviews by Scott Brown and Gregory Kirschling. It also includes "Critical Mass" - a table of the grades that have also been given by a number of noted movie reviewers in the American press (such as Ty Burr from The Boston Globe, Todd McCarthy from Variety and Roger Ebert from the Chicago Sun-Times). Additionally, this section includes the box-office figures from the previous weekend and some sort of infographic. The A+ rating is rarely awarded by EW. Two films to have received it are Citizen Kane and My Left Foot (1989). DVDs are now profiled in the one-page "Movies on DVD" section that follows.

• "Television" features reviews by chief critic Ken Tucker for made-for-television films and new television program or series, as well as some television specials. There is also a section of sound bites featuring quotations from various television shows. The section also includes the Nielsen ratings for the previous week. On the following page is typically a "TV on DVD" section, profiling releases of television films and specials or complete seasons of television shows.

• "What to Watch", currently written by Jessica Shaw, features brief, one- or two-sentence reviews of several television programs on each night of the week, as well as one slightly longer review, usually written by someone else, with a letter grade.

• "Music" reviews major album releases for the week, divided by genre. There is also typically at least one interview or feature, as well as a section called "Download This", highlighting several singles available for download from the Internet. A table displaying record sales and airplay for the previous week is also included.

• "Books" features reviews of books released during the week. Sometimes, authors will write guest reviews of other works. There is also typically one interview or spotlight feature in this section per issue. Bestseller lists appear at the end of this section.

• "Theater"* reviews productions currently playing, listed by the city where they are running.

• "Games"* reviews current video game releases.

• "Tech"* reviews new websites and products, and profiles current Internet or technology phenomena.

* Not in every issue.

The Bullseye[link]

This section occupies the back page of the magazine, rating the "hits" and "misses" from the past week's events in popular culture on a bullseye graphic. For example, the May 22, 2009, edition featured Justin Timberlake hosting Saturday Night Live in the center, while the then-drama between Eminem and Mariah Carey missed the target completely for being "very 2002". At the time when this was printed on a small part of a page, events that were greatly disliked were shown several pages away.

Specialty issues[link]

Every year the magazine publishes several specialty issues. These issues are often published as double issues (running for two consecutive weeks). Many times these features are so long that they replace all other feature articles.

Common specialty issues include:

• Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter Preview issues – Generally each quarter the magazine reports on upcoming releases in movies, music, television, live shows and books. Typically the summer issue's focus will be on upcoming movies only unless major television series or events, music releases or book releases are occurring then.
• The Photo issue – Once a year, an issue is dedicated to featuring (aside from the normal reviews and news content) only photographs of celebrities. Unlike tabloid issues, these photographs done with the celebrities' cooperation, and often they use some form of artistic expression. A wide variety of celebrities have been used, including Green Day, Reese Witherspoon, Morrissey, the cast of the television series Arrested Development, Tobey Maguire and Cameron Diaz. Generally, the photographs will contain some descriptive text, sometimes about the person or sometimes a commentary from the photographers who photographed them for a story.
• Academy Awards issues – In the past the magazine devoted at least four cover stories per year to the Academy Awards; "The Oscar Race Begins" issue in January predicts the nominees, the "Nominees" issue in February profiles the recently announced Oscar contenders, the "Oscar Odds" issue predicts the winners the week before the awards, and the "After-Awards" issue covers the ceremony the week after it airs. Virtually every issue mentions the Oscars in some capacity, often on the cover, and a film or actor's Academy-Award chances are often noted in the magazine's reviews. In comparison, music's Grammy Awards, television's Emmy Awards, and theater's Tony Awards are given relatively limited coverage.

1,000th issue and redesign[link]

The 1,000th issue was released July 4, 2008, and included the magazine's top-100 list for movies, television shows, music videos, songs, Broadway shows, and technology of the past twenty-five years (1983–2008).

As of its 1,001st issue, EW drastically revamped the look, feel and content of the publication — increasing font and picture sizes and making all columns' word count shorter.

Website[link]

The magazine's website EW.com, under managing editor Cyndi Stivers (creator of TimeOut New York),^[3] provides users with daily content, breaking news, blogs, original video programming, entertainment exclusives and serves as an archive for past magazine interviews, columns and photos.

As of April 2011, EW.com was ranked as one of the ten most popular Entertainment News property in the United States by comScore Media Metrix.

EWwy Award[link]

The EWwy Award is a television production award created by Entertainment Weekly to honor worthy actors and series not nominated for the Primetime Emmys.^[4] The Ewwy is awarded in ten categories and no person nominated for an equivalent Primetime Emmy is eligible. Votes and nominations are cast online by anyone who chooses to participate. The categories are: Best Drama Series; Best Comedy Series; Best Actor in a Drama Series; Best Actor in a Comedy Series; Best Actress in a Drama Series; Best Actress in a Comedy Series; Best Supporting Actor in a Drama Series; Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series; Best Supporting Actress in a Drama Series; and Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series.

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official website

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Neil Patrick Harris
Harris at a ceremony in September 2011 to receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame
Born	(1973-06-15) June 15, 1973 (age 39)[1] Albuquerque, New Mexico, U.S.
Occupation	Actor, musician, director, magician
Years active	1988–present
Partner	David Burtka (2004–present)
Children	2

Neil Patrick Harris (born June 15, 1973) is an American actor, singer, director, and magician. He is best known for the title role in Doogie Howser, M.D., the womanizing Barney Stinson in How I Met Your Mother, a fictionalized version of himself in the Harold & Kumar series, and the title role in Joss Whedon's musical web series Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog.

Harris was named as one of Time magazine's 100 most influential people in 2010,^[2] and was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in September 2011.^[3]

Early life[link]

Harris was born in Albuquerque, New Mexico and grew up in Ruidoso, New Mexico. His parents, Sheila and Ron Harris, ran a restaurant.^[4] He attended La Cueva High School in Albuquerque, where he acted in school plays and musicals. Harris graduated as an honors student in 1991.

Career[link]

Harris at the 2008 Comic Con in San Diego, California

Film[link]

Harris began his career as a child actor and was discovered by playwright Mark Medoff at a drama camp in Las Cruces, New Mexico.^[5] Medoff later cast him in his 1988 film Clara's Heart, a drama starring Whoopi Goldberg based on the novel of the same name by Joseph Olshan. Clara's Heart won Harris a Golden Globe nomination. The same year, he starred in Purple People Eater, a children's fantasy.

His first film role as an adult was 1995's Animal Room, although he portrayed a teenager. His subsequent film work has included supporting roles in The Next Best Thing, Undercover Brother, and Starship Troopers. Harris plays a fictionalized version of himself in the Harold and Kumar stoner comedy films Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle, Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay, and A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas.

In 2010, he provided voice acting for the role of the adult Dick Grayson (Nightwing) in the animated film Batman: Under the Red Hood, and the beagle Lou in the film Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore. The same year, he played the lead in the indie comedy The Best and the Brightest.^[6]

On March 7, 2010, he made a surprise appearance at the 82nd Academy Awards, delivering the opening musical number.

He starred in the 2011 movie The Smurfs

Stage[link]

Harris has worked on Broadway in both musical and dramatic roles. He played Tobias Ragg in the 2001 concert performances of Sweeney Todd. In 2002, he performed beside Anne Heche in Proof. In 2003, he took the role of the Emcee in Cabaret alongside Deborah Gibson and Tom Bosley. As a result of his critically acclaimed performance in Cabaret, Harris was named the top-drawing headliner in the role of the Emcee by GuestStarCasting.com, topping fellow celebrity stars John Stamos and Alan Cumming.^[7] In 2004, he performed a dual role of the Balladeer and Lee Harvey Oswald on Broadway, in the controversial musical revival of Stephen Sondheim's Assassins. He also sang the role of Charles (first played by Anthony Perkins) on the Nonesuch recording of Sondheim's Evening Primrose, and has portrayed Mark Cohen in the touring company of the musical Rent, a role he mockingly reprised on the January 10, 2009, episode of Saturday Night Live, which he hosted.

In 2010, he directed a production of the rock musical Rent at the Hollywood Bowl; he cast his Beastly co-star Vanessa Hudgens as Mimi.^[8] In 2011, Harris played the lead role of Bobby in Stephen Sondheim's Company, with the New York Philharmonic in concert opposite Patti LuPone and others.^[9] The same year, he directed The Expert at the Card Table at Broad Stage's Edye in Santa Monica, California.^[10]

Harris hosted the 63rd Tony Awards on June 7, 2009,^[11] and the 65th Tony Awards on June 12, 2011.

Television[link]

In 1989, Harris won the lead role in Doogie Howser, M.D., for which he was again nominated for a Golden Globe. After the show's four-season run ended in 1993, Harris played a number of guest roles on television series, such as Murder She Wrote. From 1999 to 2000, Harris starred with Tony Shalhoub in the NBC sitcom Stark Raving Mad, which lasted 22 episodes. He has taken lead roles in a number of made-for-television features including Snowbound: The Jim and Jennifer Stolpa Story in 1994, My Ántonia in 1995, The Christmas Wish in 1998, Joan of Arc in 1999, The Wedding Dress in 2001, and The Christmas Blessing in 2005.

In 2008, he guest-starred on Sesame Street as the Sesame Street Fairy Shoe Person.^[12][13][14] In 2009, Harris hosted the 7th Annual TV Land Awards and appeared as a guest judge on Season 9 of American Idol.^[15]

He also hosted the 61st Primetime Emmy Awards on September 20 of the same year. On August 21, 2010, he won two Emmy Awards at the Creative Arts Emmy Awards ceremony, one of which was for his guest performance in the television series Glee.^[16]

After a highly successful preview at the San Diego Comic-Con, a musical episode of Batman: The Brave and the Bold, featuring Harris as the villainous Music Meister, premiered on October 23, 2009 on Cartoon Network. As a character who could make anyone do his bidding by singing, he spent most of the episode singing several original songs.^[17]

Since 2005, Harris has played Barney Stinson, a serial womanizer, in the CBS ensemble sitcom How I Met Your Mother. The role earned him Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series nominations every year from 2007 to 2010.

Other media[link]

In 2007, Harris worked with Mike Nelson on an audio commentary for RiffTrax. The two "riffed" on the film Willy Wonka And The Chocolate Factory. Harris is a big fan of the cult TV series Nelson worked on, Mystery Science Theater 3000. He was interviewed for a 1992 Comedy Central special hosted by Penn Jillette about the series This Is MST3K and its fans.^[18] In 2008, Harris played the title role in Joss Whedon's musical web series Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog alongside Nathan Fillion and Felicia Day. The first episode of the series debuted July 15, 2008.^[19] He has also provided his voice for the Disney California Adventure Park attraction California Screamin'.^[20]

On December 11, 2010, Harris hosted the Spike Video Game Awards.

Personal life[link]

Harris with his partner David Burtka in September 2011

Harris is openly gay, confirming this in November 2006 by saying "I am happy to dispel any rumors or misconceptions and am quite proud to say that I am a very content gay man living my life to the fullest and feel most fortunate to be working with wonderful people in the business I love."^[21]

Harris attended the Emmy awards in September 2007 with his partner David Burtka, later confirming the relationship, which he said began in 2004 in an interview on The Ellen DeGeneres Show.^[22] On August 14, 2010, Harris announced that he and Burtka were expecting twins via a surrogate mother.^[23][24] The fraternal twins Gideon Scott, a boy, and Harper Grace, a girl, were born on October 12, 2010.^[25][26]

Following the passage of the Marriage Equality Act in New York on June 24, 2011, Harris and Burtka announced their engagement via Twitter,^[27] stating that they had proposed to each other five years ago but kept the engagement secret until same-sex marriage became legal.^[28]

Harris is a fan of magic, like his character on How I Met Your Mother. He serves as the President of the Board of Directors of Hollywood's Magic Castle.^[29] Harris won the Tannen's Magic Louis Award in 2006 and hosted the 2008 World Magic Awards on October 11, 2008. Additionally, Harris and Burtka were guests of honor for a Top Chef Masters episode which took place at the Magic Castle. Harris also performed magic in his Emmy-winning performance on Glee.

Discography[link]

Cast recordings[link]

Singles[link]

Filmography[link]

Films[link]

Television[link]

Theater[link]

Web television[link]

Video games[link]

Theme parks[link]

Awards[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Neil Patrick Harris

• Neil Patrick Harris at the Internet Movie Database
• Neil Patrick Harris at the Internet Broadway Database
• Neil Patrick Harris at Internet Off-Broadway Database
• Neil Patrick Harris on Twitter
• 2011 interview with The Sondheim Review

Anglicanism portal

Patrick Burnet Harris is a retired Church of England bishop who served in two episcopal positions.

He was born on 30 September 1934 and educated at St Albans School and Keble College, Oxford. He was ordained in 1961 ^[1] and his first post was as a curate at St Ebbes' Oxford^[2] after which he became a missionary in South America. He became the Archdeacon of Salta in 1969 before being ordained to the episcopate four years later as Bishop of Northern Argentina.^[3] After seven years he returned to England firstly as Rector of Kirkheaton ^[4] and then Secretary of the Partnership for World Mission^[5] where he remained until 1988 when he was appointed Bishop of Southwell, a post he held for 11 years. In retirement he continues to serve as an assistant bishop in the Diocese of Gloucester.

References[link]

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Andy Samberg
Samberg at the Time 100 Gala, May 4, 2010
Birth name	David Andrew Samberg[1]
Born	(1978-08-18) August 18, 1978 (age 33) Mill Valley, California, U.S.
Medium	Internet, stand-up, music, television, film
Nationality	American
Years active	2001–present
Genres	Sketch comedy Situational comedy
Influences	Mel Brooks, Steve Martin, Adam Sandler
Notable works and roles	Saturday Night Live, Hot Rod, Space Chimps, I Love You, Man, The Lonely Island
Website	thelonelyisland.com
Emmy Awards Outstanding Original Music And Lyrics 2007 "Dick in a Box" (SNL)

David Andrew "Andy" Samberg (born August 18, 1978) is an American actor, comedian, rapper, and writer best known as a member of the comedy group The Lonely Island and as a cast member on Saturday Night Live from 2005 to 2012. On Saturday Night Live, he and The Lonely Island have been credited with popularizing the Emmy-winning SNL Digital Shorts, the comical short films and music videos starring Samberg and other members of the SNL cast.^[2] As a film actor, Samberg has appeared in Hot Rod; Space Chimps; Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist; I Love You, Man; Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs; Friends with Benefits; and What's Your Number?

Early life[link]

Samberg was born in Mill Valley California,^[3] the son of Joe Samberg, a photographer, and Margi (née Marrow), an elementary school teacher who taught at Old Mill School.^[4] Samberg also has two sisters, Johanna and Darrow.^[5] He was raised in a Jewish household. His maternal grandfather, Alfred J. Marrow, served as the executive chair of the American Jewish Congress, although Samberg describes himself as "not particularly religious."^[6][7][7] Samberg discovered Saturday Night Live as a child while sneaking past his parents to watch professional wrestling on television.^[8] He became "obsessed" with the show, and his devotion to comedy became frustrating to teachers who felt he was unfocused on his schoolwork.^[8]

Samberg graduated from Berkeley High School in 1996. While there, he became interested in creative writing; he says: "[Writing classes] were the ones that I put all my effort into...that's what I cared about and that's what I ended up doing."^[9] He attended college at University of California, Santa Cruz, for two years before transferring to New York University for its acclaimed film school. He majored in experimental film, where he starred as "Monkey" in the music video for James Kochalka's song "Monkey vs. Robot".^[10]

Career[link]

Prior to joining the cast of SNL, Samberg was (and remains) a member of the comedy troupe The Lonely Island (along with Jorma Taccone and Akiva Schaffer). The trio began writing for Saturday Night Live in 2005 and released their debut album, Incredibad, in 2009. Samberg has appeared in numerous theatrical films, commercials, music videos and has hosted special events like the 2009 MTV Movie Awards.

[edit] Saturday Night Live

Samberg in 2007

In September 2005, The Lonely Island confirmed that Samberg would be joining Saturday Night Live as a featured player and his fellow group members would join the show's writing staff. While his live sketch roles were limited in his first year, he appeared in many recorded sketches, including commercial parodies and various other filmed segments.

For the December 17, 2005 show, he and Chris Parnell starred in the Digital Short "Lazy Sunday", a nerdcore hip hop song performed by two Manhattanites on a quest to see the film The Chronicles of Narnia. The short quickly became an Internet phenomenon and garnered Samberg significant media and public attention, as did "Dick in a Box," a duet with Justin Timberlake that won a Creative Arts Emmy for Outstanding Original Music and Lyrics.^[2] Samberg has found success with the song "Jizz in My Pants," which garnered over 100 million views and about 52,000 comments on YouTube.^[11] His comedy troupe's collaboration with T-Pain, the "I'm on a Boat" music video, had over 56 million views on YouTube after debuting on February 7, 2009, and was nominated for a Grammy Award. Another digital short, "Motherlover" (also featuring Timberlake), was released on May 10, 2009 (to commemorate Mother's Day), and is a sequel of "Dick in a Box."^[12] On December 12, 2010, Samberg and the other members of the Lonely Island debuted their next digital short, titled "I Just Had Sex." The video, which has already gathered over 160 million views on YouTube, features R&B singer Akon, with cameos by former tennis professional John McEnroe, and actresses Blake Lively and Jessica Alba. On January 29, 2011, The Lonely Island released another single from its upcoming second album titled The Creep featuring Nicki Minaj and John Waters (filmmaker). This was followed on May 7, 2011, with the song Jack Sparrow which featured Michael Bolton.

Outside of his prerecorded segments, he also participates in recurring live segments, such as his Blizzard Man sketch.^[13]

In 2012, Samberg delivered the Class Day speech at Harvard University.

On June 1, 2012, Samberg's spokesperson announced that he would be leaving Saturday Night Live after 7 years on the show.

Filmography[link]

Awards and nominations[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Andy Samberg at the Internet Movie Database
• The Lonely Island
• Andy Samberg profile
• Short Movies with Andy Samberg at Channel 101
• Premiere.com article
• Andy Samberg interview, SPIN magazine

Anna Paquin
at the 25th Annual Paley Television Festival, ArcLight Cinemas, Los Angeles, 13 April 2009
Born	Anna Helene Paquin (1982-07-24) 24 July 1982 (age 29) Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1993–present
Spouse	Stephen Moyer (2010–present)

Anna Helene Paquin (/ˈpækwɪn/; born 24 July 1982) is a Canadian-born New Zealand actress. Paquin's first critically successful film was The Piano, for which she won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in 1993 at the age of 11 – the second youngest winner in history.^[1] Her acting career took off almost half a decade later when she appeared in a string of successful films including She's All That, Almost Famous and the X-Men franchise.

Paquin has received critical acclaim for her role as Sookie Stackhouse in the HBO series True Blood, for which she won the 2008 Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Television Series Drama.

Early life[link]

Paquin was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, the daughter of Mary Paquin (née Brophy), an English teacher and native of Wellington, New Zealand, and Brian Paquin, a high school physical education teacher, native Canadian. Paquin is the youngest of three children; she has two older siblings: a brother, Andrew, a director, born in 1977, and a sister, Katya, born in 1980,^[2][3] who is the partner of Green Party co-leader Russel Norman.^[4] Paquin's family moved to New Zealand when she was four. She attended the Raphael House Rudolf Steiner School until she was eight or nine.^[5] Her musical childhood hobbies in New Zealand included playing the viola, cello, and piano. She also participated in gymnastics, ballet, swimming and downhill skiing, though she did not have any hobbies related to acting.^[6][7]

While in New Zealand, Paquin attended Hutt Intermediate School from 1994–95. Having begun her secondary education in Wellington at Wellington Girls' College, she completed her high school diploma at Windward School in Los Angeles, where she moved with her mother following her parents' divorce in 1995.^[8] She graduated from Windward School in June 2000 and completed the school's community service requirement by working in an LA soup kitchen and at a special education center. She studied at Columbia University for one year, but has since been on a leave of absence to continue her acting career.

Career[link]

Child actress[link]

It was in New Zealand in 1991 that Paquin became an actress by chance. Director Jane Campion was looking for a little girl to play a key role in The Piano, set to film in New Zealand, and a newspaper advertisement was run announcing an open audition. Paquin's sister read the ad and went to try out with a friend; Paquin herself tagged along because she had nothing better to do. When Campion met Paquin—whose only acting experience had been as a skunk in a school play—she was very impressed with the nine-year-old's performance of the monologue about Flora's father, and she was chosen from among the 5000 candidates.^[7]

When The Piano was released in 1993 it was lauded by critics, won prizes at a number of film festivals, and eventually became a popular movie among a wide audience. Paquin's debut performance in the film earned her an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress at the age of eleven, making her the second-youngest Oscar winner in history after Tatum O'Neal.^[7] The Piano was made as a small independent movie and wasn't expected to be widely known, and Paquin and her family did not plan to continue in the acting circles.^[6] However, she was invited to the William Morris Agency, and she kept receiving offers for new roles. She systematically refused them, but she did appear in three commercials for the phone company MCI (now Verizon) in 1994.^[9] She later made a series of television commercials for Manitoba Telecom Systems in her birth city of Winnipeg.^[10] She also appeared as a voice in an audio book entitled The Magnificent Nose in 1994.

In 1996, she appeared in two movies. The first role was as young Jane in Jane Eyre. The other was a lead part in Fly Away Home playing a young girl who, after her mother dies, moves in with her father and finds solace in taking care of orphaned goslings.^[11]

As a teenager, she had roles in films including A Walk on the Moon, Amistad, Hurlyburly, She's All That and Almost Famous.

[edit] X-Men and beyond

Paquin returned to worldwide prominence with her role as the mutant superheroine Rogue in the Marvel Comics movie X-Men in 2000,^[1] its sequel X2 in 2003, and its third instalment, X-Men: The Last Stand, in 2006.

Paquin in 2006

In the fall of 2006, she completed filming Blue State. She was the executive-producer of the film, the film having been made by Paquin Films, a production company formed by both her and her brother, Andrew Paquin.^[12] In November 2006, she completed the film Margaret, which was released in 2011.

In 2007, Paquin received an Emmy Award^[13] nomination for Supporting Actress In A Miniseries Or A Movie for her role as Elaine Goodale in HBO's made-for-TV movie Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, based on Dee Brown's best-seller. She also received Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild Award nominations in similar categories.

In 2008, Paquin appeared as waitress Sookie Stackhouse in the HBO series True Blood, her first role in a TV series. The show is based on The Southern Vampire Mysteries series of novels by Charlaine Harris, set in the fictional town of Bon Temps, LA. Paquin won a Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Television Drama Series for her role in the show, and also won a Satellite Award in a similar category. She was also nominated for the same category in the 2009 Golden Globe Awards. The second season of True Blood premiered in the US in June 2009. Season three premiered in June 2010, and season 4 in June 2011.

In 2009, Paquin played Irena Sendler, a Polish woman hailed as a heroine of the Holocaust, in The Courageous Heart of Irena Sendler, a CBS TV film biographical film based on the book Mother of the Children of the Holocaust: The Irena Sendler Story, by Anna Mieszkowska. The film was made in Latvia, and was a Hallmark Hall of Fame presentation for the network.^[14] Paquin's performance earned her a 2010 nomination for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Television Film.

Paquin's film The Romantics, a romantic comedy with Josh Duhamel and Katie Holmes, was released in the US at selected theatres in September 2010.

Paquin was cast in a cameo role in Scream 4, which was released on April 15, 2011.^[15]

Her next film is Straight A's, co-starring Ryan Phillippe, due for release in 2012.

Theatrical career[link]

Paquin made her stage debut in 2001 in a production of The Glory of Living at the MCC Theater in New York City. She won a 2001–2002 Theatre World Award for her performance.^[16] She has since appeared in a number of other plays, but only once outside the USA, when she appeared on the West End stage in London in a production of This is Our Youth in 2002.

Personal life[link]

Paquin with husband and True Blood costar Stephen Moyer, 2009

On 5 August 2009, it was announced that Paquin was engaged to her True Blood co-star Stephen Moyer, whom she had been dating since filming the series pilot in 2007.^[17][18] On 21 August 2010, Paquin and Moyer married at a private residence in Malibu, California.^[19] Through her marriage to Moyer, Paquin has a step-son, Billy, born in 2000, and a step-daughter, Lilac, born in 2002.^[20] Paquin and Moyer reside in Venice, Los Angeles.^[21] On 17 April 2012, it was announced they are expecting their first child together, due in the fall.^[22]

On 1 April 2010, Paquin came out as bisexual in a public service announcement for the Give a Damn campaign as part of the True Colors Fund, an advocacy group organised by Cyndi Lauper dedicated to LGBT equality.^[23] The True Colors Fund was created to “inspire and engage everyone, especially straight people, to become active participants in the advancement of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender equality” ^[24]. The video features Anna Paquin stating, "I'm Anna Paquin. I'm bisexual, and I give a damn". ^[25] When asked about her participation in the video, Paquin responded by saying, "It wasn't like it was a big secret, it was just a cause I cared about and privately supported, but not one that I had ever had an opportunity to speak out about in a way that would be useful. Obviously I know that one person's voice doesn't necessarily do that much, but I just wanted to do my bit." ^[26] Anna also supports other charities and foundations such as the Children's Hospital Los Angeles and the Make-A-Wish Foundation. ^[27]

Filmography[link]