Renee Zellweger

Renee Zellweger is an American actress and one of the most decorated performers of her generation, with two Academy Awards, four BAFTA Awards, and three Golden Globe Awards to her name. Born on April 25, 1969, in Katy, Texas, to a Swiss-born father and a Norwegian-born mother, Zellweger studied English at the University of Texas at Austin before turning to acting. She began with small roles in Texas-based independent films before catching her big break.

Zellweger’s career skyrocketed in the late 1990s with her role opposite Tom Cruise in Jerry Maguire (1996), where her performance as Dorothy Boyd made her a household name. She followed this with a string of critically and commercially successful films, including Nurse Betty (2000), Bridget Jones’s Diary (2001), Chicago (2002), and Cold Mountain (2003). Her portrayal of Ruby Thewes in Cold Mountain earned her the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.

After dominating Hollywood in the early 2000s, Zellweger took a notable hiatus from acting between 2010 and 2016, stepping away from the spotlight to focus on her personal life. Her return to acting was marked by Bridget Jones’s Baby (2016), proving that audiences still loved the character she had made famous. But it was her stunning portrayal of Judy Garland in Judy (2019) that marked the greatest comeback, earning her the Academy Award for Best Actress.

With two Oscar wins and a filmography that includes some of the most beloved movies of the past three decades, Zellweger commands premium salaries for her projects. She has continued working in television with the NBC series The Thing About Pam (2022) and remains one of the highest-earning actresses in the industry, with a net worth estimated at $90 million.