Date of Birth: Born during the Years of the Trees
Passed over the Sea: September 29, 3021 T.A.
Race: Noldorian Elf
Parents: Father, Finarfin; Mother, Earwen
Siblings: Brothers, Finrod, Orodreth, Angrod, Aegnor
Spouse: Celeborn
Children: Daughter, Celebrian
Played by: Cate Blanchett
Since graduating from Australia's National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA), Blanchett has worked extensively in the theater: with Company B, a loose ensemble of actors including Geoffrey Rush, Gillian Jones and Richard Roxburgh based at Belvoir St. under the direction of Neil Armfield. Her roles included Miranda ("The Tempest"), Ophelia ("Hamlet" -for which she was nominated for a Green Room Award), Nina ("The Seagull") and Rose ("The Blind Giant is Dancing"). For the Sydney Theater Company (STC) she appeared in Caryl Churchill's "Top Girls," David Mamet's "Oleanna" (awarded The Sydney Theater Critics award for Best Actress), Michael Gow's "Sweet Phoebe" (also for the Croyden Wearhouse, London) and Timothy Dalys "Kafka Dances" (also for The Griffin Theatre Company) for which she received the Critics Circle award for best newcomer.
For the Almeida Theatre in 1999, Blanchett played Susan Traheren in David Hare's "Plenty" on London's West End.
Her television credits include lead roles in "Bordertown" and "Heartland," both for the Australian Broadcasting Commission.
Her film roles include Susan Macarthy in Bruce Beresford's Paradise Road, Lizzie in Thank God He Met Lizzie, an anti-romantic comedy directed by Cherie Nowlan for which she was awarded both the Australian Film Institute (AFI) and the Sydney Film Critics awards for Best Supporting Actress, and Lucinda in Oscar and Lucinda opposite Ralph Fiennes and directed by Gillian Armstrong, a role that earned her an AFI nomination for Best Actress.
In 1998, Blanchett portrayed Queen Elizabeth I in the critically acclaimed Elizabeth, directed by Shekhar Kapur, for which she received a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Drama and a BAFTA for Best Actress in a Leading Role as well as Best Actress Awards from The Chicago Film Critics Association, The London Film Critics Association, On-line Film Critics, Variety Critics and UK Empire Award. She also received a Best Actress nomination from the Screen Actors Guild and the Academy of Motion Picture, Arts, & Sciences.
In 1999, Blanchett appeared in Pushing Tin with John Cusack, a black-comedy about air traffic controllers directed by Mike Newell, An Ideal Husband directed by Oliver Parker and The Talented Mr. Ripley directed by Anthony Mingella for which she received a BAFTA nomination for Best Supporting Actress. She most recently starred in The Gift, directed by Sam Raimi; Bandits with Bruce Willis and Billy Bob Thornton, directed by Barry Levinson; and Sally Potter's The Man Who Cried, which premiered at the Venice Film Festival.
In addition to The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, for which she and the rest of the principal cast were nominated for Outstanding Performance by the Cast of a Theatrical Motion Picture by the Screen Actors Guild, Blanchett has appeared in the title role of Charlotte Gray, directed by Gillian Armstrong and based on Sebastian Faulks' best-selling novel; Heaven, opposite Giovanni Ribisi and directed by Tom Tykwer; and The Shipping News, co-starring Kevin Spacey and directed by Lasse Hallstrom, which is based on the 1994 Pulitzer-Prize winning novel by Annie Proulx.
She is currently finishing work on Chasing the Dragon: The Veronica Guerin Story, a fact-based tale of the Irish journalist who was slain in her homeland in 1996 by drug dealers, directed by Joel Schumacher.
