Biography:

Jennifer Shrader Lawrence is an American actress. Her first major role was as a lead cast member on the TBS sitcom The Bill Engvall Show (2007–2009). She subsequently appeared in the independent films The Burning Plain (2008) and Winter's Bone (2010), for which she received her first Academy Award for Best Actress nomination; at the time, she was the second youngest person to receive a nomination in the category.

At age 22, Lawrence's performance in the David O. Russell-directed romantic comedy Silver Linings Playbook (2012) earned her several awards, including the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress (Musical or Comedy) and the Academy Award for Best Actress, making her the second-youngest Best Actress winner at the Oscars. For her supporting role in Russell's comedy-drama American Hustle (2013), she was awarded the Golden Globe Award, the BAFTA Award and received a third Academy Award nomination, all for Best Supporting Actress.

Lawrence is also known for playing Raven Darkhölme / Mystique in the 2011 superhero film X-Men: First Class, a role she will reprise in the 2014 film X-Men: Days of Future Past. Beginning in 2012, she gained international fame for playing the leading heroine, Katniss Everdeen, in the The Hunger Games film series. Her performance in the films garnered her notable critical praise and marked her as the highest-grossing action heroine of all time.

Early life

Jennifer Lawrence was born and raised in Louisville, Kentucky, to Lawrence & Associates construction owner Gary Lawrence and children's camp manager Karen (Koch) Lawrence. She has two older brothers, Ben and Blaine. She acted in local theater and, by the age of 14, had decided to pursue an acting career, persuading her parents to take her to New York City to find a talent agent. Prior to finding success in Hollywood, Lawrence attended Kammerer Middle School in Louisville. She graduated from high school two years early with a 3.9 average, aiming at a career in acting. While growing up and in between acting, Lawrence served as an assistant nurse at the children's summer day camp that her mother ran.

Career

2006–09: Early work

Lawrence started her acting career in the TBS comedy The Bill Engvall Show, playing Lauren Pearson, the oldest daughter. The series went on the air in September 2007 and was canceled in 2009 after three seasons. Lawrence was nominated for a Young Artist Award for Outstanding Young Performer in a TV Series in their 2009 award show for her role. After the show was canceled, she landed guest-roles in the television series Cold Case, Medium, and Monk.

In 2007, Lawrence auditioned for the role of Bella Swan in Twilight, however the role went to Kristen Stewart. Later, Lawrence stated that she was "glad" that she had not received the role because of the massive media attention that Stewart received. The following year, she appeared in a small role in the film Garden Party as Tiff. Lawrence had the lead role in another film director's debut, Lori Petty's family drama The Poker House, opposite Selma Blair and Chloë Grace Moretz, where she starred as Agnes, a young girl victim of abuse. She was awarded the Los Angeles Film Festival Award for Outstanding Performance for her role in the film. It was followed by an appearance on the big screen in Guillermo Arriaga's film directorial debut The Burning Plain, opposite Charlize Theron and Kim Basinger. Her performance in the film earned her the Marcello Mastroianni Award for best young emerging actor/actress at the Venice Film Festival in 2008. She appeared in the music video for the song "The Mess I Made", from the 2009 album Losing Sleep by Parachute.

2010–12: Breakthrough

Lawrence's lead role in Debra Granik's Winter's Bone, which won best picture at the Sundance Film Festival in 2010, is often cited as a breakout performance for her. She portrays Ree Dolly, a seventeen-year-old in the Ozark Mountains who cares for her mentally ill mother and her younger brother and sister. The performance was highly acclaimed by film critics. David Denby, writing in The New Yorker, said "the movie would be unimaginable with anyone less charismatic playing Ree." Peter Travers from the Rolling Stone also spoke highly of her and noted that "her performance is more than acting, it's a gathering storm. Lawrence's eyes are a roadmap to what's tearing Ree apart." Receiving accolades for her performance, Lawrence was awarded the National Board of Review Award for Best Breakthrough Performance. She received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress on January 25, 2011, at the time becoming the second-youngest actress to date to be nominated for the category (though she is the third youngest, currently), and also accrued nominations from the Golden Globe Awards, Screen Actors Guild Awards, Independent Spirit Awards, and the Satellite Awards among others. Also in 2011, Lawrence co-starred in the independent film Like Crazy, which premiered at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival.

She starred as shape-shifting villain, Mystique, alongside James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender in X-Men: First Class, a prequel to the rest of the X-Men film series. Lawrence's Mystique is a younger version of the character played by Rebecca Romijn in earlier X-Men films. In 2011, Lawrence appeared in The Beaver, a dark comedy starring Jodie Foster and Mel Gibson; it was completed in 2009 but the film spent an extended period of time stalled due to controversy and was released on May 6, 2011. In June 2011, it was announced that Lawrence was invited to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.


In 2012, Lawrence starred as Katniss Everdeen in the film The Hunger Games, based on the best-selling novel of the same name by Suzanne Collins. Despite being a fan of the books, Lawrence took three days to accept the role because she was initially intimidated by the size of the movie and how it might affect her career. She underwent extensive training to get in shape for the role, including stunt training, archery, rock and tree climbing, combat, running, parkour, pilates, and yoga. The film was released on March 23, 2012, and set a record for the third-largest opening weekend, making a record-breaking $152.5 million in three days for a non-sequel film. The success of the Hunger Games, and Lawrence as Katniss, broke the male-centric nature of action films—prior to The Hungers Games, among the "top 200 worldwide box-office hits ever ($350 million and up), not one has been built around a female action star.". Forbes stated "No one who has seen The Hunger Games would question star Jennifer Lawrence's ability to play an action star." Though the film generally received positive reviews, Lawrence's portrayal of Katniss Everdeen was the most highly praised, with Todd McCarthy from The Hollywood Reporter saying Lawrence embodies Katniss, "just as one might imagine her from the novel" and "anchors" the whole film "with impressive gravity and presence", ultimately calling her "the ideal screen actress." Kenneth Turan from the Los Angeles Times stated that Lawrence is the "best possible performer as Katniss and is the key factor in making 'Hunger Games' an involving popular entertainment with strong narrative drive that holds our attention." Chicago Sun-Times film critic Roger Ebert also agreed that "Lawrence is strong and convincing in the central role."

In October 2012, Lawrence was announced as the new face of Dior. The following month, she played the recently widowed Tiffany Maxwell in David O. Russell's Silver Linings Playbook, an adaptation of the novel of the same name, by Matthew Quick, opposite Bradley Cooper and Robert De Niro. She received widespread critical praise for her performance in the film, with Richard Corliss of Time writing, "The reason to stay is Lawrence. Just 21 when the movie was shot, Lawrence is that rare young actress who plays, who is, grown-up. Sullen and sultry, she lends a mature intelligence to any role..... Jennifer Lawrence is the silver lining in this mostly ordinary playbook." Peter Travers of Rolling Stone also wrote that Lawrence "is some kind of miracle. She's rude, dirty, funny, foulmouthed, sloppy, sexy, vibrant, and vulnerable, sometimes all in the same scene, even in the same breath. No list of Best Actress Oscar contenders would be complete without the electrifying Lawrence in the lead. She lights up the screen." She won the Academy Award, Golden Globe Award, and several other accolades for Best Actress for her performance in the film. She also starred alongside Max Thieriot and Elisabeth Shue in Mark Tonderai's thriller House at the End of the Street, which was released in September 2012. She was originally cast to play "O" in the film Savages directed by Oliver Stone, but dropped out due to scheduling conflicts.
2013–present


While filming began in September 2012, Catching Fire, the next installment in the Hunger Games series, was released on November 22, 2013. It became a major commercial and critical success. Lawrence's portrayal of Katniss Everdeen won her critical praise. Stephanie Zacharek of The Village Voice wrote that Lawrence is "both on fire and in the process of becoming, and it's magnificent to watch." On January 10th, Catching Fire became the first movie with a sole female lead to have the highest domestic gross for its year since The Exorcist (1973). Lawrence also played a supporting role in David O. Russell's crime drama American Hustle. The film, based on the FBI ABSCAM operation, is set against the backdrop of political corruption in New Jersey in the late 1970s. Lawrence played the wife of a con artist portrayed by Christian Bale. The film also features Bradley Cooper, Amy Adams, and Jeremy Renner in principal roles, and was released on December 13, 2013. Lawrence has received critical acclaim for her performance and has been nominated for Best Supporting Actress by the Screen Actors Guild and the Critics' Choice Awards. She won the Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actress on January 12, 2014. She also received a third Academy Award nomination, her first for a supporting role, becoming the youngest actress to have three nominations.

Lawrence replaced Angelina Jolie in Susanne Bier's depression-era drama, Serena, based on the novel of the same name by Ron Rash. She plays the role of an unstable woman named Serena who learns that she can never bear her husband's children and sets out to murder the woman who bore her husband an illegitimate son before their marriage. Filming was completed in 2012 and the film is scheduled to be released in April 2014. In 2014, Lawrence will be reprising her role as Mystique in the film X-Men: Days of Future Past, with James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender. She will reprise her role as Katniss Everdeen in the film adaptations of the final Hunger Games book; The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 is set to be released on November 21, 2014 and Part 2 on November 20, 2015.

Lawrence will be starring in and producing the film adaptation of Claire Bidwell Smith's memoir The Rules of Inheritance, directed by Susanne Bier. In September 2013, it was announced that Lawrence was to star in the adaptation of the novel East of Eden with director Gary Ross. The film is based on the John Steinbeck novel and was already adapted to film in 1955, starring James Dean (although the film only adapted the latter half of the novel). Additionally, she was chosen to star in Burial Rites, a film adaptation of Hannah Kent's debut novel, where she would be joined again by Gary Ross. She will also be starring in her third collaboration film directed by David O. Russell, titled The Ends of the Earth. In addition, Lawrence will play Jeannette Walls in the film adaptation of Walls' best-selling memoir The Glass Castle.

In the media

Lawrence's performances thus far have prompted Rolling Stone to call her "the most talented young actress in America." In 2013, Time named her one of the 100 most influential people in the world, ELLE Magazine named her the most powerful woman in the entertainment business in 2013, and in 2012 she ranked No. 1 on AskMen's list of Top 99 Most Desirable Women of the year.

Donald Sutherland compared Lawrence to Laurence Olivier and also described her as an "exquisite and brilliant actor." Film director David O. Russell has praised her effortless acting that make her performances look easy. Lawrence stated "I've always studied people and been fascinated by their reactions and feelings. And I think that's the best acting class you can take – watching real people, listening to them and studying them."

Personal life

As of August 2013, Lawrence is dating X-Men: First Class and X-Men: Days of Future Past co-star Nicholas Hoult. The couple started dating in 2011 after filming X-Men: First Class, but ended their relationship in January 2013, after 2 years of dating. They reconnected 6 months later in July 2013, after filming X-Men: Days of Future Past together.

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