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Elizabeth Banks extracted from Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia, distributed under the GNU Free Documentation License

Elizabeth Banks
Banks at the 2008 Toronto International Film Festival
Born	Elizabeth Maresal Mitchell February 10, 1974 (1974-02-10) (age 36) Pittsfield, Massachusetts, U.S.
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1998–present
Spouse(s)	Max Handelman (m. 2003–present) «start: (2003)»"Marriage: Max Handelman to Elizabeth Banks" Location: (linkback:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_Banks)

Elizabeth Banks (born Elizabeth Maresal Mitchell;¹ February 10, 1974) is an American actress.

Contents 1 Early life and education 2 Career 3 Personal life 4 Filmography 4.1 Film 4.2 Television 5 References 6 External links

Early life and education

Banks was born in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, as the oldest of four children of Ann and Mark Mitchell.² Her father was a factory worker for General Electric and her mother until recently worked in a bank.³ As a young child she was a contestant on the Nickelodeon game show Finders Keepers. She graduated from Pittsfield High School in 1992 and is a magna cum laude graduate of the University of Pennsylvania in 1996 where she was a member of Delta Delta Delta Sorority. In 1998 she completed schooling at the American Conservatory Theater.

Career

Banks changed her name to avoid confusion with actress Elizabeth Mitchell.⁴ She debuted in the independent film Surrender Dorothy as "Elizabeth Casey."

She quickly gained widespread exposure through movies like The 40-Year-Old Virgin and Slither. She also played Mark Wahlberg's love interest in the movie Invincible.

In August 2005 at the Williamstown Theatre Festival, Banks starred in William Inge's Bus Stop as Cherie, the sexy, blond, aspiring nightclub singer.⁵ Banks' portrayal was acted "with poise, clarity and a shrewd feel for Cherie's complexities. Her performance is all of a piece and in harmony, stylistically, with the performances around her...."⁶

In May 2006, she appeared in the season five finale of the NBC comedy Scrubs as Dr. Kim Briggs, the love interest of J.D. (Zach Braff). The character has appeared throughout seasons six, seven and eight as a recurring guest star.

In 2005, she appeared on the show Stella. In 2007, Banks played the female lead in the comedy Meet Bill, alongside Aaron Eckhart and Jessica Alba. Banks also has a small role in the 2007 Christmas comedy film Fred Claus, co-starring Vince Vaughn and Paul Giamatti, and played a love interest in the 2008 comedy Definitely, Maybe alongside Isla Fisher and Ryan Reynolds.

Banks starred with Seth Rogen as the eponymous female lead in the Kevin Smith comedy Zack and Miri Make a Porno, which was released on Halloween 2008. She was also seen playing United States First Lady Laura Bush in W, Oliver Stone's biopic of George W. Bush.⁷

She has appeared in the thriller The Uninvited, a remake of the Korean horror film A Tale of Two Sisters.⁸ The film tells the tale of an intrusive stepmother who makes life miserable for the teen daughters of her new husband. Banks based her character, Rachel, on Rebecca De Mornay's character in The Hand That Rocks the Cradle".⁹ "It was very important to me that every line reading I gave could be interpreted two ways," says Banks of her role, "So that when you go back through the movie you can see that".⁹

Banks is a frequent co-star of actor Paul Rudd, the two having appeared in four films together to date (Wet Hot American Summer, The Baxter, The 40 Year Old Virgin, and Role Models).¹⁰ "There was a David O. Russell movie that I really wanted to make with Vince Vaughn that ended up falling apart",⁹ said Banks, referring to the film H-Man Cometh, in a January 2009 interview.

Banks is set to star alongside Leslie Mann in What Was I Thinking?, based upon the book by Barbara Davilman and Liz Dubelman.¹¹

In November 2009 Banks guest-starred on episode 8 of Modern Family as a drinking buddy of Cameron and Mitchell.¹²

On December 8, 2009, it was announced that Banks will appear in at least four episodes of the Emmy-winning sitcom 30 Rock as a love interest for Jack Donaghy (Alec Baldwin).¹³ She stars also in the 2010 Bizarre thriller film Dark Fields, which is directed by Neil Burger.¹⁴

Personal life

On July 5, 2003, Banks married sportswriter and producer Max Handelman,¹⁵ who had been her boyfriend since meeting him on her first day of college, September 6, 1992.¹⁶ She converted to Judaism upon marrying him.¹⁷

Filmography

Film

Year	Film	Role	Notes
1998	Surrender Dorothy	Vicki	Credited as "Elizabeth Casey"
2000	Shaft	Trey's friend	Credited as "Elizabeth Maresal Mitchell"
2001	Wet Hot American Summer	Lindsay
	Ordinary Sinner	Rachel
2002	Spider-Man	Betty Brant
	Swept Away	Debi
	Catch Me If You Can	Lucy Forrest
	Stella Shorts 1998-2002	Woman at yoga class	Short films; direct-to-DVD release
2003	The Trade	Sioux Sever
	Seabiscuit	Marcela Howard
2004	Spider-Man 2	Betty Brant
2005	Heights	Isabel
	Sexual Life	Sarah
	The Sisters	Nancy Pecket
	The Baxter	Caroline Swann
	The 40-Year-Old Virgin	Beth
	Daltry Calhoun	May
2006	Slither	Starla Grant
	Invincible	Janet Cantrell
2007	Spider-Man 3	Betty Brant
	Fred Claus	Charlene
2008	Definitely, Maybe	Sarah Hayes/Emily Jones
	Meet Bill	Jess
	Meet Dave	Gina Morrison
	W.	Laura Bush
	Zack and Miri Make a Porno	Miriam "Miri" Linky
	Role Models	Beth Jones
2009	The Uninvited	Rachel
	Lovely, Still	Alex	Awaiting release
2010	What Was I Thinking?	TBA	Announced
	The Next Three Days	TBA	Announced

Television

Year	Series	Role	Notes
1999	Third Watch	Elaine Elchisak	Episode 1.3: "Patterns" Credited as "Elizabeth Maresal Mitchell"
2000	Sex and the City	Catherine	Episode 3.2: "Politically Erect"
2001	Law & Order: Special Victims Unit	Jaina Tobias Jansen	Episode 3.7: "Sacrifice"
2002	Without a Trace	Clarissa	Episode 1.7: "Snatch Back"
2005	Stella	Tamara	Episode 1.6: "Meeting Girls"
2006–2007, 2009	Scrubs	Dr. Kim Briggs	Appeared in 15 episodes
2007–2008	Wainy Days	Shelly	Appeared in three episodes
	American Dad!	Becky Arangino Lisa Silver	Episode 3.1: "The Vacation Goo" Episodes 4.1 "1600 Candles" and 4.5: "Escape from Pearl Bailey"
2008	Comanche Moon	Maggie Tilton	TV mini-series
2009	Modern Family	Sal	Episode 1.8: "Great Expectations"
2010	30 Rock	Avery Jessup	Episode 4.13: "Anna Howard Shaw Day" Episode 4.14: "Future Husband"

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Elizabeth Banks

• Official Site
• Elizabeth Banks at the Internet Movie Database
• Elizabeth Banks at Allmovie

Persondata
NAME	Banks, Elizabeth
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Mitchell, Elizabeth Maresal
SHORT DESCRIPTION	American actress
DATE OF BIRTH	February 10, 1974
PLACE OF BIRTH	Pittsfield, Massachusetts, U.S.
DATE OF DEATH
PLACE OF DEATH