TILDA SWINTON

Date of Birth: November 5, 1960

Born in London, England to an upper-class Scottish family, Swinton was educated at Cambridge University (where she graduated with a degree in Social and Political Science/English Literature) before she started acting with the Royal Shakespeare Company. After a year, she started working with other theaters in England and around the world.

In 1985 she began her long collaboration with English director Derek Jarman. Soon she became Jarman's close friend and regular talent, appearing in each one of his movies such as Caravaggio (1986), The Last of England (1987), War Requiem (1988), The Garden (1990), and Edward II (1992), until his death from AIDS in 1994.

Swinton continued to showcase her talent in independent films and building a small but solid fan base. In 1992 she completed what later became one of her best known projects, her galvanizing portrayal of Virginia Woolf's androgynous character Orlando in the film adaptation of Orlando (1992). But despite the film's popularity, she continued to focus her work in independent films, staying out of the limelight.

After a break in the mid '90s to tend to her pregnancy and the birth of her twins (Xavier and Honor), she returned to the screen, working with Tim Roth in The War Zone (1999), Leonardo DiCaprio in The Beach (2000), The Deep End (2001) and Adaptation (2002). She received a British Independent Film Award nomination for her role in Young Adam (2004). For her performance in Michael Clayton (2007) 2007, she received both a BAFTA Award and an Academy Award.

Swinton, who went to school with Princess Diana, has two children with her former boyfriend, John Byrne. She's currently in a relationship with New Zealand painter Sandro Kopp.

FILMOGRAPHY:

Come Like Shadows (2008)
Phantasmagoria: The Visions of Lewis Carroll (2008)
The Limits of Control (2009)
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008)
Burn After Reading (2008)
The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian (2008)
Julia (2008)
Michael Clayton (2007)
A Londoni ferfi (2007)
Strange Culture (2007)
Sleepwalkers (2007)
Stephanie Daley (2006)
The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (2005)
Broken Flowers (2005)
Thumbsucker (2005)
Constantine (2005)
Young Adam (2004)
The Statement (2003)
Teknolust (2002)
Adaptation (2002)
Vanilla Sky (2001)
The Deep End (2001)
The Dilapidated Dwelling (2000) (voice)
Possible Worlds (2000)
The Beach (2000)
The War Zone (1999)
The Protagonists (1998)
Love Is the Devil (1998)
Conceiving Ada (1997)
Female Perversions (1996)
Remembrance of Things Fast: True Stories Visual Lies (1994)
Blue (1993) (voice)
Wittgenstein (1993)
Man to Man (1992)
Orlando (1992)
Edward II (1991)
The Party: Nature Morte (1991)
The Garden (1990)
War Requiem (1989)
Andere Ende der Welt (1988)
Degrees of Blindness (1988)
Aria (1987)
The Last of England (1987)
Friendship's Death (1987)
Caravaggio (1986)
Egomania - Insel ohne Hoffnung (1986)