JESSICA CHASTAIN
Date of Birth: March 29, 1981
Born Jessica Howard, Jessica Chastain is originally from Northern California. She began taking dance lessons at the age of nine and by age 13, had been chosen as a member of a dance troupe. At that time, she also began appearing in local plays. Jessica graduated from The Juilliard School in New York City as a drama major.
In 2004, she made her TV debut in the movie Dark Shadows, playing Dahlia Taslitz. Guest appearances on TV shows such as ER, Veronica Mars and Close to Home followed, as well as a recurring role on Law & Order: Trial By Jury.
In 2008, Jessica made her film debut as the title role in the indie project Jolene opposite Dermot Mulroney, for which she won a Best Actress award at the Seattle Film Festival. Her first major motion picture was John Madden's The Debt (2010), starring Helen Mirren and Sam Worthington, followed by Terrence Malick's The Tree of Life, starring Brad Pitt. She also starred in the widely-acclaimed film The Help (2011), a role for which she received Golden Globe and Academy Award nominations. She received another Academy Award nomination in 2013 in the Best Actress category for her work in Zero Dark Thirty, about the search for Osama bin Laden.
Some of her other films include the Shakespeare story Coriolanus (2012), the western film Lawless(2012) co-starring Tom Hardy and Gary Oldman and Tar (2012) alongside Mila Kunis, James Franco, and Michelle Williams. She also appears in the 2013 horror flick Mama.
Jessica continues to do theater as well as film and television, and divides her time between New York and Los Angeles.
Filmography:
Mama(2013)
Zero Dark Thirty(2013)
Lawless(2012)
Tar (2012)
Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted (2012) (voice)
Texas Killing Fields(2011)
Wilde Salome (2011)
The Help (2011
The Tree of Life(2011)
Coriolanus(2011)
Take Shelter(2011)
The Debt(2010)
Stolen Lives (2009)
Jolene(2008)