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Friday, May 24, 2013

Carey Mulligan Biography


Hailed as "in every way sensational" by Rolling Stone, the acclaimed stage and film actress Carey Mulligan is becoming one of the most well-known actresses on the Hollywood scene. Born in 1985 to her mother, Nano, and her father, Stephen, Mulligan is originally from Westminster but moved to Germany when she was three because of her father's work in hotel management. There, she took on her first acting roles at the International School of Dusseldorf, where she performed in school productions with her older brother, Owain.

When she was eight, her family returned to London, but she found no outlet for her talents until she attended the Woldingham boarding school in Surrey. It was there that Mulligan's love for acting was really kindled. An active member and head of the school's drama department, she had a fateful encounter with Kenneth Branagh when he saw him in a production of "Henry V." She wrote him a letter in which she declared acting her "vocation in life" despite the wishes of her family. She received no immediate support from him but got encouragement from his sister and continued to work with acting as the school's theater prefect.

Although her family originally intended for her to attend Reading University, Mulligan was able to get in touch with actor Julian Fellowes during her gap year by contacting her old headmistress. Over dinner, she learned of an opportunity to audition for a role as Kitty Bennet in Joe Wright's 2005 rendition of "Pride and Prejudice." She auditioned and won the role, and her performance in the critically acclaimed film launched her career into the public eye. She quickly followed this up by winning the role of Ada House in the critically acclaimed "Bleak House" miniseries.

Though her family had trepidations at first, she received support for her career as she moved through 2006 and 2007 with roles in a number of television series and films. She appeared beside Daniel Radcliffe in "My Boy Jack" and received a Constellation Award for her role in a wildly popular "Dr. Who" episode, "Blink." She also continued to work with live productions by appearing in a production of Chekhov's "The Seagull" at the Royal Court Theatre in 2007 and in the same production on Broadway in 2008. In between her acting jobs, she supplemented her income by running errands for Ealing studios.

Though she had already appeared beside acting heavyweights such as Johnny Depp, Christian Bale, and Daniel Radcliffe, Carey Mulligan's breakout film is largely regarded to be "An Education," a comedic drama based on the biographical works of journalist Lynn Barber. For her leading role as Jenny, a schoolgirl pulled away from her Oxford grooming by a seductive con man, Carey Mulligan won a total of eleven best actress awards, including a British Academy Award.

This widespread recognition marked her transition from a relative newcomer to an A-list actor, and she appeared beside Keira Knightley in the well-received independent film "Never Let me Go" in 2010. She also starred in "Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps" and became romantically involved with costar Shia Labeouf until the end of the year.

In 2011, Carey Mulligan starred in the film "Drive," a neo-crime thriller that won Nicholas Refn the Best Director award at the Cannes film festival and netted Mulligan a number of nominations for Best Supporting Actress. She also returned to live performance by joining the Atlantic Theater Company for a tour of "Through a Glass, Darkly." She played the leading role of Karin, and her exploration of a woman sliding into madness earned her glowing reviews from theater critics. It was also in 2011 that Mulligan met her current husband, Marcus Mumford, the frontman for Mumford and Sons. The two met at a private show during a house party, and after discovering that they were childhood penpals reconnected, quickly hit it off.

In 2012, Casey began her work on the recent and upcoming films "The Great Gatsby" and "Inside Llewyn Davis." She also married, and she became attached to the Alzheimer's Society as its ambassador. Motivated by her grandmother's dementia, she is an outspoken advocate for mental health awareness and continues to work by sponsoring charity.

As for the future, Carey Mulligan is currently slated to star in the upcoming film "Hold on to Me" by James Marsh and will be starring in an adaptation of Thomas Hardy's 1874 classic novel, "Into the Madding Crowd." She is only twenty-seven years old and already a decorated actress with a rich filmography, so it looks like Mulligan's career is set to be a long and vibrant one.

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