Jennifer Shrader Lawrence (born August 15, 1990) is an American actress. Her first major role was as a lead cast member on the TBS sitcom The Bill Engvall Show (2007–09). She appeared in the independent dramas The Burning Plain (2008) and Winter's Bone (2010), for which she received an Academy Award for Best Actress nomination. Her first commercial success came with the superhero film X-Men: First Class (2011).
Lawrence gained international fame for playing heroine Katniss Everdeen in the Hunger Games film series (2012–15), which established her as the highest-grossing action heroine as of 2015. She starred in David O. Russell's romantic comedy Silver Linings Playbook (2012), for which she won a Golden Globe Award, a Screen Actors Guild Award, and the Academy Award for Best Actress, becoming the second-youngest Best Actress Oscar winner. For her supporting role in Russell's comedy-drama American Hustle (2013), she won a BAFTA Award and a Golden Globe Award, and received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.
Lawrence was born and raised in Louisville, Kentucky. She is the daughter of Karen (née Koch; b. 1956), a children's camp manager, and Gary Lawrence, a construction worker. She has two older brothers, Ben and Blaine. By the age of 14, she 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 3.9/4.0 average, aiming at a career in acting. While growing up and in between acting, Lawrence served as what she described as an assistant nurse at the children's summer day camp that her parents ran.
Lawrence began her acting career in the TBS comedy series The Bill Engvall Show, playing Lauren Pearson, the oldest daughter. The series premiered in September 2007 and ran for three seasons. Actors on the show, including Lawrence, won a Young Artist Award for Outstanding Young Performers in a TV Series and were nominated for Best Performance in a TV Series (Comedy or Drama). In 2008, Lawrence made her film debut with a minor role in Garden Party, followed by a starring role in Lori Petty's drama film The Poker House, as a young victim of abuse. She was awarded the Los Angeles Film Festival Award for Outstanding Performance for her role in the latter film. She next appeared in Guillermo Arriaga's directorial feature debut The Burning Plain (2008), with Charlize Theron and Kim Basinger. Her performance earned her the Marcello Mastroianni Award for Best Emerging Actress at the Venice Film Festival. She also appeared in the music video for the song "The Mess I Made" by Parachute.
Lawrence's lead role in Debra Granik's Winter's Bone (2010), which won Best Picture at the Sundance Film Festival, is often cited as her breakout performance. She portrays a 17-year-old in the Ozark Mountains who cares for her mentally ill mother and younger siblings while searching for her missing father. Her performance was highly acclaimed by film critics. David Denby of The New Yorker said the film "would be unimaginable with anyone less charismatic playing Ree." Peter Travers from Rolling Stone opined that "her performance is more than acting, it's a gathering storm. Lawrence's eyes are a roadmap to what's tearing Ree apart." Lawrence was awarded the National Board of Review Award for Best Breakthrough Performance and received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress.
In 2011, Lawrence co-starred in the independent film Like Crazy, which premiered at the 27th Sundance Film Festival, and she appeared in The Beaver, a dark comedy starring Jodie Foster and Mel Gibson. The latter film was completed in 2009 but was stalled due to controversy concerning Gibson. She also starred alongside James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender in X-Men: First Class (2011), a prequel to the previously released X-Men film series. She portrayed the shape-shifting villain Mystique, played by Rebecca Romijn in earlier X-Men films. First Class was a commercial success, earning $353.6 million at the international box office. Lawrence joined the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences that year.
In 2012, Lawrence starred as Katniss Everdeen in 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 film and how it might affect her career. She underwent extensive training for the role, including archery, rock and tree climbing, and combat. With international revenues of $691.2 million, The Hunger Games became the first major box office hit ($350 million and up) built around a female action star, marking Lawrence as the highest-grossing action heroine. Though the film generally received positive reviews, Lawrence's portrayal of Katniss was particularly praised. Todd McCarthy from The Hollywood Reporter wrote that Lawrence embodies Katniss "just as one might imagine her from the novel," and "anchors" the film "with impressive gravity and presence," ultimately calling her "the ideal screen actress." Chicago Sun-Times film critic Roger Ebert agreed that "Lawrence is strong and convincing in the central role."
Lawrence played a young widow in David O. Russell's Silver Linings Playbook (2012), an adaptation of the novel of the same name by Matthew Quick, opposite Bradley Cooper and Robert De Niro. She received critical praise for her performance, with Richard Corliss of Time writing, "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." Rolling Stone's Peter Travers 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." She won the Golden Globe Award and Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in the film, becoming the second-youngest Best Actress Oscar winner at age 22. Lawrence also starred alongside Max Thieriot and Elisabeth Shue in Mark Tonderai's thriller House at the End of the Street (2012). She became the face of fashion house Dior in October 2012.
In 2013, Lawrence reprised her role as Katniss Everdeen in The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, the second installment in the Hunger Games series. It was a major commercial success, with box office earnings of $864.9 million. Lawrence's performance earned praise; Stephanie Zacharek of The Village Voice wrote that Lawrence was "both on fire and in the process of becoming, and it's magnificent to watch." She next took a supporting role in David O. Russell's crime drama American Hustle (2013) as the wife of a con man portrayed by Christian Bale. Based on the FBI's ABSCAM operation, the film is set against the backdrop of political corruption in 1970s New Jersey and also stars Bradley Cooper, Amy Adams, and Jeremy Renner. Lawrence received critical acclaim for her performance, which earned her the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture, the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role and 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 played the titular character, an unstable woman who learns that she can never have children with her husband, played by Bradley Cooper. Serena was completed in 2012, and was finally released in 2014 to poor reviews. In 2014, Lawrence again played Mystique in X-Men: Days of Future Past, which grossed $748.1 million worldwide, and reprised her role as Katniss Everdeen in The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1, the first half of a two-part adaptation of the final Hunger Games novel. For the musical score of the latter film, she was featured on the song "The Hanging Tree", which reached the top 40 on multiple international singles charts. The film was a box office success, grossing $751.9 million worldwide.
Lawrence's third collaboration with David O. Russell, Joy, is scheduled for a 2015 release. She portrays the titular character, Joy Mangano, the inventor of the Miracle Mop. She is also set to appear in The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2 and X-Men: Apocalypse. In May 2015, she was named the face of Dior Addict's beauty campaign. Lawrence is currently in media for being paid $20 million for newly announced film "Passengers".
Lawrence's performances in 2012 prompted Rolling Stone to call her "the most talented young actress in America." Donald Sutherland compared her to Laurence Olivier and described her as an "exquisite and brilliant actor." Director David O. Russell has praised her effortless acting that make her performances look easy. Lawrence was never involved with theater and did not take acting classes, stating, "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."
Lawrence is perceived as being in a position of influence and power within the film industry. In 2013, she was among the Time 100, an annual list of the most influential people in the world published by Time, was named the most powerful woman in the entertainment business by Elle, and was ranked as the second-most powerful actress by Forbes, having earned an estimated $26 million over the previous year. In 2014, Forbes named her the second-highest-paid actress in Hollywood behind Sandra Bullock, and cited her as the most powerful actress, ranking at No. 12 overall in the magazine's Celebrity 100 list. She has also garnered publicity for her physical appearance: AskMen named her the "most desirable woman" of 2013, and FHM listed her as its annual "sexiest woman in the world" in 2014.
On August 31, 2014, nude photographs of Lawrence leaked online, believed to be obtained from her iCloud account by a hacker. Lawrence confirmed that the photographs are real. Emphasizing that the images were never meant to be public, she called the leak a "sex crime" and a "sexual violation", telling Vanity Fair in October 2014, "Anybody who looked at those pictures, you're perpetuating a sexual offense. You should cower with shame." She said she feels similarly regarding people she knows and loves, adding, "I don't want to get mad, but at the same time I'm thinking, I didn't tell you that you could look at my naked body."
Lawrence is active in charities such as the World Food Programme, Feeding America, and The Thirst Project. She organized an early screening of The Hunger Games: Catching Fire to benefit Saint Mary's Center, a special disabilities organization located in her hometown of Louisville, Kentucky, and raised more than $40,000 for the cause. Lawrence is an official ambassador of the Special Olympics, the world's largest sports organization for children and adults with intellectual disabilities. Lawrence has created the Jennifer Lawrence Foundation, which supports charities such as the Screen Actors Guild Foundation, Special Olympics, and Do Something, a non-profit organization with the goal of motivating young people to take action around social changes. She also held a fundraising contest for the 2015 Special Olympics World Summer Games in Los Angeles as part of the LA premiere of The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1.
Lawrence won an Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in Silver Linings Playbook (2012). She won two Golden Globe Awards, Best Actress – Musical or Comedy for Silver Linings Playbook and Best Supporting Actress for American Hustle (2013). She has won a BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role for American Hustle.
She has also received numerous awards from other organizations, including the Independent Spirit Award for Best Female Lead, the Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Best Actress and the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role for Silver Linings Playbook, the National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Supporting Actress, the New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Supporting Actress and the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture for American Hustle. She received four Critics' Choice Movie Awards for her work in Silver Linings Playbook, The Hunger Games, and American Hustle.
Lawrence was recognized as the highest-grossing action heroine in the 2015 edition of the Guinness World Records for the role of Katniss Everdeen in the Hunger Games franchise.
Lawrence gained international fame for playing heroine Katniss Everdeen in the Hunger Games film series (2012–15), which established her as the highest-grossing action heroine as of 2015. She starred in David O. Russell's romantic comedy Silver Linings Playbook (2012), for which she won a Golden Globe Award, a Screen Actors Guild Award, and the Academy Award for Best Actress, becoming the second-youngest Best Actress Oscar winner. For her supporting role in Russell's comedy-drama American Hustle (2013), she won a BAFTA Award and a Golden Globe Award, and received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.
Lawrence was born and raised in Louisville, Kentucky. She is the daughter of Karen (née Koch; b. 1956), a children's camp manager, and Gary Lawrence, a construction worker. She has two older brothers, Ben and Blaine. By the age of 14, she 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 3.9/4.0 average, aiming at a career in acting. While growing up and in between acting, Lawrence served as what she described as an assistant nurse at the children's summer day camp that her parents ran.
Lawrence began her acting career in the TBS comedy series The Bill Engvall Show, playing Lauren Pearson, the oldest daughter. The series premiered in September 2007 and ran for three seasons. Actors on the show, including Lawrence, won a Young Artist Award for Outstanding Young Performers in a TV Series and were nominated for Best Performance in a TV Series (Comedy or Drama). In 2008, Lawrence made her film debut with a minor role in Garden Party, followed by a starring role in Lori Petty's drama film The Poker House, as a young victim of abuse. She was awarded the Los Angeles Film Festival Award for Outstanding Performance for her role in the latter film. She next appeared in Guillermo Arriaga's directorial feature debut The Burning Plain (2008), with Charlize Theron and Kim Basinger. Her performance earned her the Marcello Mastroianni Award for Best Emerging Actress at the Venice Film Festival. She also appeared in the music video for the song "The Mess I Made" by Parachute.
Lawrence's lead role in Debra Granik's Winter's Bone (2010), which won Best Picture at the Sundance Film Festival, is often cited as her breakout performance. She portrays a 17-year-old in the Ozark Mountains who cares for her mentally ill mother and younger siblings while searching for her missing father. Her performance was highly acclaimed by film critics. David Denby of The New Yorker said the film "would be unimaginable with anyone less charismatic playing Ree." Peter Travers from Rolling Stone opined that "her performance is more than acting, it's a gathering storm. Lawrence's eyes are a roadmap to what's tearing Ree apart." Lawrence was awarded the National Board of Review Award for Best Breakthrough Performance and received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress.
In 2011, Lawrence co-starred in the independent film Like Crazy, which premiered at the 27th Sundance Film Festival, and she appeared in The Beaver, a dark comedy starring Jodie Foster and Mel Gibson. The latter film was completed in 2009 but was stalled due to controversy concerning Gibson. She also starred alongside James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender in X-Men: First Class (2011), a prequel to the previously released X-Men film series. She portrayed the shape-shifting villain Mystique, played by Rebecca Romijn in earlier X-Men films. First Class was a commercial success, earning $353.6 million at the international box office. Lawrence joined the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences that year.
In 2012, Lawrence starred as Katniss Everdeen in 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 film and how it might affect her career. She underwent extensive training for the role, including archery, rock and tree climbing, and combat. With international revenues of $691.2 million, The Hunger Games became the first major box office hit ($350 million and up) built around a female action star, marking Lawrence as the highest-grossing action heroine. Though the film generally received positive reviews, Lawrence's portrayal of Katniss was particularly praised. Todd McCarthy from The Hollywood Reporter wrote that Lawrence embodies Katniss "just as one might imagine her from the novel," and "anchors" the film "with impressive gravity and presence," ultimately calling her "the ideal screen actress." Chicago Sun-Times film critic Roger Ebert agreed that "Lawrence is strong and convincing in the central role."
Lawrence played a young widow in David O. Russell's Silver Linings Playbook (2012), an adaptation of the novel of the same name by Matthew Quick, opposite Bradley Cooper and Robert De Niro. She received critical praise for her performance, with Richard Corliss of Time writing, "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." Rolling Stone's Peter Travers 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." She won the Golden Globe Award and Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in the film, becoming the second-youngest Best Actress Oscar winner at age 22. Lawrence also starred alongside Max Thieriot and Elisabeth Shue in Mark Tonderai's thriller House at the End of the Street (2012). She became the face of fashion house Dior in October 2012.
In 2013, Lawrence reprised her role as Katniss Everdeen in The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, the second installment in the Hunger Games series. It was a major commercial success, with box office earnings of $864.9 million. Lawrence's performance earned praise; Stephanie Zacharek of The Village Voice wrote that Lawrence was "both on fire and in the process of becoming, and it's magnificent to watch." She next took a supporting role in David O. Russell's crime drama American Hustle (2013) as the wife of a con man portrayed by Christian Bale. Based on the FBI's ABSCAM operation, the film is set against the backdrop of political corruption in 1970s New Jersey and also stars Bradley Cooper, Amy Adams, and Jeremy Renner. Lawrence received critical acclaim for her performance, which earned her the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture, the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role and 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 played the titular character, an unstable woman who learns that she can never have children with her husband, played by Bradley Cooper. Serena was completed in 2012, and was finally released in 2014 to poor reviews. In 2014, Lawrence again played Mystique in X-Men: Days of Future Past, which grossed $748.1 million worldwide, and reprised her role as Katniss Everdeen in The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1, the first half of a two-part adaptation of the final Hunger Games novel. For the musical score of the latter film, she was featured on the song "The Hanging Tree", which reached the top 40 on multiple international singles charts. The film was a box office success, grossing $751.9 million worldwide.
Lawrence's third collaboration with David O. Russell, Joy, is scheduled for a 2015 release. She portrays the titular character, Joy Mangano, the inventor of the Miracle Mop. She is also set to appear in The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2 and X-Men: Apocalypse. In May 2015, she was named the face of Dior Addict's beauty campaign. Lawrence is currently in media for being paid $20 million for newly announced film "Passengers".
Lawrence's performances in 2012 prompted Rolling Stone to call her "the most talented young actress in America." Donald Sutherland compared her to Laurence Olivier and described her as an "exquisite and brilliant actor." Director David O. Russell has praised her effortless acting that make her performances look easy. Lawrence was never involved with theater and did not take acting classes, stating, "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."
Lawrence is perceived as being in a position of influence and power within the film industry. In 2013, she was among the Time 100, an annual list of the most influential people in the world published by Time, was named the most powerful woman in the entertainment business by Elle, and was ranked as the second-most powerful actress by Forbes, having earned an estimated $26 million over the previous year. In 2014, Forbes named her the second-highest-paid actress in Hollywood behind Sandra Bullock, and cited her as the most powerful actress, ranking at No. 12 overall in the magazine's Celebrity 100 list. She has also garnered publicity for her physical appearance: AskMen named her the "most desirable woman" of 2013, and FHM listed her as its annual "sexiest woman in the world" in 2014.
On August 31, 2014, nude photographs of Lawrence leaked online, believed to be obtained from her iCloud account by a hacker. Lawrence confirmed that the photographs are real. Emphasizing that the images were never meant to be public, she called the leak a "sex crime" and a "sexual violation", telling Vanity Fair in October 2014, "Anybody who looked at those pictures, you're perpetuating a sexual offense. You should cower with shame." She said she feels similarly regarding people she knows and loves, adding, "I don't want to get mad, but at the same time I'm thinking, I didn't tell you that you could look at my naked body."
Lawrence is active in charities such as the World Food Programme, Feeding America, and The Thirst Project. She organized an early screening of The Hunger Games: Catching Fire to benefit Saint Mary's Center, a special disabilities organization located in her hometown of Louisville, Kentucky, and raised more than $40,000 for the cause. Lawrence is an official ambassador of the Special Olympics, the world's largest sports organization for children and adults with intellectual disabilities. Lawrence has created the Jennifer Lawrence Foundation, which supports charities such as the Screen Actors Guild Foundation, Special Olympics, and Do Something, a non-profit organization with the goal of motivating young people to take action around social changes. She also held a fundraising contest for the 2015 Special Olympics World Summer Games in Los Angeles as part of the LA premiere of The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1.
Lawrence won an Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in Silver Linings Playbook (2012). She won two Golden Globe Awards, Best Actress – Musical or Comedy for Silver Linings Playbook and Best Supporting Actress for American Hustle (2013). She has won a BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role for American Hustle.
She has also received numerous awards from other organizations, including the Independent Spirit Award for Best Female Lead, the Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Best Actress and the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role for Silver Linings Playbook, the National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Supporting Actress, the New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Supporting Actress and the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture for American Hustle. She received four Critics' Choice Movie Awards for her work in Silver Linings Playbook, The Hunger Games, and American Hustle.
Lawrence was recognized as the highest-grossing action heroine in the 2015 edition of the Guinness World Records for the role of Katniss Everdeen in the Hunger Games franchise.
Jennifer Lawrence Images
