Born: Anne Jacqueline Hathaway on 12 November 1982, in Brooklyn, New York, US.

Anne Hathaway is an American actress and singer. She was born the daughter of Gerald Hathaway, a lawyer, and Kate McCauley, an actress who inspired Hathaway to follow in her footsteps. She has an older brother, Michael, and a younger brother, Thomas. Hathaway has mainly Irish and French ancestry, with more distant German and Native American roots.

She made her acting debut in the 1999 television series Get Real, but her first prominent role was in Disney's family comedy The Princess Diaries (2001), which established her career. She continued to appear in family films over the next three years, and she had the lead roles in Ella Enchanted and The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement (both 2004).

Kindness is really important to me in finding my own prince - so are patience and a sense of humour. Without those qualities he's no Prince Charming!

Hathaway wanted to break the "G-rated" image, and consequently, in 2005 she co-starred in the adult-themed Havoc and Brokeback Mountain, both requiring extensive nude scenes, as well as The Devil Wears Prada (2006), in which she starred opposite Meryl Streep. That film has become the highest-grossing film of her career. Becoming Jane, in which she stars as Jane Austen, was released in 2007.

Hathaway's acting style has been compared to that of Judy Garland and Audrey Hepburn, and she cites Hepburn as her favourite actress and Streep as her idol.

      100 Sexiest Women of 2008 - No. 99