Early life

Banks was born in Pittsfield, Massachusetts and grew up on Brown Street, the eldest of four children of Ann (née Wallace) and Mark P. Mitchell. Her father was a factory worker for General Electric and her mother worked in a bank. She has said that she grew up "Irish + WASP + Catholic".

Growing up, Banks played baseball and rode horses. She was in Little League when she broke her leg sliding into third. She then tried out for the school play, which was her start in acting. She graduated from Pittsfield High School in 1992, and is a member of the Massachusetts Junior Classical League. She attended the University of Pennsylvania (Penn), where she was a member of the Delta Delta Delta Sorority. She graduated magna cum laude in 1996 with a major in communications and a minor in theater arts. In 1998, she completed schooling at the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco, California, where she earned an MFA.

Career

Banks changed her name to avoid confusion with actress Elizabeth Mitchell. After auditioning in New York, she was offered a role on the soap opera Santa Barbara. Taking the role would have required her to quit her education at the American Conservatory Theatre, and Banks ultimately decided to forgo the offer due to having taken out student loans to complete her degree. She made her acting debut in the 1998 independent film Surrender Dorothy, as Elizabeth Casey, and appeared in various films over the next seven years including Guy Ritchie's Swept Away before gaining more prominent widespread exposure through the 2005 comedy film The 40-Year-Old Virgin.

In August 2005, at the Williamstown Theatre Festival, Banks starred in William Inge's Bus Stop as Cherie, the sexy, blonde, aspiring nightclub singer. Jeffrey Borak wrote that Banks' portrayal was acted "with poise, clarity and a shrewd feel for Cherie's complexities. Her performance is all of a piece and in harmony, stylistically, with the performances around her..." In 2005, she appeared on the series Stella, and in May 2006, she had a role in the season five finale of the NBC sitcom Scrubs as Dr. Kim Briggs, the love interest of J.D. (Zach Braff). The character appeared throughout seasons six, seven, and eight as a recurring guest star.

In 2006, Banks appeared in the American football drama film Invincible, in which she played Mark Wahlberg's love interest. Later, she and co-star Wahlberg were nominated for the "Best Kiss" award at the MTV Movie Awards. That same year, she landed the starring role in the comedy-horror film Slither.

In 2007, Banks played the female lead in the comedy film Meet Bill, alongside Aaron Eckhart and Jessica Alba. That same year, she had a small role in the Christmas comedy film Fred Claus, co-starring Vince Vaughn and Paul Giamatti as Santa's little helper, Charlyne. In 2008, she played the ex-wife and mother of the daughter of Ryan Reynolds lead in the comedy film Definitely, Maybe, alongside Isla Fisher and Ryan Reynolds, starred with Seth Rogen as the eponymous female lead in the Kevin Smith comedy Zack and Miri Make a Porno, and played United States First Lady Laura Bush in W., Oliver Stone's biopic of George W. Bush.

In 2009, Banks appeared in the horror film The Uninvited, a remake of the Korean film A Tale of Two Sisters. The film was about an intrusive stepmother who makes life miserable for the teen daughters of her new husband. Banks based her character, Rachel, on Rebecca De Mornay's character in The Hand That Rocks the Cradle. "It was very important to me that every line reading I gave could be interpreted two ways," says Banks of her role, "So that when you go back through the movie you can see that".

Banks is a frequent co-star of actor Paul Rudd, the two having appeared in five films together to date (Wet Hot American Summer, The Baxter, The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Role Models, and Our Idiot Brother). She is also a frequent co-star of actor Tobey Maguire, the two having also appeared in five films together (Spider-Man, Seabiscuit, Spider-Man 2, Spider-Man 3, and The Details).

Banks was cast as a love interest for Jack Donaghy (Alec Baldwin) in the fourth season of the Emmy Award-winning sitcom 30 Rock. Intended to appear in four episodes in 2010, Banks went on to become a recurring character with 13 appearances by the end of the fifth season, including her marriage in the episode Mrs. Donaghy. Her performance in season five earned her a nomination for Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series for the 63rd Primetime Emmy Awards.

Banks appeared in the movie The Hunger Games (2012), playing Effie Trinket, a woman from "The Capitol" who escorts the District 12 tributes to the Hunger Games. She reprised the role in the films The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (2013), The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1 (2014), and The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2 (2015). Banks co-starred in the 2014 movie Every Secret Thing, playing Detective Nancy Porter investigating the disappearance of a young child with similarities to a case she had previously been involved with.

In 2014, Banks was recognized by Elle Magazine during The Women in Hollywood Awards, honoring women for their outstanding achievements in film, spanning all aspects of the motion picture industry, including acting, directing, and producing.

Banks portrayed Melinda Ledbetter Wilson, the wife of Brian Wilson, in the 2015 biopic Love and Mercy, which is based on the life of the legendary musician and founding member of The Beach Boys, as portrayed by John Cusack. After producing and appearing, as Gail, in the first Pitch Perfect film, Banks directed its sequel, Pitch Perfect 2 (2015), making her feature directorial debut. She also produced the film, and again played Gail. In 2015, she was named as a member of the Jury for the Main Competition at the 2015 Venice Film Festival. The festival is chaired by Alfonso Cuarón. Also in 2015, Banks became a spokeswoman for Realtor.com in their series of television commercials. In February 2016, Banks was cast as Rita Repulsa in the 2017 Power Rangers reboot film. As of mid-February 2016, Banks became the commercial face of Old Navy.

Personal life

Banks met her husband, sportswriter and producer Max Handelman, on her first day at college on September 6, 1992. They were married in 2003. She and her husband had their first child, Felix, who was born through a surrogate in March 2011. In November 2012, Banks announced the birth of another son, Magnus Mitchell, also by surrogate.

Banks went through parts of the process of conversion to Judaism, her husband's faith, and studied with rabbis. In 2013, speaking of her religion, she stated that she practices Judaism, though "I did not have my mikveh, so technically I'm not converted", but that she has "been essentially a Jew for like 15 years", adding "Frankly, because I'm already doing everything, I feel like I'm as Jewish as I'm ever going to be".

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1998	Surrender Dorothy	Vicki	Credited as Elizabeth Casey
2000	Shaft	Trey's friend	Credited as Elizabeth Maresal Mitchell
2001	Wet Hot American Summer	Lindsay
	Ordinary Sinner	Rachel
2002	Spider-Man	Betty Brant
	Swept Away	Debi
	Catch Me If You Can	Lucy Forrest
2003	The Trade	Sioux Sever
	Seabiscuit	Marcela Howard
2004	Spider-Man 2	Betty Brant
2005	Heights	Isabel Lee
	Sexual Life	Sarah
	The Sisters	Nancy Pecket
	The Baxter	Caroline Swann
	The 40-Year-Old Virgin	Beth
	Daltry Calhoun	May
2006	Slither	Starla Grant
	Invincible	Janet Cantrell
2007	Spider-Man 3	Betty Brant
	Meet Bill	Jess
	Fred Claus	Charlene
2008	Definitely, Maybe	Emily Jones
	Meet Dave	Gina Morrison
	Lovely, Still	Alex
	W.	Laura Bush
	Zack and Miri Make a Porno	Miriam "Miri" Linky
	Role Models	Beth Jones
2009	Big Breaks	Starlet	Short film
	The Uninvited	Rachel Summers
	Surrogates	N/A	Executive producer
2010	The Next Three Days	Lara Brennan
2011	The Details	Nealy Lang
	Just a Little Heart Attack	Woman	Short film Also director
	Our Idiot Brother	Miranda Rochlin
2012	Man on a Ledge	Lydia Mercer
	The Hunger Games	Effie Trinket
	What to Expect When You're Expecting	Wendy Cooper
	People Like Us	Frankie Davis
	Pitch Perfect	Gail Abernathy-McKadden	Also producer
2013	Movie 43	Amy	Segment: "Beezel" Directed segment: "Middleschool Date"
	The Hunger Games: Catching Fire	Effie Trinket
2014	Little Accidents	Diane Doyle
	The Lego Movie	Wyldstyle/Lucy	Voice role
	Walk of Shame	Meghan Miles
	Every Secret Thing	Detective Nancy Porter
	Love & Mercy	Melinda Ledbetter
	The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1	Effie Trinket
2015	Pitch Perfect 2	Gail Abernathy-McKadden	Also director and producer
	Magic Mike XXL	Paris
	The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2	Effie Trinket
2017	Power Rangers	Rita Repulsa	Filming

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1999	All My Children	Waitress	1 episode
1999	Third Watch	Elaine Elchisak	Episode: "Patterns" Credited as Elizabeth Maresal Mitchell
2000	Sex and the City	Catherine	Episode: "Politically Erect"
2001	Law & Order: Special Victims Unit	Jaina Tobias Jansen	Episode: "Sacrifice"
2002	Without a Trace	Clarissa	Episode: "Snatch Back"
2005	Stella	Tamara	Episode: "Meeting Girls"
2006-09	Scrubs	Dr. Kim Briggs	17 episodes
2007-08	Wainy Days	Shelly	3 episodes
2007-08	American Dad!	Becky Arangino / Lisa Silver (voices)	3 episodes
2008	Comanche Moon	Maggie Tilton	3 episodes
2009-15	Modern Family	Sal	4 episodes
2010-12	30 Rock	Avery Jessup	15 episodes
2012	Family Guy	Pam Fishman (voice)	Episode: "Into Fat Air"
2012	Robot Chicken	Mrs. Claus / Shana "Scarlett" O'Hara (voices)	Episode: "Robot Chicken's ATM Christmas Special"
2012	Comedy Bang! Bang!	Herself	Episode: "Elizabeth Banks Wears A Red Dress"
2013	Timms Valley	Beth Billings-Timms (voice)	Pilot
2014	Phineas and Ferb	Grulinda (voice)	Episode: "Imperfect Storm"
2015	Resident Advisors	Doctor	Episode: "Motivational Speaker "; also producer
2015	Wet Hot American Summer: First Day of Camp	Lindsay	6 episodes
2015	Moonbeam City	Chief Pizzaz Miller (voice)	10 episodes
2015	The Muppets	Herself	Episode: "Pig Girls Don't Cry"
2015	Saturday Night Live	Herself/host	Episode: "Elizabeth Banks/Disclosure"

Video games

Year	Title	Voice role
2014	The Lego Movie Videogame	Wyldstyle/Lucy
2015	Lego Dimensions	Wyldstyle/Lucy

Awards and nominations

Year	Association	Category	Work	Result	Ref.
2003	Young Hollywood Awards	Exciting New Face	N/A	Won
2004	Screen Actors Guild	Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture	Seabiscuit	Nominated
2007	MTV Movie Awards	Best Kiss	Invincible	Nominated
2008	Detroit Film Critics Society	Best Supporting Actress	W.	Nominated
2009	Women in Film Crystal + Lucy Awards	Face of the Future Award	N/A	Won
2011	Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards	Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series	30 Rock	Nominated
2012	MTV Movie Awards	Best On-Screen Transformation	The Hunger Games	Won
	Teen Choice Awards	Choice Movie: Female Scene Stealer		Nominated
	Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards	Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series	30 Rock	Nominated
2013	CinemaCon	Excellence in Acting	N/A	Won
	Online Film & Television Association	Best Guest Actress in a Comedy Series	Modern Family	Nominated
	San Diego Film Critics Society	Best Supporting Actress	The Hunger Games: Catching Fire	Nominated
2014	Golden Raspberry Awards	Worst Director	Movie 43	Won
	MTV Movie Awards	Best On-Screen Transformation	The Hunger Games: Catching Fire	Nominated
2015	Austin Film Critics Association	Best Supporting Actress	Love & Mercy	Nominated
	BTVA Feature Film Voice Acting Award	Best Female Lead Vocal Performance in a Feature Film	The Lego Movie	Nominated
		Best Vocal Ensemble in a Feature Film		Nominated
	BTVA People's Choice Voice Acting Award	Best Female Lead Vocal Performance in a Feature Film		Won
		Best Vocal Ensemble in a Feature Film		Won
	CinemaCon	Breakthrough Filmmaker of the Year	N/A	Won
	Florida Film Critics Circle Awards	Best Supporting Actress	Love & Mercy	Nominated
	Indiana Film Journalists Association	Best Supporting Actress		Runner-up
	Las Vegas Film Critics Society	Best Supporting Actress		Won
	MTV Movie Awards	Best On-Screen Transformation	The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1	Won
	Online Film & Television Association Awards	Best Guest Actress in a Comedy Series	Modern Family	Nominated
	Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards	Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series		Nominated
	San Francisco Film Critics Circle	Best Supporting Actress	Love & Mercy	Runner-up
2016	Santa Barbara International Film Festival	Virtuoso Award		Won
	Satellite Awards	Best Supporting Actress - Motion Picture		Nominated
	Golden Raspberry Awards	The Razzie Redeemer Award	Pitch Perfect 2	Nominated

Charities

Elizabeth Banks supports the following charitable causes: Music Education, ALS (amyrotrophic lateral sclerosis), Alzheimer's, Education.

[ Source: Wikipedia ]