Early life

Jennifer Shrader Lawrence was born on August 15, 1990 in the Indian Hills suburbs of Louisville, Kentucky. Her father, Gary Lawrence, is a construction worker, and her mother, Karen (née Koch), is a children's camp manager. She has two older brothers, Ben and Blaine. Lawrence was educated at the Kammerer Middle School in Louisville. She describes her childhood as an "unhappy" experience—she considered herself a misfit among her peers and suffered from hyperactivity and social anxiety.

A cheerleader at school, Lawrence also excelled at several sports, including softball, field hockey and basketball, which she played on a boys team that her father coached. She was, however, not allowed to play with other girls as her mother deemed her "too rough" a player. Lawrence was particularly fond of horseback riding and made daily visits to a local horse farm. She has a deformed tailbone from being thrown off a horse.

Lawrence harbored ambitions of a career in show-business from a young age: "I always had a very normal idea of what I wanted: I was going to be a mom and I was going to be a doctor and I was going to live in Kentucky. But I always knew that I was going to be famous." When her father worked from home, she would perform for him, often dressing up as a clown or ballerina. Her first acting assignment was at the age of nine with the role of a prostitute in a church play based on the Book of Jonah, that led to a family friend telling her mother, "We don't know if we should congratulate you or not, because your kid's a great prostitute". For the next few years, Lawrence continued to take on parts in church plays and school musicals.

During a family vacation to New York City, at the age of 14, Lawrence was spotted by a talent scout who arranged for her to audition for agents. Karen was not keen to let her daughter pursue an acting career, but she briefly moved to the city to let Lawrence read for roles. After Lawrence's first cold read, the agents opined that her read was the best they had seen from someone that young, though her mother convinced her that the agents were lying. Describing her early experiences, Lawrence said: "It was hard at first. I didn't have any friends. I remember being kind of lonely." Despite opposition from her parents, Lawrence signed on with the CESD Talent Agency, who convinced her parents to let their daughter audition for roles in Los Angeles. Karen agreed to let Lawrence pursue acting on the condition that she graduate from high school. Lawrence was eventually home-schooled in Los Angeles, and graduated two years early with a high score. Considering acting to be a natural fit for her, Lawrence turned down several offers for modelling assignments at the time. Between her acting jobs in the city, Lawrence made regular visits to Louisville, during which she served as an assistant nurse at her mother's camp.

Career

2006-10: Career beginnings and breakthrough

Lawrence began her acting career with a minor role in the television film Company Town (2006). She followed it with guest roles in a number of television shows, including Monk (2006) and Medium (2007). These parts led to her being cast as a series regular on the TBS sitcom The Bill Engvall Show, in which she played Lauren, the rebellious teenage daughter of a family living in suburban Louisville, Colorado. The series premiered in 2007 and ran for three seasons. The critic Tom Shales of The Washington Post considered Lawrence to be a "scene-stealer" in her part and David Hinckley of the New York Daily News wrote that she was successful in "deliver the perpetual exasperation of teenage girls". Lawrence won a Young Artist Award for Outstanding Young Performer in a TV Series for the role in 2009.

In 2008, Lawrence made her film debut with a supporting role in the independent drama film Garden Party, following which she featured in prominent roles in two additional releases of the year. She had a starring role in Lori Petty's drama The Poker House, as the oldest of three sisters living with their drug-abusing mother. Critic Stephen Farber of The Hollywood Reporter thought that Lawrence "has a touching poise on camera that conveys the resilience of children", and the role won her an Outstanding Performance award from the Los Angeles Film Festival. She then featured in director Guillermo Arriaga's feature film debut The Burning Plain (2008), a drama narrated in a hyperlink format. Lawrence was cast as the teenage daughter of Kim Basinger's character who discovers her mother's extramarital affair; she shared the role with Charlize Theron, both actresses portrayed the role at different stages of the character's life. Mark Feeney of The Boston Globe considered Lawrence to be miscast in the part, but Derek Elley of Variety praised her as the production's prime asset, writing that she "plumbs fresher depths" into the film. Her performance earned her the Premio Marcello Mastroianni award for Best Emerging Actress at the Venice Film Festival. Also that year, Lawrence appeared in the music video for the song "The Mess I Made" by Parachute.

Lawrence's breakthrough role came in Debra Granik's small-scale drama Winter's Bone (2010), based on Daniel Woodrell's novel of the same name, in which she portrayed Ree Dolly, a poverty-stricken teenager in the Ozark Mountains who cares for her mentally ill mother and younger siblings while searching for her missing father. Lawrence traveled to the Ozarks a week before filming to live with the family on whom the story was based, and in preparation, she learned to fight, skin squirrels, and chop wood. Her performance was acclaimed by film critics; David Denby of The New Yorker said the film "would be unimaginable with anyone less charismatic" and Peter Travers of the Rolling Stone magazine 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." The acclaimed production won the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival; Lawrence was awarded the National Board of Review Award for Breakthrough Performance and among accolades, received her first nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress, making her the second youngest person to be nominated in the category.

2011-13: Joining lucrative film franchises and awards success

In 2011, Lawrence took on a supporting role in Like Crazy, a romantic drama about long-distance relationships, starring Anton Yelchin and Felicity Jones. Kenneth Turan of Los Angeles Times considered the film to be an "intensely wrought and immensely satisfying love story" and credited all three performers for "making their yearning palpable". She then appeared in The Beaver, a black comedy directed by Jodie Foster, in which she played the daughter of Foster and Mel Gibson's characters. Filmed in 2009, the production was delayed due to controversy concerning Gibson, and eventually failed to find a wide audience. Greater success came to Lawrence later that year when she starred alongside James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender in her first high-profile release—the superhero film X-Men: First Class (2011)—which served as a prequel to the previous films in the X-Men franchise. She portrayed the shape-shifting mutant Mystique, a role played by Rebecca Romijn in the earlier films. Writing for USA Today, Claudia Puig considered the film to be a "classy re-boot" of the franchise, and believed that Lawrence's "high-spirited performance" empowered the film. With a worldwide gross of $350 million, X-Men: First Class became Lawrence's most widely seen film to that point.

Lawrence's profile continued to grow in 2012 when she starred as Katniss Everdeen in The Hunger Games, a film adaptation of author Suzanne Collins' first book in The Hunger Games trilogy. Set in a post-apocalyptic future, the franchise tells the story of the teenage heroine Everdeen as she joins rebel forces against a totalitarian government after winning a brutal televised annual event. Despite being an admirer of the books, Lawrence was initially skeptical to accept the part, as she was intimidated by the scale of the film, and pondered on how it would affect her career. She later agreed to the project after her mother convinced her to take the part. Lawrence underwent extensive physical training for the role, and practiced yoga, archery, rock and tree climbing, and hand-to-hand combat techniques. While training for the part, she injured herself after running into a wall. The film received generally positive reviews, and Lawrence's portrayal of Everdeen was particularly praised. Todd McCarthy of The Hollywood Reporter labelled her an "ideal screen actress", writing that she embodies Everdeen "just as one might imagine her from the novel," and believed that she anchored the film "with impressive gravity and presence". The critic Roger Ebert agreed that she was "strong and convincing in the central role". With worldwide revenues of over $690 million, The Hunger Games became a top-grossing film featuring a female lead, making Lawrence the highest-grossing action heroine of all time. The success of the film established Lawrence as a star; she remarked: "I wasn’t famous 24 hours earlier and I got up to go about my day as usual and went to the grocery store. All of a sudden there were like 25 paparazzi following me and there was a three-car pile up."

Later in 2012, Lawrence played a young, depressed widow in David O. Russell's romantic comedy Silver Linings Playbook. The film was an adaptation of the novel of the same name by Matthew Quick, and co-starred Bradley Cooper as a man with bipolar disorder who finds companionship in Lawrence's character. Lawrence was drawn to the character's complex personality: "She didn't really fit any basic kind of character profile. Somebody who is very forceful and bullheaded is normally very insecure, but she isn't". Although Russell considered Lawrence to be too young for the part, she convinced him to hire her over a Skype audition. She found herself challenged by Russell's spontaneity as a director, and described working on the project as the "best experience of my life". Richard Corliss of Time wrote in his review: "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." Travers noted 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 and Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in the film, becoming, at age 22, the second-youngest Best Actress Oscar winner. Lawrence's final release of the year was alongside Max Thieriot and Elisabeth Shue in Mark Tonderai's critically panned thriller House at the End of the Street.

The Devil You Know, a small-scale feature that Lawrence had filmed for back in 2007 was her first release of 2013. She then reprised the role of Everdeen in The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, the second installment in the Hunger Games franchise. While performing the film's underwater stunts, Lawrence suffered from an ear infection that resulted in a brief loss of hearing. With box office earnings of $864.9 million, the film ranks as her highest-grossing release, as of 2016. Stephanie Zacharek of The Village Voice believed that Lawrence's portrayal of Everdeen made her an ideal role model for youngsters, and wrote that "there’s no sanctimony or pretense of false modesty in the way Lawrence plays her". She next took on a supporting role in Russell's ensemble crime drama American Hustle (2013) as the neurotic wife of a con man (portrayed by Christian Bale). Inspired by the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Abscam sting operation, the film is set against the backdrop of political corruption in 1970s New Jersey and also starred Cooper, Amy Adams, and Jeremy Renner. Lawrence did little research for the part, and instead relied on her instincts and knowledge of the era from the films and television shows she had seen. During the film's production, Lawrence damaged some of her costumes, causing the wardrobe department to create a number of identical dresses. The critic Geofrrey Macnab of The Independent praised Lawrence, writing that "it’s a funny and acerbic performance, very different indeed from her warrior heroics in The Hunger Games", and particularly took note of an improvised scene in which she aggressively kisses Adams on the lips. Lawrence's performance won her the Golden Globe and BAFTA Award for Best Supporting Actress, in addition to a third Academy Award nomination, her first in the supporting category.

2014-present: Established actress

Susanne Bier's depression-era drama Serena (2014), based on the novel of the same name by Ron Rash, marked Lawrence's third collaboration with Cooper. The pair starred as a married couple who become involved in criminal activities after realizing that they cannot bear children. The project was filmed in 2012, but was released in 2014 to poor reviews. Lawrence then reprised the role of Mystique in X-Men: Days of Future Past, which served as a sequel to both X-Men: The Last Stand (2006) and X-Men: First Class (2011). Critically acclaimed, the film grossed $748.1 million worldwide to become the highest-grossing film in the X-Men franchise to that point. Justin Chang of Variety praised Lawrence's look in the film but thought that "she has relatively little to do here other than glower, snarl and let the f/x artists do their thing". Lawrence's next two releases were in the final parts of The Hunger Games film series—Mockingjay - Part 1 (2014) and Part 2 (2015). For the musical score of the former film, she sung the song "The Hanging Tree", which charted on multiple international single charts. In a review for the latter, Manohla Dargis of The New York Times drew similarities between Lawrence's rise to stardom and Everdeen's journey as a rebel leader, writing: "Lawrence now inhabits the role as effortlessly as breathing, partly because, like all great stars, she seems to be playing a version of her 'real' self". Both films earned more than $650 million worldwide.

Lawrence reteamed with Russel for the third time in the biopic Joy (2015), in which she played the eponymous character, a troubled single mother who becomes a successful businessperson after inventing the Miracle Mop. During its production in Boston, the press reported on a feud between Russell and Lawrence that resulted in a "screaming match". Addressing the issue, Lawrence said that her friendship with Russell made it easier for them to have disagreements, adding that "when you really love somebody, you fight with them". The film was not as well received as their previous collaborations, but Lawrence's performance was praised. The critic Richard Roeper labelled her performance as her best since Winter's Bone, calling it "a wonderfully layered performance that carries the film through its rough spots and sometime dubious detours". She won a third Golden Globe Award, and was nominated for another Academy Award for Best Actress, becoming the youngest person to accrue four Oscars nominations. Lawrence began 2016 by providing the narration for A Beautiful Planet, a documentary film that explores Earth from the International Space Station. She then played Mystique for the third time in X-Men: Apocalypse (2016). Helen O'Hara of Empire magazine considered the film to be a letdown from the previous installments of the franchise and criticized Lawrence for making her character "more unrelentingly grim than ever".

Upcoming projects

As of May 2016, Lawrence has four upcoming projects. She was paid $20 million to co-star with Chris Pratt in the science fiction film Passengers, which is scheduled for release in December 2016. She has committed to star in an untitled drama from director Darren Aronofsky, co-starring Javier Bardem, Michelle Pfeiffer and Domhnall Gleeson, about a young couple whose lives are disrupted by the arrival of unexpected guests. In addition, Lawrence has co-written the screenplay of an yet-untitled comedy film with Amy Schumer, in which the pair will co-star as sisters. She will also star in Steven Spielberg's film adaptation of the photojournalist Lynsey Addario's memoir It's What I Do: A Photographer’s Life of Love and War.

Personal life and off-screen work

While filming X-Men: First Class in 2010, Lawrence began a romantic relationship with her co-star Nicholas Hoult. Following a brief split in 2013, the couple broke up while filming for X-Men: Days of Future Past in 2014. Speaking about her personal life, Lawrence has said, "I don't know if I ever will get married and I'm okay with that. I don't feel that I need anything to complete me. I love meeting people, men, women, whatever, I love people coming into your life and bringing something." In 2014, Lawrence was one of the victims of the iCloud leaks of celebrity photos, during which several nude pictures of her were leaked online. Emphasizing that the images were never meant to be public, Lawrence called the leak a "sex crime" and a "sexual violation", adding that "anybody who looked at those pictures, you're perpetuating a sexual offense and you should cower with shame". As of 2016, Lawrence lives in Beverly Hills, California.

Lawrence is vocal about issues pertaining to women's rights. She identifies as pro-choice and is a supporter of planned parenthood. She is a feminist and believes that women can be strong-willed and yet retain their empathetic nature. In 2015, Lawrence wrote an essay for the Lenny Letter in which she criticized the gender pay gap in Hollywood. She wrote about her own experiences in the industry, in particular about the considerably lesser salary she received for her work in American Hustle in comparison to her male co-stars. In a 2015 interview with Vogue, Lawrence criticized Kim Davis for her opposition to same-sex marriage. Though Lawrence was "raised a Republican," she has said, "I just can't imagine supporting a party that doesn't support women's basic rights."

Lawrence became a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in 2011. Lawrence has lent her support to several charitable organizations, such as the World Food Programme, Feeding America, and The Thirst Project. Along with Josh Hutcherson and Liam Hemsworth, her co-stars of The Hunger Games (2012), Lawrence partnered with the United Nations to create awareness on poverty and hunger. She organized an early screening of The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (2013) to benefit Saint Mary's Center, a special disabilities organization located in her hometown of Louisville, and raised more than $40,000 for the cause. Lawrence partnered with the charity broadcast network Chideo to raise funds for the 2015 Special Olympics World Summer Games by organizing a screening of her film Serena (2014). She also collaborated with Omaze to host a fundraising contest for the games as part of the premiere of The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1 (2014). Lawrence teamed with Hutcherson and Hemsworth in 2015 for Prank It FWD, a charitable initiative to raise money for the non-profit organization Do Something. Also in 2015, she launched the Jennifer Lawrence Foundation, which supports charities including the Boys & Girls Clubs of America and the Special Olympics. The following year, Lawrence donated $2 million to the Kosair Children's Hospital in Louisville to set up a cardiac intensive care unit named after her foundation.

In the media

Lawrence's performances in 2012 prompted Rolling Stone to call her "the most talented young actress in America." Donald Sutherland has compared her to Laurence Olivier and has described her as an "exquisite and brilliant actor." Director David O. Russell has praised her effortless acting that make her performances look easy. Lawrence did not study acting nor was she involved in professional theater, 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 magazine. That year, she was also 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. In 2015, Forbes reported that she had emerged as the highest-paid actress with annual earnings of $52 million. Entertainment Weekly named Lawrence the "Entertainer of the Year" in 2012 and 2015. Lawrence was recognized as the highest-grossing action heroine in the 2015 edition of the Guinness World Records for starring in the Hunger Games franchise.

Lawrence's beauty and sex-appeal has been picked up by several media outlets; she appeared in Victoria's Secret's listing of the "Sexiest Up-and-Coming Bombshell" in 2011. She was included in AskMen's annual beauty listings from 2011 to 2016, People's "Most Beautiful People" in 2011 and 2013, and FHM's sexiest woman in the world in 2014. From 2013-15, she was featured in Glamour's annual listing of the best dressed women, topping the list in 2014.

Filmography

Film

Title	Year	Role	Director(s)	Notes
Garden Party	2008	Tiffany "Tiff"	Freeland !Jason Freeland
Poker House, TheThe Poker House	2008	Agnes	Petty !Lori Petty
Burning Plain, TheThe Burning Plain	2008	Mariana	Arriaga !Guillermo Arriaga
Winter's Bone	2010	Ree Dolly	Granik !Debra Granik
Like Crazy	2011	Sam	Doremus !Drake Doremus
Beaver, TheThe Beaver	2011	Norah	Foster !Jodie Foster
X-Men: First Class	2011	Raven Darkhölme / Mystique	Vaughn !Matthew Vaughn
Hunger Games, TheThe Hunger Games	2012	Katniss Everdeen	Ross !Gary Ross
House at the End of the Street	2012	Elissa Cassidy	Tonderai !Mark Tonderai
Silver Linings Playbook	2012	Tiffany Maxwell	O. Russell !David O. Russell
The Devil You Know	2013	Young Zoe Hughes	Oakley !James Oakley
Hunger Games: Catching Fire, TheThe Hunger Games: Catching Fire	2013	Katniss Everdeen	Lawrence !Francis Lawrence
American Hustle	2013	Rosalyn Rosenfeld	O. Russell !David O. Russell
X-Men: Days of Future Past	2014	Raven Darkhölme / Mystique	Singer !Bryan Singer
Serena	2014	Serena Pemberton	Bier !Susanne Bier
Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1, TheThe Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1	2014	Katniss Everdeen	Lawrence !Francis Lawrence
Dior and I	2015	Herself	Tcheng !Frederic Tcheng	Documentary
Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2, TheThe Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2	2015	Katniss Everdeen	Lawrence !Francis Lawrence
Joy	2015	Joy Mangano	O. Russell !David O. Russell
A Beautiful Planet	2016	Narrator	Myers !Toni Myers	Documentary
X-Men: Apocalypse	2016	Raven Darkhölme / Mystique	Singer !Bryan Singer
Passengers	2016	Aurora Dunn	Tyldum !Morten Tyldum	Post-production

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2006	Company Town	Caitlin	Television film
2006	Monk	Mascot	Episode: "Mr. Monk and the Big Game"
2007	Cold Case	Abby Bradford	Episode: "A Dollar, a Dream"
2007	Medium	Claire Chase	Episode: "Mother's Little Helper"
2008	Medium	Young Allison	Episode: "But for the Grace of God"
2007-09	Bill Engvall Show, TheThe Bill Engvall Show	Lauren Pearson	31 episodes
2013	Saturday Night Live	Host	Episode: "Jennifer Lawrence/The Lumineers"
2014	Saturday Night Live	Herself	Episode: "Woody Harrelson/Kendrick Lamar"

Music video

Year	Artist	Title
2010	Parachute	"The Mess I Made"

Accolades

Main article: List of awards and nominations received by Jennifer Lawrence

Lawrence won an Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in Silver Linings Playbook (2012). She has won three Golden Globe Awards: Best Actress - Comedy or Musical for Silver Linings Playbook (2012) and Joy (2015), and Best Supporting Actress for American Hustle (2013). She has also won a BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role for American Hustle (2013).

[ Source: Wikipedia ]