Renee Kathleen Zellweger

Renee Kathleen Zellweger was born on April 25 1969, in Katy, Texas, Her mother Kjellfridirene (Andreassen) is a former nurse from Norway and midwife of Norwegian, Kven (Finnish) and Swedish descent. Emil Erich Zellweger, her father, is a Swiss engineer. The couple was married in 1963. Drew Zellweger was Renee's older brother. He is a marketing executive and was born on the 15th of February 1967. When she was working at the drama group, Renee became interested in acting. She also attended an acting class at University of Texas (Austin) and began to look towards acting as a career. She was determined to pursue acting following graduation. However, Hollywood can be difficult to break into, so Renee chose to remain in Texas and try out for roles in Houston. She was able to land roles in films such as Reality Bites (1994), and Empire Records (1995). Matthew McConaughey was another Hollywood newcomer who she met working on the set of Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2: The Next Generation (1994). Renee watched him work on a project which was of interest to her. She auditioned and was chosen for the role in Love and A.45 (1994). The role received enough praise from critics and a decision to move to Los Angeles. A further role in The Whole Wide World (1996) followed which led to her big break. Cameron Crowe was busy casting his next film The Whole Wide World, Jerry Maguire (1996),starring Tom Cruise. Crowe was looking at the actresses Bridget Fonda (Camden Diaz), Winona Ryder (Winona Ryder), and Marisa Tomei, when he saw Zellweger's performance in The Whole Wide World (1996). He auditioned Zellweger and felt confident he had found the perfect Dorothy Boyd. Renee continued her great successes with smaller independent films. She received further praise from critics and was sure that she was able to reenter large-budget Hollywood films. Meryl Streep starred alongside her in One True Thing (1998). Also, she starred with Jim Carrey in Me, Myself & Irene (2000) and began to meet Jim Carrey in the following year. In the role of the title character in Bridget Jones's Diary (2001).