Anna Kendrick was born in Portland, Maine on August 9, 1985 to an accountant mother and teacher father. Anna became passionate for acting early on, her first performance being “Annie” at her local community theater at age five. Anna fondly recalls taking the bus with her brother (two-years-older actor Michael Cooke Kendrick) into New York City at age ten, where the two auditioned for various commercials and she landed her first talent agent. Anna recalls her child-actress self as “one of those hyperactive kids who wanted to jump around and sing and dance and scream and be on stage.” By twelve, Anna had won her first big role playing Dinah in the Broadway show “High Society.” Anna moved to New York for the Broadway-span and lived with her divorced father, being tutored between rehearsals of the mainly all-adult cast. Starring as the precocious burlesque child proved her a triple threat, and critics were so impressed by her performance that she landed a Theatre World Award, Drama Desk Award and was even nominated for the “Best Actress in a Musical” Tony in 1998. Although Audra McDonald took the trophy, Anna went down in history as being the third youngest Tony nominee of all time (after Frankie Michaels and Daisy Eagen). Yet despite Anna’s thriving theater accolades, she was eager to return to normal life in Maine. At her public middle school in Portland, Anna claims to have received some taunting because of her Broadway-status, but continued her theater involvement through her teen years, workshopping Jane Eyre and The Little Princess and later performing in A Little Night Music at seventeen.

Anna’s High Society co-star Randy Graff recommended Anna for Graff’s  director-brothers new coming of age musical, and in 2003 Anna was starring in her first feature film: Camp. Anna plays Fritzi Wagner — a manipulative, socially-awkward theater geek with a stage-stealing solo covering Steven Sodheim’s “Ladies Who Lunch”. After a Sundance opening, Anna received a 2004 Independent Spirit Award.

Anna also participated in the drama club in Deering High School, where she is remembered as being ‘sweet and kind’, ‘always in the moment’, and ‘extremely dedicated’ by her former acting coach. Anna graduated Deering in 2003 with honor role grades, and at seventeen, headed to the West coast to further pursue her talent.

It took some time for Anna to find work in Los Angeles. After an unsuccessful TV Pilot on the WB, Anna auditioned in Jeff Blitz’s coming of age indie film Rocket Science as motor-mouthed high school debater Ginny Ryerson. During the casting, Blitz recalls jotting down “Anna Kendrick is Ginny Ryerson,” because of her striking similarities with the brainy high school overacheiver. The critics noticed Anna’s spot on performance as well, and Anna was awarded Best Supporting Actress at the 2007 Independent Spirit Awards.  Anna’s Rocket Science performance would be what continued to awe directors and launch Anna into the mainstream.

Catherine Hardewick, the director for the first of the Twilight series was is the first director that was so wowed by Anna’s Rocket Science performance that she requested Anna for the role of  Forks High School chatterbox Jessica Stanley. Critics claimed that Anna stole all her scenes in the insanely popular vampire franchise, and Anna reprises her role in Twilight sequels New Moon and Eclipse.

In 2009, Elsewhere and The Marc Pease Experience were released. Elsewhere, a thriller about a girl whose best friend goes missing in a small Indiana town, was Anna’s first lead role. The Marc Pease Experience saw Anna alongside big name cast like Ben Stiller and Jason Shwartzman which was enough to make her feel nautious on her first day of filming. Yet Anna was a natural as her character, high school musical theater star Meg Brickman (not a far stretch for Ms. Kendrick at all)!

However, Anna garnered national attention starring in Up In the Air. Despite being directed by Juno director Jason Reitman , Anna beat out well-known starlets such as Ellen Page and Emily Blunt for the coveted role and “just nailed the part” of Ivy-league grad entrepreneur Natalie Keener. Although Anna claims the audition process was a disaster and she thought Jason ‘hated’ her, the writer-director later admitted that he wrote the award winning script with Anna in mind, after also being impressed with her Rocket Science performance. (Jason has said that Anna reminds him of  strong female actresses in the 1930′s that are just not seen in modern cinema anymore. This is ironic, considering Anna’s favorite film character to date is Sylvia fowler (played by Rosalind Russel) in the 1939 film The Women). Anna was nervous the weeks that led up to shooting Up in the Air, and thought the studio would decide to replace her ‘at any moment with Scarlet Johanssen’, or a more well-known leading lady. But Anna’s nerves quickly subsided after befriending co-stars Vera Farmiga and George Clooney, who joked with Anna on and off-set from everything about working on Twilight to relationship rules.

With the overwhelmingly positive reviews for the December 2009 opening of Up in the Air came talk show appearances such as Jay Leno, Letterman, and Good Morning America — not to mention a spot on the cover of Entertainment Weekly, and hundreds of press interviews and media events. As for awards season, Anna has been a hot commodity with the Critics’ Choice, Golden Globes, SAG awards, and was even nominated for a Best Supporting Actress Academy Award along with Up in the Air co-star Vera farmiga. Anna lost most of the 2009 awards season to Precious supporting actress Mo’nique, yet made quite the name for herself in 2009 and will no doubt continue to do so for upcoming films Scott Pilgrim Vs. the World and I’m With Cancer, as well as many years to come!

Written by Alexx, exclusively for Versatile.