Nicole Kidman

Acclaimed as both an A-list movie star and a highly respected actor, Nicole Kidman's on-screen career beginning in the late-1980s. Born in Hawaii in 1967 while her parents were briefly staying in the US as students, Kidman was raised in Sydney. She began studying ballet and acting as a child, eventually participating in productions with Australian Theater for Young People. At the age of 16, she made her professional debut on screen in the Australian family film "Bush Christmas" (1983), which she quickly followed with the teen film "BMX Bandits" (1983). Kidman had increasing success in Australia, culminating in the 1989 thriller "Dead Calm" (1989), which won her international acclaim. Two years later, "Days of Thunder" (1990), on which she starred Tom Cruise. The two were married that year, and appeared together again two years later in the period drama "Far and Away" (1992). Kidman's star was already on the rise in the US, but her breakthrough came in 1995 when she starred opposite Val Kilmer in "Batman Forever" (1995). Now a bona fide star, she went on to star in the thriller "The Peacemaker" (1997) and the romantic comedy "Practical Magic" (1998) before pairing with Cruise again, this time starring together in legendary director Stanley Kubrick's final completed film "Eyes Wide Shut"(1999). Two years later, Kidman and Cruise divorced, but Kidman's career remained on an upward trajectory as she starred in the massively popular horror film "The Others" (2001) and the blockbuster musical jukebox hit "Moulin Rouge!" (2001), for which she earned her first Oscar nomination. She won an Oscar the following year for her performance as writer Virginia Woolf in "The Hours" (2002), but did not rest on her laurels, taking major chances as an actor with roles in highly artistic and unusual films like "Dogville" (2003), "Birth" (2004), and "Fur: An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus" (2006). Kidman married musician Keith Urban in 2006. She was nominated for another Academy Award for her performance in the dark drama "Rabbit Hole" (2010), which she soon followed with a controversial role in "The Paperboy" (2012) and a starring turn as legendary actor -turned-princess Grace Kelly in "Grace of Monaco" (2014). She earned another Oscar nod for her performance as an adoptive mother in "Lion" (2016), then in 2017, she joined the cast of the series "Big Little Lies" ( HBO , 2017-). The show earned huge acclaim and quickly became a cultural sensation. As the series continued to ride on a wave of popularity, Kidman starred in the adaptation of Donna Tartt's "The Goldfinch."