Background

Ethnicity: Kendrick is of English, Irish, and Scottish descent.

Anna Kendrick was born on August 9, 1985, in Portland, Maine, the United States, to Janice, an accountant, and William K. Kendrick, a history teacher, and financer. She has an older brother, Michael Cooke Kendrick, who has also acted.

Education

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

Career

Anna Kendrick had a passion for performing from an early age, starting with dancing lessons and starring in 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. Kendrick 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, she had auditioned her way to Broadway and was playing precocious burlesque child Dinah in High Society.

She moved to New York for the Broadway-span and lived with her now-divorced father. She was tutored between rehearsals, working hard hours with the all-adult cast. Critics were so impressed by Kendrick’s singing, dancing, and acting in the role 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 Kendrick’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 teasing because of her Broadway-status, but continued her Broadway involvement through her teen years, workshopping Jane Eyre, The Little Princess, and A Little Night Music.

When she was 17, Anna’s High Society co-star Randy Graff recommended Anna for her director-brothers coming of age musical film, and in 2003 she landed a supporting role in her first feature film: Camp. Kendrick plays Fritzi Wagner - a manipulative, socially-awkward theater geek with a stage-stealing solo covering Steven Sondheim's Ladies Who Lunch. After a Sundance opening, Anna received a 2004 Independent Spirit Award. Soon, she moved to Los Angeles in order to pursue her acting career.

It took some time for Anna to find work in Los Angeles. After some unsuccessful TV pilots, Anna Kendrick auditioned for Jeff Blitz’s coming of age indie film Rocket Science for the role of 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 overachiever. The critics noticed Anna’s spot-on performance as well, and she was awarded Best Supporting Actress at the 2007 Independent Spirit Awards. Kendrick’s Rocket Science performance would be what continued to awe directors and launch Kendrick into the mainstream.

With a supporting role in Twilight (2008), Kendrick became part of the international sensation surrounding the big-screen adaptation of Stephanie Meyer's teenage vampire novels. She played the friend of Bella (Kristen Stewart), a girl who falls for a vampire named Edward (Robert Pattinson). Despite Kendrick’s role is small, critics claimed that Anna stole all her scenes in the insanely popular vampire franchise, and Anna reprised her role for the sequels.

In 2009, Anna had starring roles in the little-released films Elsewhere and The Marc Pease Experience. Elsewhere, a thriller about a girl whose best friend goes missing in a small Indiana town was Anna Kendrick’s first lead role. The Marc Pease Experience saw Kendrick act alongside big-name cast like Ben Stiller and Jason Schwartzman - which was enough to make her feel nauseous on her first day of filming. Yet Kendrick was a natural at playing high school musical theater star Meg Brickman.

Graduating into more mature roles, Kendrick played Natalie, a young businesswoman, in 2009's Up in the Air (2009). The film follows a cross-country trek taken by Natalie and Ryan (played by George Clooney), a human resources professional who is hired by companies to fire unwanted employees. Ryan insists that his work requires face-to-face interaction while Natalie insists that the job can be done via video-conferencing over a computer. The two travel together so that Ryan can show Natalie the particulars of terminating employees. For her work on the film, Kendrick nabbed an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress. Her co-star, Vera Farmiga, who plays Clooney's love interest, was also nominated in the same category.

After Anna’s success in Up in the Air, she tried to turn away from being typecast in a similar role and played everything from a naive psychiatrist in 50/50 (2010) to voicing a surly teenager in the stop-animation feature ParaNorman (2011).

An in-demand actress, Kendrick starred a number of films in 2012. She co-starred with Chace Crawford as a couple expecting their first child in the romantic comedy in What to Expect When You're Expecting. In the musical comedy Pitch Perfect (2012) with Rebel Wilson and Brittany Snow, Kendrick led a college singing group. Kendrick also had a supporting role in the thriller The Company You Keep with Shia LaBeouf and Robert Redford that same year.

In 2014, she starred in the star-studded musical fantasy Into the Woods alongside Emily Blunt and Meryl Street as Cinderella and the indie drama Cake with Jennifer Aniston.

She reprised her role as Beca Mitchell in Pitch Perfect 2 (2015) and starred opposite Sam Rockwell in Mr. Right (2016), an action-comedy in which she plays a woman whose perfect guy turns out to be a hitman. That same year, the busy actress also starred in The Hollars, Get a Job and The Accountant. Kendrick also voiced the character Poppy in the animated film, Trolls.

In 2017, Kendrick starred in Pitch Perfect 3, and the following year, she starred in Paul Feig's comedy-thriller A Simple Favor, opposite Blake Lively. In September 2018, Kendrick began appearing in a series of advertisements for Hilton Hotels.

In September 2019, Kendrick is set to appear in The Day Shall Come, a British-American satirical black comedy thriller film, written by Chris Morris and Jesse Armstrong and directed by Morris. The film stars Marchánt Davis, Anna Kendrick, Danielle Brooks, and Denis O'Hare. The film exploits the farce at the heart of real-life FBI sting operations. Moses (Marchant Davis), the impoverished leader of a small Hebrew Israelite commune in Miami, is offered cash to save his family from eviction. He has no idea his sponsor works for FBI agent Kendra Glack (Anna Kendrick), who plans to turn him into a criminal by fuelling his madcap revolutionary dreams, just to look good in front of her boss.

Achievements

• Kendrick has received numerous Tony and Oscar nominations in the past. In 1998, Kendrick scored her Best Featured Actress Tony nomination for her role in High Society at the age of 12.
  
  Pitch Perfect Song Cups made Billboard charts. A year following Kendrick’s performance of Cups in Pitch Perfect, the song hit No. 1 on the Billboard’s Adult Contemporary Radio Airplay Chart, No. 2 on Adult Pop Songs and No. 6 on the Billboard Hot 100.
  
  Throughout her career, Anna Kendrick has won several awards and nominations for her brilliant acting skills. Kendrick rose to prominence for her supporting role as Jessica Stanley in The Twilight Saga (2008-2012). Her starring role in Jason Reitman's comedy-drama film Up in the Air, which was released in 2009, received praise from critics and a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. She achieved further recognition for starring as Beca Mitchell in the Pitch Perfect film series (2012-2017).
  
  

Works

More photos

• book

  • Scrappy Little Nobody

    (A collection of humorous autobiographical essays by the A...)

    2016

• movie

  • Up in the Air

    (From Jason Reitman, the Oscar-nominated director of "Juno...)

    2009
  • The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 1

    (In the highly anticipated fourth installment of The Twili...)

    2011
  • The Marc Pease Experience

    (Ben Stiller and Jason Schwartzman star in this hilarious ...)

    2009
  • The Twilight Saga: New Moon

    (In the second chapter of Stephenie Meyer's best-selling T...)

    2009
  • Twilight

    (Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart) doesn't expect much when she...)

    2008
  • 50/50

    (Adam (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) navigates the road to recover...)

    2011
  • What to Expect When You're Expecting

    (Inspired by the perennial bestseller, What to Expect When...)

    2012
  • The Company You Keep

    (Grant's (Robert Redford) world is turned upside down when...)

    2012
  • A Simple Favor

    (A Simple Favor, directed by Paul Feig, centers around Ste...)

    2018
  • End of Watch

    (From the writer of Training Day comes a riveting cop dram...)

    2012
  • Paranorman

    (From the makers of Coraline comes the magically thrilling...)

    2012
  • Table 19

    (After being replaced as maid of honor, Eloise (Anna Kendr...)

    2017
  • Cake

    (Jennifer Aniston stars in this dark comedy about an acerb...)

    2014
  • Get A Job

    (Miles Teller, Anna Kendrick, and Bryan Cranston lead this...)

    2016
  • Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates

    (Hard-partying brothers Mike (Adam Devine) and Dave (Zac E...)

    2016
  • Pitch Perfect 2

    (Beca (Anna Kendrick), Fat Amy (Rebel Wilson) and the Bard...)

    2015
  • Pitch Perfect 3

    (Now graduated from college and out in the real world wher...)

    2017
  • Pitch Perfect

    (Pitch Perfect is an outrageously hilarious laugh-out-loud...)

    2012
  • Camp

    (After a series of Broadway flops, songwriter Bert Hanley ...)

    2003
  • Life After Beth

    (Zach (Dane DeHaan) is devastated by the unexpected death ...)

    2014
  • The Hollars

    (A struggling artist (John Krasinski) is forced to navigat...)

    2016
  • Happy Christmas

    (A hard-partying 20-something moves in with her brother's ...)

    2014
  • Digging for Fire

    (The discovery of a bone and a rusty old gun send a husban...)

    2015
  • Mr. Right

    (A woman thinks she's found the perfect guy, but he turns ...)

    2015
  • Drinking Buddies

    (Luke and Kate are co-workers at a Chicago brewery, where ...)

    2013
  • Trolls

    (Join Poppy and Branch in a music-filled original adventur...)

    2016
  • Rapture-Palooza

    (After the Apocalypse a young couple set off to stop the A...)

    2013
  • The Voices

    (A mentally unhinged factory worker believes that talking ...)

    2014
  • Elsewhere

    (In a small town, girls are mysteriously disappearing and ...)

    2009
  • Into The Woods

    (Fairy tales collide in a modern musical twist on Happily ...)

    2014
  • The Accountant

    (A forensic accountant un-cooks the books for illicit clie...)

    2016
  • Scott Pilgrim vs. The World

    (Scott Pilgrim just met the girl of his dreams...literally...)

    2010
  • The Last Five Years

    (Available same day as theatrical release. Based on the hi...)

    2015
  • Twilight Saga: Eclipse

    (It all begins... with a choice. In the third chapter of S...)

    2010
  • The Next Ten Minutes 2015

• music

  • Ladies Who Lunch 2003
  • Time After Time 2009
  • Cups 2013
  • A Very Nice Prince 2014
  • On the Steps of the Palace 2014
  • Your Fault 2014
  • No One Is Alone 2014
  • Still Hurting 2015
  • See I'm Smiling 2015
  • A Part of That 2015
  • A Summer in Ohio 2015
  • A Miracle Would Happen / When You Come Home to Me 2015
  • I Can Do Better Than That 2015
  • Goodbye Until Tomorrow / I Could Never Rescue You 2015
  • Winter Wonderland / Here Comes Santa Claus 2015
  • Move Your Feet / D.A.N.C.E. / It's A Sunshine Day 2016
  • Get Back Up Again 2016
  • The Sound Of Silence 2016
  • I'm Coming Out / Mo' Money Mo' Problems 2016
  • True Colors 2016
  • CAN'T STOP THE FEELING! 2016
  • September 2016

Religion

Kendrick says that she was raised “Protestant, boring, middle-of-the-road, Christian-light,” but that of her own accord she became very religious in her youth. It didn’t stick for very long, though. She said: "And then when I was 14/15, starting to question that was a really uncomfortable time, cause I was like, “But I’m the girl that’s into this, and now who will I be?"

But religion doesn’t appear to be high on her priority list anymore.

Politics

Anna Kendrick is a supporter of Barack Obama. Kendrick retweeted an Obama post on election night in 2012, and along with some other young celebrities, she met with the president during his campaign that year so he could encourage the stars to get involved. She tweeted this picture of him doubling over in laughter as they shook hands with this caption: "The coolest three seconds of my life."

Views

Kendrick is all about talking about sexism, but she doesn’t necessarily believe that actors are the right people to tackle these social issues questions. She once said in an interview: “It shouldn’t be the most important conversation about sexism - because no one really wants to hear actors talk about this, because we’re in such positions of privilege.”

Also, she is a supporter of the LGBTQ community. She also showed her support for gay marriage when she helped raise money for the gay rights organization FAIR. Along with other Hollywood stars, she signed a poster promoting marriage equality that was later put up for auction. Her message: "Love is a right. Not a privilege."

Quotations: "An actor should always let humility outweigh ambition."

Personality

Kendrick hosts an annual Lord of the Rings marathon. The actress is a sci-fi/fantasy fan and lists Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, Game of Thrones and Harry Potter as some of her favorites.

She is terrified of the paparazzi and doesn’t understand how people can see it as ‘glamorous’. She also finds red carpets odd because the photographers scream at her to get their pictures.

Anna has admitted she will not ever do nude scenes. She also says if she stopped acting she would probably go to culinary school. She loves the instant gratification and response from cooking which you don’t get with shooting films until they are released.

Interests

• baking

• Politicians

  Barack Obama

• Writers

  Lord of the Rings - J. R. R. Tolkien, Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling

• Sport & Clubs

  tennis

• Music & Bands

  The Strokes, Beyoncé, Beastie Boys, Jay Z, Rufus Wainwright

Connections

In 2009, Kendrick began a relationship with director Edgar Wright after meeting on the set of Scott Pilgrim vs. the World. The relationship ended in March 2013. Since February 2014, Kendrick has been dating cinematographer Ben Richardson, whom she met while filming Drinking Buddies.

Father:

William Kendrick

Mother:

Janice Kendrick

Brother:

Michael Cooke Kendrick

ex-boyfriend:

Edgar Wright

Boyfriend :

Ben Richardson

colleague:

Vera Farmiga

colleague:

Seth Rogen

colleague:

Shia LaBeouf

colleague:

Casey Affleck

colleague:

Rebel Wilson

colleague:

Elizabeth Banks

colleague:

Jennifer Lopez

colleague:

Olivia Wilde

colleague:

Felicity Huffman

colleague:

Chris Pine

colleague:

Orlando Bloom

References

• Anna Kendrick