Renee Kathleen Zellweger

Renee Kathleen Zellweger was born on the 25th of April 1969 in Katy, Texas, Her mother Kjellfrid Irene (Andreassen) is a nurse born in Norway, former and midwife, of Norwegian, Kven (Finnish), and Swedish descent. Her father, Emil Erich Zellweger, is an engineer from Switzerland. The couple got married in 1963. Drew Zellweger is Renee's brother and was born on 15 February 1967. Renee was a member of the drama group at high school when she began to become interested in acting. She took an acting class at University of Texas (Austin) and started to think about acting as a career. She was determined to pursue acting after graduation. But, Hollywood can be difficult to enter, so Renee determined to stay in Texas and audition for roles in Houston. She was able to get roles in films such as Reality Bites (1994), and Empire Records (1995). Matthew McConaughey was another Hollywood newcomer that she met filming Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2: The Next Generation (1994). Renee was aware that he was working on a project and decided to audition. The role was given to her of Love and the 45 (1994). This received her enough praise, that she decided to move to Los Angeles. Her breakthrough came in another part in The Whole Wide World (1996). Cameron Crowe was busy casting his next film Jerry Maguire (1996),starring Tom Cruise. Crowe was taking a look at actresses like Bridget Fonda and Marisa Tomei when the performance of Zellweger on The Whole Wide World (1996). The audition was conducted by Zellweger to make sure that the actor was in fact Dorothy Boyd. Renee continued her great successes with smaller independent films. The film received more praise from critics and felt confident enough that she was ready to make a return to large-budget Hollywood films. Meryl Streep co-starred in One True Thing (1998). Also, she starred with Jim Carrey in Me, Myself & Irene (2000) and began to be romantically involved with Carrey shortly thereafter. Bridget Jones's Diary (2001) - in the leading role.