Elizabeth Banks is an actor, director, writer, and producer from the United States. She is best recognized for her roles as Effie Trinket in The Hunger Games film series (2012–2015) and Gail Abernathy-McKadden in Pitch Perfect (2012–2017). Pitch Perfect 2 (2015) marked Banks’ directorial debut, with a $69 million opening weekend gross that set a new record for a first-time filmmaker. She also starred in the action-comedy Charlie’s Angels, which she directed, wrote, produced, and starred in (2019).
Banks had a recurring role as Avery Jessup on the NBC sitcom 30 Rock, for which she was nominated for two Primetime Emmy Awards. She has recurring parts on Scrubs and Modern Family, the latter of which earned her a Primetime Emmy nomination. Wet Hot American Summer: First Day of Camp (2015) and Wet Hot American Summer: Ten Years Later (2015) were both Netflix miniseries starring Banks (2017). She now presents an ABC reboot of the 1980s game show Press Your Luck.
Elizabeth Banks’ Childhood
Elizabeth Banks, whose true name is Elizabeth Irene Mitchell, was born in Pittsfield, Massachusetts on February 10, 1974, at the age of 47. Ann Mitchell, the eldest of Ann and Mark P. Mitchell’s four children, grew up on Brown Street. Her father, a Vietnam War veteran, worked for General Electric as a manufacturing worker, while her mother worked in a bank. She grew up “Irish + WASP + Catholic,” according to her. Banks used to ride horses and play baseball as a kid. She shattered her leg going into third base while playing Little League. She subsequently auditioned for the school play, which was her first acting experience.
She is a member of the Massachusetts Junior Classical League and a 1992 graduate of Pittsfield High School. She was a member of the Delta Delta Delta Sorority and was elected to the Friars Senior Society at the University of Pennsylvania. With a degree in communications and a minor in theatre arts, she graduated magna cum laude in 1996. She graduated from the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco, California, in 1998 with an MFA in acting.
View this post on Instagram
Elizabeth Banks’ Personal Life
Elizabeth Banks is married to Max Handelman, his longtime boyfriend. On September 7, 1992, she met her husband, Max Handelman, a sportswriter and producer from Portland, Oregon, on her first day of college. In 2003, they tied the knot. The couple has two sons who were born through surrogacy. Banks and her future husband, Max Handelman, founded their own production company, Brownstone Productions, in 2002.
Banks went through the process of converting to Judaism, studying with rabbis, and learning about her husband’s faith. In 2013, she stated that she practices Judaism, even though she “did not have my mikveh, so technically I’m not converted,” and that she has “been essentially a Jew for like 15 years,” adding, “Frankly because I’m already doing everything [practicing religious rituals], I feel like I’m as Jewish as I’ll ever be.”
Elizabeth Banks’ Career
When Elizabeth Banks joined the Screen Actors Guild, she had to change her name because actress Elizabeth Mitchell was already a member.
She was offered a position in the soap series Santa Barbara after auditioning in New York. Taking the job would have required her to leave her studies at the American Conservatory Theatre, and Banks eventually declined the offer because she had taken out student debts to finish her degree. She made her acting debut as Elizabeth Casey in the independent film Surrender Dorothy in 1998, and went on to star in several other films over the next seven years, including Wet Hot American Summer (2001), Swept Away (2002), and Seabiscuit (2003).
View this post on Instagram
Breakthrough
With her part in the 2005 comedy picture The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Banks acquired more global recognition. Banks played Cherie, a sultry blonde wannabe nightclub singer, in William Inge’s Bus Stop at the Williamstown Theatre Festival in August 2005. Banks’ character was acted “with grace, clarity, and a keen understanding for Cherie’s nuances,” according to Jeffrey Borak. Her performance is cohesive and artistically in sync with the acts surrounding her.” In 2005, she starred in the series Stella, and in May 2006, she played Dr. Kim Briggs, J.D.’s love interest, in the season five finale of the NBC sitcom Scrubs (Zach Braff). Throughout seasons six, seven, and eight, Banks starred as a recurring guest star.
Invincible, a 2006 American football drama film starring Mark Wahlberg, featured Banks as Mark Wahlberg’s love interest. She and co-star Mark Wahlberg were later nominated for the MTV Movie Awards’ “Best Kiss” category. She secured a starring part in the comedy-horror flick Slither the following year.
Read More:
- Hailee Steinfeld Net Worth: Who Was Originally Supposed to Play Kate Bishop?
- Lily Allen Net Worth: How Did David Harbour Meet Lily Allen?
In 2007, Banks starred alongside Aaron Eckhart and Jessica Alba in the comedy picture Meet Bill as the female lead. In the same year, she appeared in the Christmas comedy film Fred Claus, alongside Vince Vaughn and Paul Giamatti, in a small role as Santa’s little helper, Charlyne. She co-starred with Seth Rogen as the titular female protagonist in Kevin Smith’s comedy Zack and Miri Make a Porno in 2008, and she played Laura Bush, the first lady of the United States, in Oliver Stone’s biopic of George W. Bush, opposite Isla Fisher and Ryan Reynolds.
In 2009, Banks starred in The Uninvited, a horror film based on the South Korean film A Tale of Two Sisters. The story revolved around an overbearing stepmother who made life difficult for her new husband’s teenage daughters. Rachel is based on Rebecca De Mornay’s character in The Hand That Rocks the Cradle, which Banks adapted for the screen. “It was very important to me that every line reading I did could be taken two ways,” Banks says of her performance, “so that you can see that when you go back through the movie.”
Banks is a regular co-star of actor Paul Rudd, with whom she has been in five films (Wet Hot American Summer, The Baxter, The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Role Models, and Our Idiot Brother). She is also a regular co-star of actor Tobey Maguire, with whom she has shared the screen in five films (Spider-Man, Seabiscuit, Spider-Man 2, Spider-Man 3, and The Details).
In the fourth season of the Emmy Award-winning sitcom 30 Rock, Elizabeth Banks plays a love interest for Jack Donaghy (Alec Baldwin). Banks was supposed to appear in four episodes in 2010, but she ended up making 13 appearances by the fifth season’s end, including her marriage in the episode “Mrs. Donaghy.” She was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series for her role in season five at the 63rd Primetime Emmy Awards.
Banks appeared in the romantic comedy What to Expect When You’re Expecting and the action flick Man on a Ledge both in 2012. She also starred as Gail Abernathy-McKadden in the critically and commercially successful musical comedy film Pitch Perfect. She directed and appeared in distinct pieces of Movie 43, a critically panned comedy anthology film, the following year.
Read Also:Â James Brown Net Worth: How Long Did They Keep James Brown Body?
Banks appears as Effie Trinket, a woman from “The Capitol” who leads the District 12 tributes to the yearly Hunger Games, in the science fiction adventure film The Hunger Games (2012). She returned to the character in The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (2013), The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 (2014), and The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2 (2015). (2015). Banks co-starred in the 2014 film Every Secret Thing as Detective Nancy Porter, who was tasked with investigating the disappearance of a small kid who resembled a case she had previously worked on. She also gave the voice of Master Builder Wyldstyle in Warner Bros.’ animated feature The Lego Movie that same year.
Banks was honored by Elle Magazine during The Women in Hollywood Awards in 2014, which honored women for their outstanding achievements in film across all sectors of the industry, including acting, directing, and producing.
How Much Money Does Elizabeth Banks Have?
Elizabeth Banks is a 50-million-dollar actress, producer, and director from the United States. Elizabeth Banks is most known for her roles in the films Maybe, The Hunger Games, Pitch Perfect, and The Lego Movie series, as well as Zack and Miri, Make a Porno. She is best known as a producer/director for the Pitch Perfect franchise and the 2019 Charlie’s Angels revival.
Related Updates:
- Carole King Net Worth: Did James Taylor and Carole King Ever Date?
- Mick Jagger Net Worth: Who Is the Richest Member of the Rolling Stones?
Debut as a Director and Sustained Success
Banks made her feature directorial debut with Pitch Perfect 2 (2015), which she directed after producing and acting in Pitch Perfect. She also co-produced and starred in the sequels Pitch Perfect 2 and Pitch Perfect 3. (2017).
In the 2015 movie Love & Mercy, Banks played Melinda Ledbetter Wilson, Brian Wilson’s wife, based on the life of the singer and founding member of The Beach Boys, as portrayed by John Cusack.
She was named a member of the Main Competition Jury at the 2015 Venice Film Festival 2015. Alfonso Cuarón is the festival’s president. Banks also became a spokesperson for Realtor.com in a series of television commercials in 2015. Banks took over as Old Navy’s advertising face in mid-February 2016. She also starred as Rita Repulsa, a space creature, in the 2017 Power Rangers remake film.
In 2018, Banks played opposite Melissa McCarthy and Maya Rudolph in the comedy film The Happytime Murders as Jenny. In the animated comedy film The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part, she resumed her main role as Lucy / Wyldstyle. She later starred in the superhero horror film Brightburn as Tori Breyer.
Banks was named the host of the summer 2019 reboot of the game show Press Your Luck, which she also executive produces, on May 2, 2019. In November 2019, Banks directed, produced, wrote and appeared as Bosley in the action comedy film Charlie’s Angels. In the FX drama Mrs. America, she played feminist Jill Ruckelshaus in 2020.
Banks was planned to appear in, direct, and produce a new adaptation of The Invisible Woman (1940), based on her original plot proposal, in November 2019. The relaunch of the female monster will be written by Erin Cressida Wilson, with Max Handelman and Alison Small serving as producer and executive producer, respectively.
Banks were allowed to choose a Universal Pictures project from the Universal Monsters roster in February 2020, and she chose The Invisible Woman. Banks was cast as Ms. Frizzle in a live-action/animated hybrid of The Magic School Bus in June 2020, which she will also produce through her company Brownstone Productions alongside directors and writers Tom McGrath and Eric Darnell.
Politics
Banks was a staunch supporter of Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign, performing with other celebrities at the 2016 Democratic National Convention in a rendition of Rachel Platten’s track “Fight Song.” She also considers herself a feminist. Banks urged her Instagram followers to contact VoteRiders for voter ID information and help in September 2020.
Asset or Real Estate
In 2007, Elizabeth paid $1.625 million for a property in Studio City, California. Elizabeth put this house on the market thirteen years later. However, in 2020, this lovely property will sell for $2.4 million.
Elizabeth and her husband, Max Handelman, paid $6.85 million for a 1-acre hilltop property in Sherman Oaks in 2018. This lovely home is now occupied by Elizabeth and Max.
Did Elizabeth Banks Make Pitch Perfect?
Elizabeth Banks was a key figure in the development of the Pitch Perfect films. She not only produced the first movie but also directed and co-starred in the succeeding sequels.
