Amy Adams

Amy Lou Adams is an American actress. She is known for both her comedic and dramatic performances, and as of 2017, is among the highest-paid actresses in the world.

Born in Vicenza, Italy, and raised in Castle Rock, Colorado, Adams is the fourth of seven siblings. She trained to be a ballerina, but at age 18 found musical theater to be a better fit, and from 1994 to 1998, she worked in dinner theater. Adams made her feature film debut with a supporting part in the 1999 satire Drop Dead Gorgeous. After relocating to Los Angeles, she made several guest appearances in television, and took on mean girl parts in small-scale features. Her first major role came in Steven Spielberg's 2002 biopic Catch Me If You Can, opposite Leonardo DiCaprio, but she was unemployed for a year after. Her breakthrough came in the part of a loquacious pregnant woman in the 2005 independent film Junebug.

The 2007 musical Enchanted, in which she played a cheerful Disney Princess, was Adams' first major success as a leading lady. She followed it by playing naive, optimistic women in a series of films, including in the 2008 drama Doubt. She subsequently played stronger female parts to positive reviews in the sports film The Fighter (2010), and the psychological drama The Master (2012). In 2013, she began portraying Lois Lane in superhero films set in the DC Extended Universe. She won two consecutive Golden Globe Awards for Best Actress for playing a seductive con artist in the crime film American Hustle (2013) and the troubled painter Margaret Keane in the biopic Big Eyes (2014). In 2016, she received acclaim for her leading roles in the science fiction film Arrival and the psychological thriller Nocturnal Animals.