Elizabeth Banks

Elizabeth Banks, born Elizabeth Mitchell on February 10, 1974, in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, is an American actress, filmmaker, and producer. The eldest of four children of Ann and Mark P. Mitchell, she grew up in Pittsfield, where her father, a Vietnam War veteran, worked as a factory worker for General Electric and her mother worked at a bank. As a child, she played baseball in Little League, an experience that led indirectly to her acting career when a broken leg sustained while sliding into third base prompted her to audition for a school play. She graduated from Pittsfield High School in 1992 and went on to attend the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, where she majored in communications, minored in theater arts, was a member of the Delta Delta Delta sorority, and was elected to the Friars Senior Society, graduating magna cum laude in 1996. She subsequently earned an MFA from the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco in 1998.

Upon joining the Screen Actors Guild, Mitchell adopted the professional name Elizabeth Banks, as actress Elizabeth Mitchell was already registered with the union. Early in her training, she was offered a role on the soap opera Santa Barbara but declined, unwilling to leave the American Conservatory Theater program she had taken out student loans to complete. She made her film debut in the 1998 independent production Surrender Dorothy and appeared in a range of films over the following years, including Wet Hot American Summer (2001) and Seabiscuit (2003). Her most prominent early film role was Betty Brant in Sam Raimi's Spider-Man trilogy (2002–2007). In 2002, she founded the film and television production company Brownstone Productions with her husband, Max Handelman. Broader recognition came with her role in the 2005 comedy The 40-Year-Old Virgin, and that same year she performed at the Williamstown Theatre Festival in William Inge's Bus Stop, playing Cherie, an aspiring nightclub singer.

Banks's stage work includes Broadway credits from 2007 and participation in The 24 Hour Plays in 2004. In 2006, she took on a recurring role as Dr. Kim Briggs on the NBC sitcom Scrubs, a role she continued through seasons six, seven, and eight. That same year she appeared in the football drama Invincible alongside Mark Wahlberg and starred in the horror-comedy Slither. In 2008, she played United States First Lady Laura Bush in Oliver Stone's biographical film W. and starred opposite Seth Rogen in Kevin Smith's Zack and Miri Make a Porno.

Beginning in 2010, Banks joined the cast of the NBC sitcom 30 Rock as Avery Jessup, a recurring love interest for Alec Baldwin's character Jack Donaghy. Originally intended for four episodes, her role expanded to thirteen appearances through the fifth season, including an on-screen marriage in the episode "Mrs. Donaghy." Her work on the series earned her two Primetime Emmy Award nominations for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series. She also appeared in a recurring capacity on Modern Family from 2009 to 2020, earning a third Primetime Emmy Award nomination for that role.

Banks became widely recognized for her portrayal of Effie Trinket, the Capitol escort for District 12 tributes, in The Hunger Games film series, appearing in all four installments from 2012 through 2015. That same year she appeared as Gail Abernathy-McKadden in the musical comedy Pitch Perfect, a role she reprised in subsequent entries in that franchise through 2017, also serving as a commentator character. In 2014, she provided the voice of Wyldstyle in the Warner Bros. animated film The Lego Movie, a role she continued in later entries in that series. She also appeared in Every Secret Thing (2014) as Detective Nancy Porter.

Banks made her feature directorial debut with Pitch Perfect 2 in 2015, whose opening-weekend gross of $69 million set a record for a first-time director. She went on to direct the action comedy Charlie's Angels (2019) and the horror comedy Cocaine Bear (2023). She also starred in the Netflix productions Wet Hot American Summer: First Day of Camp (2015) and Wet Hot American Summer: Ten Years Later (2017). In 2019, she began hosting the ABC revival of the game show Press Your Luck. Her subsequent film appearances include Call Jane (2022), Migration (2023), and Skincare (2024).