Nicole Kidman

Nicole Mary Kidman was born on 20 June 1967 in Honolulu, Hawaii, where her Australian parents were temporarily residing on student visas. Her father, Antony Kidman, was a biochemist, clinical psychologist, and author, and was at the time a graduate student at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. Her mother, Janelle Ann Kidman, worked as a nursing instructor, was a member of the Women's Electoral Lobby, and edited her husband's books. Kidman has a younger sister, Antonia, a journalist and television presenter. Born in the United States to Australian parents, she holds dual Australian and American citizenship and has English, Irish, and Scottish ancestry. Her birth in Hawaii led to her being given the Hawaiian name "Hōkūlani," meaning "heavenly star," inspired by a baby elephant born around the same time at the Honolulu Zoo. The family returned to Australia three years after her birth, and Kidman grew up in the Longueville suburb of Sydney, attending Lane Cove Public School and North Sydney Girls High School. She enrolled in ballet at age three and pursued drama and mime as a teenager at the Phillip Street Theatre and the Australian Theatre for Young People, where she trained alongside fellow actress Naomi Watts. She eventually dropped out of high school to pursue acting full-time.

Kidman made her film debut in 1983 at age sixteen in a remake of the Australian holiday film Bush Christmas, and that same year appeared in the action comedy BMX Bandits. A supporting role in the television series Five Mile Creek followed by the end of 1983. In 1984, her mother was diagnosed with breast cancer, prompting Kidman to pause her acting career temporarily while she studied massage therapy to assist with her mother's physical therapy. She resumed work and appeared in the romantic comedy Windrider in 1986, and in the 1987 miniseries Vietnam, for which she won her first Australian Film Institute Award. Her performance in the 1988 film Emerald City earned her a second Australian Film Institute Award. Her international breakthrough came in 1989 with the thriller Dead Calm, in which she starred opposite Sam Neill, and the miniseries Bangkok Hilton. She rose to wider prominence with a supporting role in the 1990 sports action film Days of Thunder alongside Tom Cruise, which ranked among that year's highest-grossing films. In 1991, she received her first Golden Globe Award nomination, for Best Supporting Actress, for her work in Billy Bathgate, and co-starred with Naomi Watts and Thandiwe Newton in the Australian independent film Flirting, which won the Australian Film Institute Award for Best Film. She and Cruise reteamed for Ron Howard's Far and Away in 1992, and she followed that with roles in Malice and My Life in 1993.

The mid-1990s marked a period of significant critical recognition for Kidman. In 1995, she played Dr. Chase Meridian in the superhero film Batman Forever opposite Val Kilmer, and starred in Gus Van Sant's dark comedy To Die For, in which she portrayed murderous newscaster Suzanne Stone. She continued building her film career with Practical Magic in 1998 and Eyes Wide Shut in 1999. Her performance in Baz Luhrmann's Moulin Rouge! in 2001 earned her an Academy Award nomination, and that same year she starred in the commercially successful thriller The Others. Her portrayal of Virginia Woolf in The Hours in 2002 brought her the Academy Award for Best Actress as well as a British Academy Film Award. She received further Academy Award nominations for Rabbit Hole in 2010, Lion in 2016, and Being the Ricardos in 2021. Additional acclaimed film work includes Cold Mountain in 2003, The Killing of a Sacred Deer and The Beguiled in 2017, Bombshell in 2019, The Northman in 2022, and Babygirl in 2024. Commercially successful projects include The Golden Compass in 2007, Australia in 2008, Paddington in 2014, and Aquaman in 2018. Her accolades across her career include an Academy Award, a British Academy Film Award, six Golden Globe Awards, two Primetime Emmy Awards, and a Volpi Cup.

On the stage, Kidman made her Broadway debut in 1998 in The Blue Room, earning a Theatre World Award in 1999 for that appearance. On television, she produced and starred in the HBO series Big Little Lies from 2017 to 2019, winning Primetime Emmy Awards for both Outstanding Limited Series and Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited Series or Movie. Her other television credits include Hemingway and Gellhorn in 2012, Top of the Lake: China Girl in 2017, The Undoing in 2020, Nine Perfect Strangers beginning in 2021, Special Ops: Lioness beginning in 2023, Expats in 2024, and The Perfect Couple in 2024.

Beyond her performance work, Kidman founded the production company Blossom Films in 2010. She has served as a goodwill ambassador for UNICEF since 1994 and for UN Women since 2006, and was appointed Companion of the Order of Australia in 2006. She received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2003, and in 2024 became the first Australian actor to receive the AFI Life Achievement Award. Time magazine included her on its list of the 100 most influential people in the world in both 2004 and 2018, and in 2020 The New York Times named her one of the greatest actors of the 21st century. She has two children from her marriage to actor Tom Cruise and two children from her marriage to country musician Keith Urban.