"Being horrible in a big film is a quicker nosedive than doing an obscure film and making no money."
-Renee Zellweger
Renee Kathleen Zellweger was born on April 25, 1969, in Katy, Texas, a small town outside of Houston. She is the daughter of European parents, her mother Norwegian and her father Swiss. Renee has an older brother that she greatly admires. When she became more famous, Renee was encouraged to change her name to one that would be more marketable, but she refused to do so because her and her brother were the first Zellwegers born in the States.
Renee graduated from Katy High School in 1987, where she was a cheerleader, gymnast and participated in the drama club. She went on to the University of Texas at Austin, where she majored in English. Renee took a drama class only because she needed a fine arts credit to complete her degree. Her participation in drama while in college turned out to be much more than a requirement, as it reminded her of how much she loved acting. Never having planned on becoming an actress earlier, Renee knew by the time that she graduated from college that she wanted to pursue a career in acting.
Renee immediately began auditioning for commercials and films that were being shot in Texas. Renee's first roles were bit-parts, but the films did well and she co-starred with respectable actors such as Winona Ryder, Ethan Hawke and Matthew McConaughey. Renee has appeared in many films such as "The Low Life", "8 Seconds", "Reality Bites", and "Empire Records".
Her uncredited role in 1993's Dazed and Confused as a high school senior was her first film role, and was followed up by a role in The Return of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre (released in 1997). It was on the set of Chainsaw that Renee heard about another film that was in the midst of casting actors, which as luck would have it, Renee auditioned for and got the lead. The film was Love and a .45, a film for which Renee received an Independent Spirit Award nomination for Best Debut Performance.
It was her starring role in "The Whole Wide World" which, not only won her praise at the 1996 Sundance Film Festival, but also led to her breakthrough role in Cameron Crowe's hit "Jerry Maguire". Her role in "Jerry Maguire" earned her many awards and a lot of recognition, including a Screen Actor's Guild Nomination for Best Supporting Actress, as well as being named Entertainment Weekly's Best New Movie Actress.
Cameron Crowe was so impressed with her work in The Whole Wide World that he knew Renee would be the perfect choice to play the girlfriend of sports agent Tom Cruise, after being dumped by Kelly Preston. She even beat out already known actresses Bridget Fonda, Cameron Diaz and Mira Sorvino for the part. Her role in Jerry Maguire earned her many awards and a lot of recognition, including a Screen Actor's Guild Nomination for Best Supporting Actress, as well as being named Entertainment Weekly's Best New Movie Actress.
After Jerry Maguire, Renee starred in the smaller films Deceiver and A Price Above Rubies, in which she played a Hasidic Jew. In 1998, she moved onto a more mainstream film, One True Thing, a tearjerker also starring Oscar winners Meryl Streep and William Hurt. The following year, Renee joined Chris O'Donnell in The Bachelor.
Renee also landed the title role in the film "Bridget Jones' Diary", beating out popular British actresses to play the role of a single British woman in her 30s. Renee was chosen by 'People Magazine' in 2001 as one of the 50 most beautiful people in the world. It is reported that Renee's salary in the "Bridget Jone's Diary" was between $3,000,000 and $5,000,000.