Kate Elizabeth Winslet CBE (/ˈwɪnzlɛt/; born 5 October 1975) is a British actress. Often regarded by film critics as one of the "preeminent actresses of her generation", she is known for her work in independent films, particularly period dramas, and usually portrays headstrong, complicated women. Her accolades include an Academy Award, three British Academy Film Awards, four Golden Globe Awards and a Primetime Emmy Award.
Born in Reading, Berkshire, Winslet studied drama at the Redroofs Theatre School. Her first screen appearance, at age 15, was in the British television series Dark Season (1991). She made her film debut playing a teenage murderess in Heavenly Creatures (1994), and went on to win a BAFTA Award and a Screen Actors Guild Award for playing Marianne Dashwood in Sense and Sensibility (1995); at only 20 years of age, she is one of the youngest recipients of the awards. Global stardom followed soon after with her leading role as Rose DeWitt Bukater in the epic romance Titanic (1997), which earned her a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role, which at age 22 made her the fourth-youngest Best Actress nominee at the time. Titanic was the highest-grossing film of all time to that point, after which she eschewed parts in blockbusters in favour of critically acclaimed period pieces, including Quills (2000) and Iris (2001).
The science fiction romance Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004), in which Winslet was cast against type in a contemporary setting, proved to be a turning point in her career, and she gained further recognition for her performances in Finding Neverland (2004), Little Children (2006), Revolutionary Road (2008), and The Reader (2008). For playing a former Nazi camp guard in the latter, she won another BAFTA Award and her first Academy Award for Best Actress. In the 2010s, Winslet played a single mother in 1930s America in the miniseries Mildred Pierce (2011), joined the Divergent film series, and portrayed Joanna Hoffman in Steve Jobs (2015). She won a Primetime Emmy Award for the former and a third BAFTA Award for the lattermost. In 2021, she starred in the HBO miniseries Mare of Easttown.
For her narration of a short story in the audiobook Listen to the Storyteller (1999), Winslet won a Grammy Award. She performed the song "What If" for the soundtrack of her film Christmas Carol: The Movie (2001). A co-founder of the charity Golden Hat Foundation, which aims to create autism awareness, she has written a book on the topic, The Golden Hat: Talking Back to Autism (2010). Time magazine named her one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2009, and in 2012, she was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE). Divorcing the film directors Jim Threapleton and Sam Mendes, Winslet has been married to businessman Edward Abel Smith since 2012. She has a child from each marriage.
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