Renée Zellweger received a Gloden Globe award in 2003 as Best Actress in a Comedy or Musical for her performance in the hit musical film Chicago. Her performance as Bridget in 2001’s smash hit Bridget Jones’s Diary garnered international acclaim. It was for this role that she was nominated for a 2002 Academy Award for Best Actress, a BAFTA Award for Best Performance by an Actress, a Golden Globe award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Musical or Comedy, a Golden Satellite Award, an Empire Award, an MTV Movie Award and a Screen Actor’s Guild Award.

Considering that she took her first acting class to ensure graduating from The University of Texas with a literature degree, Zellweger’s rise to leading lady status has been as rapid as it has been unexpected. After appearing in such television projects as the USA Network telefilm A Taste for Killing and the Showtime Drive-In Classics series Shake, Rattle and Rock, she made her film debut while still in Austin in Richard Linklater’s coming-of-age film Dazed and Confused. This was followed by Ben Stiller’s Reality Bites, Love and a .45 (for which she received her first Independent Spirit Award nomination), 8 Seconds, The Return of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Empire Records and My Boyfriend’s Back.

Zellweger received acclaim with her vulnerable performance opposite Tom Cruise in Jerry Maguire under Cameron Crowe’s direction, being named Best Breakthrough Performer of 1996 by The National Board of Review, and receiving a Blockbuster Award for Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy and SAG Award nomination.