Biography

Full Name: Mary Elizabeth Winstead
Date of Birth: 28th November 1984
Place of Birth: Rocky Mount, North Carolina

Background
Mary was born in Rocky Mount, North Carolina, the daughter of Betty Lou (born Knight) and James Ronald Winstead. When she was five, her family moved to Sandy, Utah, a Salt Lake City suburb. Her interest in performing art also began to emerge with interests in ballet and acting. As a child, Winstead appeared in the Mountain West Ballet’s version of The Nutcracker. Hoping to become a ballerina, at the age of eleven, she received the opportunity to study dance in a summer program of the prestigious Joffrey Ballet School in New York City. There, she studied ballet and jazz dance, but decided to also study acting. Winstead ended up appearing on Broadway during Donny Osmond’s successful run of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. She was also a member of the International Children’s Choir during her youth and honed her skills performing at her church.

Career
These days fans probably know Mary for her recent roles, especially Quentin Tarantino’s Death Proof, where she played the part of Cheerleader Lee. However, Mary has had an acting career since 1997 when she had quest roles in Touched by an Angel and Promised Land. It was this that led on to her first major Television role in the popular American soap Passions which she was in from ‘99 to 2000 playing the part of Jessica Bennett.

Her entry into the Movie world started out in the Independent Movies but her break came when she took the role of Gwen Grayson in Disney’s Sky High. From this she got her role in Final Destination 3, although she had wanted to be in the second movie, it turned out this was perhaps fate as the third instalment actually turned out to be the most successful. She needed a little convincing for her role in Black Christmas (alongside Lacey Chabert and Oliver Hudson), and the movie itself was a flop with both the public and the critics.

It was then in 2007 thanks to Quentin Tarantino that I believe Mary really became known high-profile to the world, when she landed the role in Death Proof part of the ‘Grindhouse’ double feature that also featured Rose McGowan and Rosario Dawson. Not only was she a beautiful actress, but it turned out she can also sing. Tarantino asked Mary to sing along to ‘Baby it’s You’ in one of the scenes, and her singing skills where so unexpected and amazing that the whole crew just stopped. Tarantino asked Mary’s mother ‘Did you know she could sing like that?’

Despite Death Proof failing to produce ticket sales, it did win critical aclaim. It’s not however the highest grossingmovie that Mary has been in, that came in the summer of the same year starring alongside Bruce Willis in Live Free or Die Hard. Mary took the role of John Mclane’s daughter Lucy in the fourth of the ‘Die Hard’ installments.

With such big movies behind her in 2007, it came as no surprise when Mary Elizabeth Winstead was ranked at No. 91 on AskMen.com’s list of the Top 99 Most Desirable Women of 2008.

Showing no signs of slowing down in 2008, she signed on to star in the drama Make It Happen.
The film went straight to DVD in the US, and gained a small collection in the UK, which eventually led to its financial failure.

She has recently finished filming in Canada for her upcoming movie Scott Pilgrim vs The World, due to release in August of 2010.
(Biography written by Tiggs, please ask for permission if using.)