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Update your watchlist with these hilarious, riveting, and tell-all stand-up specials from [link=/name/nm1983888]Vir Das[/link], [link=/name/nm4399227]Ali Wong[/link], [link=/name/nm5307044]Ronny Chieng[/link], and more.

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Update your watchlist with these hilarious, riveting, and tell-all stand-up specials from <a class="ipc-md-link" href="/name/nm1983888?ref_=nmqu_eds_right-7_lk">Vir Das</a>, <a class="ipc-md-link" href="/name/nm4399227?ref_=nmqu_eds_right-7_lk">Ali Wong</a>, <a class="ipc-md-link" href="/name/nm5307044?ref_=nmqu_eds_right-7_lk">Ronny Chieng</a>, and more.

Elizabeth Banks was born Elizabeth Mitchell in Pittsfield, a small city in the Berkshires in western Massachusetts near the New York border, on February 10, 1974. She is the daughter of Anne Marie (Wallace), who worked in a bank, and Mark Phineas Mitchell, a factory worker. Elizabeth describes herself as having been seen as a "goody two-shoes" in her youth who was nominated for the local Harvest Queen.

Banks left home to attend college at the University of Pennsylvania--from which she graduated Magna cum Laude--and went on to attend the Advanced Training Program at the prestigious American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco, graduating in 1996. She then moved to New York and worked in the theater, and began getting small roles in films and on television. Seeking more screen work, she moved to Los Angeles and was soon cast in supporting roles. She also had to change her last name, to Banks, in order to avoid confusion with actress Elizabeth Mitchell.

Her breakthrough role was as Betty Brant, the secretary of the cantankerous newspaper tycoon in Sam Raimi's Spider-Man (2002). She followed up this performance with small roles in other movies: Swept Away (2002), Steven Spielberg's Catch Me If You Can (2002), Seabiscuit (2003) and The 40-Year-Old Virgin (2005). In 2003 she won the Exciting New Face Award at the Young Hollywood Awards. The winsome, beautiful Banks projected an exceptionally charming screen presence that drew comparisons to Audrey Hepburn, and Hollywood eventually began to take notice, Banks being cast in the lead in such films as Kevin Smith's Zack and Miri Make a Porno (2008) and in Oliver Stone's biopic of George W. Bush, W. (2008), as Laura Bush.

In television, Banks was a recurring guest star on Scrubs (2001) as Dr. Kim Briggs, the love interest of Zach Braff's J.D. In 2010 she was cast as Alec Baldwin's love interest in season four of 30 Rock (2006). Originally scheduled to appear in only four episodes, she was brought back as a recurring character for two more seasons, and earned Emmy nominations for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series for two consecutive years. Elizabeth has also appeared in such films as Our Idiot Brother (2011), Man on a Ledge (2012), What to Expect When You're Expecting (2012), People Like Us (2012), and Pitch Perfect (2012). She also won the coveted role as Effie Trinket in The Hunger Games (2012) and The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (2013).

After an eleven-year courtship, Banks married Max Handelman, a sports writer and producer, in 2003. They have two sons, Felix, who was born in March 2011, and Magnus, born in Nov. 2012, both by gestational surrogacy.

I really think that we do a disservice to young people in America by not being more open about sex. Abstinence programs do not work. It&#39;s a natural, physical thing having sex.

I&#39;m pleased that Hollywood hasn&#39;t figured out how to pigeonhole me yet...

I love physical comedy. I love <a class="ipc-md-link ipc-md-link--entity" href="/name/nm0928492/?ref_=nmqu_qu">Oscar Wilde</a>, I love [<a class="ipc-md-link ipc-md-link--entity" href="/name/nm0000636/?ref_=nmqu_qu">William Shakespeare</a>] comedies,
I love improv. I knew I had a knack for it at a certain level, but I came into this business as a classically trained drama student and that was my reputation. When you live in a leading lady&#39;s body, which I do, you have to constantly prove that you are funny.

Every once in a while I play a true idiot, and they&#39;re really fun to
play.

[in 2013, on going through the process of converting to her husband&#39;s religion, Judaism] I did not have my mikveh, so technically I&#39;m not converted . . . I&#39;ve been essentially a Jew for like 15 years . . . I haven&#39;t had a Christmas tree in 15 years . . . My kids go to Jewish pre-school, we only celebrate Jewish holidays, I love seder . . . Frankly, because I&#39;m already doing everything [in terms of the religion], I feel like I&#39;m as Jewish as I&#39;m ever going to be.

[on the misogyny she&#39;s encountered in the film industry] The first agent I ever met in this industry told me to get a boob job. I was so grateful that I didn&#39;t have enough money at the time to follow his advice. I also did not sign with him despite that. [2017]

[after stating that <a class="ipc-md-link ipc-md-link--entity" href="/name/nm0000229/?ref_=nmqu_qu">Steven Spielberg</a> never directed a female-led feature] OK, I was wrong. He directed and produced <a class="ipc-md-link ipc-md-link--entity" href="/title/tt0088939/?ref_=nmqu_qu">The Color Purple (1985)</a>.

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Elizabeth Banks

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