Gwyneth Paltrow, who in fact is not English, was born in 1972 in Los Angeles, the daughter of noted film director Bruce Paltrow and Tony award-winning actress Blythe Danner

When she was eleven, her family moved to New York, where she attended Spence School. While a teenager, her summers were often taken up by watching her mother perform in summer-stock theater.

In 1991, she quit the University of California and began to actively pursue a career in acting. She made her film debut with a small part in Shout (1991) and for the next 5 years had featured roles in a mixed bag of film fare that included Flesh and Bone (1993); Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle (1994); Se7en (1995); Jefferson in Paris (1995); Moonlight and Valentino (1995); and The Pallbearer (1996).

After the disappointing romantic comedy "The Pallbearer" (1996),Gwyneth Paltrow solidified her growing reputation as a star in the making with a superb turn as Jane Austen's meddling heroine in "Emma".

She received her first Oscar nomination in 1999 for her role as Viola in John Madden's, Shakespeare in Love (1998)

After meeting Brad Pitt while working on Se7en, the couple had a well publicized, picture-book romance. While it's over now, the pair have always maintained that it was an amiable break-up.

In 2002, Gwyneth Paltrow co-starred with Aaron Eckhart as competing scholars investigating the possible romance between the 18th-century writers in Neil LaBute's adaptation of A.S. Byatt's novel "Possession."