The daughter of a biochemist/lecturer and a nurse/educator, Nicole Kidman was born in Honolulu, Hawaii, but raised in Sydney, Australia from the age of four.
The elder of two children, her childhood was profoundly marked by the social activism of her parents. Kidman and her younger sister were frequently charged with passing out political leaflets and were expected to discuss and debate at least one current event with mom and dad at dinner every night.
A youthful obsession with ballet firmly rooted her interest in the performing arts, and she trained extensively in dance, drama, and mime. Her pale skin and unruly red curls made her a bit of an outcast amongst her tanned and fair-haired schoolmates, so she attempted to escape by withdrawing into the world of acting. By 1983, she had made a striking television debut in the Australian film Bush Christmas, which became a national favorite.
With a movie career beckoning and her mother having been diagnosed with breast cancer, Kidman dropped out of school at 17 to devote herself entirely to film and family. Her mother eventually recovered, and Kidman had become a film and TV veteran by 1989, when she made her U.S. debut the thriller Dead Calm. Though the film was only a modest financial success, it sparked a mad scramble among producers and directors to spearhead the ravishing redhead's next project.
She decided on the car-racing action Days of Thunder out of a desire to work with Tom Cruise. Following a whirlwind courtship, Cruise divorced his wife and the two actors were wed at a top-secret Christmas Eve ceremony. Warned that her career identity would be swallowed up in the swirl of publicity surrounding the charismatic Cruise's every move, Kidman began laying such doubts to rest just months after the wedding, when she snagged a high-profile lead role opposite Dustin Hoffman and Bruce Willis in Billy Bathgate (1991). The movie opened to mixed reviews, but Kidman drew raves and took another step forward when she teamed with Cruise for Ron Howard's sweeping historical epic Far and Away (1992). The film earned mediocre box office success and modest critical praise, which was exactly what her next two projects, My Life and Malice, achieved.
That changed in 1995 with the summer smash Batman Forever, and she then proved herself more than capable of carrying a film all on her own with the breakthrough success of Gus Van Sant's To Die For, and went on to win her first Golden Globe. Kidman followed it up with the lead role Jane Campion's The Portrait of a Lady. Her performance of heroine Isabel Archer confirmed the promise Kidman had shown in her last effort, and the following year, she and TV hottie George Clooney were handpicked by producer Steven Spielberg to star in the rogue-nuke thriller The Peacemaker.
She paired up with her husband again and the two spent much of 1997 shooting legendary filmmaker Stanley Kubrick's erotic psychological thriller Eyes Wide Shut, which was released in summer 1999. Simultaneously, Kidman also starred in 1998's Practical Magic with Sandra Bullock.
Although her career started to look bleak with numerous flops, the turn of the century breathed new air into Kidman. Her starring role in The Others was the sleeper hit of the summer, and her performance opposite Ewan McGregor in the musical Moulin Rouge! earned her her first Academy Award nomination for Best Actress as well as her second Golden Globe award.
In August 2001, she and Cruise were divorced after he developed a relationship with Vanilla Sky co-star Penélope Cruz. Kidman's career continued to blossom, however, winning a third Golden Globe, a BAFTA award and an Oscar for her performance in The Hours (2001). In 2003, she received another Golden Globe nomination and won her first Academy Award for her work in Cold Mountain (2003).
Nicole then starred in The Paper Boy (2012) and in Room 237 (2013) alongside Tom Cruise. She then starred in The Railway Man (2014), Before I Go to Sleep (2014), alongside Julia Roberts in Secret in Their Eyes (2015), alongside Colin Firth and Jude Law in Genius(2016), and alongside Dev Patel and Rooney Mara in Lion (2016). For her work in the latter, she received numerous nominations for Best Performance By An Actress in a Supporting Role, including nominations from the Academy Awards, BAFTA Awards, Golden Globe Awards and the SAG Awards.
For her role playing an abused wife on the HBO series Big Little Lies (2017) with Reese Witherspoon, Nicole won her fourth Golden Globe. She reprised her role in the second season, which debuted in 2019 on HBO. Roles followed in Sofia Coppola's drama The Beguiled (2017) with Elle Fanning and Kirsten Dunst and The Killing of a Sacred Deer (2017) opposite her Beguiled co-star Colin Farrell.
In 2018, she played Atlanna in the box office hit movie Aquaman (2018) and the mother of a gay young man in Boy Erased (2018). Nicole starred alongside Bryan Cranston and Kevin Hart in The Upside (2019) and received a Golden Globe nomination for her work in the crime drama Destroyer (2019). She also plays a supporting role opposite Oakes Fegley and Ansel Elgort in The Goldfinch (2019).
Also in 2019, she played American journalist Gretchen Carlson in the critically acclaimed film Bombshell and received yet another Golden Globe nomination, as well as a Screen Actors Guild nomination for her work in the film.
In 2020, Nicole played the founder of a healing center in the Hulu mini-series Nine Perfect Strangers. Next, she played Lucille Ball in the Prime Video biopic Being the Ricardos and received her fifth Academy Award nomination and won her fifth Golden Globe award.
In June 2006, Nicole married fellow Australian, country superstar Keith Urban. They have two daughters, named Sunday and Faith.
* 2002 Actress in a Leading Role Oscar winner for The Hours.
Filmography:
Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom (2022)
Being the Ricardos (2021)
The Prom (2020)
Bombshell (2019)
Destroyer (2019)
The Upside (2019)
Boy Erased (2018)
How to Talk to Girls at Parties (2017)
The Killing of a Sacred Deer (2017)
Queen of the Desert (2017)
Big Little Lies (HBO) (2017)
Lion (2016)
Genius (2016)
The Family Fang (2015)
Paddington (2015)
Secret in Their Eyes (2015)
Strangerland (2015)
Before I Go to Sleep (2014)
Grace of Monaco (2014)
Hemingway & Gellhorn (2013)
Room 237 (2013)
Tresspass (2011)
Just Go With It (2011)
Need (2009)
Nine (2009)
The Golden Compass (2007)
The Invasion (2007)
Happy Feet (2006) (voice)
Fur (2006)
Bewitched (2005)
The Interpreter (2005)
The Stepford Wives (2004)
Birth (2004)
Dogville (2004)
Cold Mountain (2003)
The Human Stain (2003)
The Hours (2002)
Birthday Girl (2002)
The Others (2001)
Eyes Wide Shut (1999)
Practical Magic (1998)
The Peacemaker (1997)
The Portrait of a Lady (1996)
The Leading Man (1996)
To Die for (1995)
Malice (1993)
My Life (1993)
Far and Away (1992)
Flirting (1991)
Billy Bathgate (1991)
Days of Thunder (1990)
Dead Calm (1989)
Emerald City (1988)
The Bit Part (1987)
Une Australienne à Rome (1987)
Windrider (1986)
Watch the Shadows Dance (1986)
Wills & Burke (1985)
Archer's Adventure (1985)
BMX Bandits (1983)
Bush Christmas (1983)
Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom: The IMAX 2D Experience
L'homme du nord
Being the Ricardos (Prime Video)
The Undoing (HBO)
The Prom (Netflix)
Queen of the Desert
Big Little Lies (HBO)
The Invasion
American Darlings
Fur: An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus
The Human Stain
The Portrait of a Lady