Date of Birth
28 November 1984, Rocky Mount, North Carolina, USA
Nickname
MEW
Mary
Mary
Height
5' 8½" (1.74 m)
Mini Biography
Mary Elizabeth
Winstead was born in Rocky Mount, North Carolina. She grew up in Salt Lake City
and North Carolina many years of her life and actually had an ambition to
become a ballerina, for which she attended Joffrey Ballet School in Chicago at
the age of 11 and started taking acting lessons too.
Her theatre credits include "The Nutcracker" and the Broadway production of "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat" with Donny Osmond.
Her most notable roles are in movies such as Sky High (2005), Final Destination 3 (2006),The Ring Two (2005) and the horror remake, Black Christmas (2006).
On the small screen, Winstead is probably best known for her role as "Jessica Bennett" in the popular NBC daytime drama "Passions" (1999), for which she received nominations from the Hollywood Reporters' Young Star Awards and the Young Artist Awards for her performance on the show. Other television credits include the CBS series "Wolf Lake" (2001), the MTV original telepic Monster Island (2004) (TV) and guest roles in popular shows such as "Touched by an Angel" (1994), "Tru Calling" (2003) and "Promised Land" (1996). She ia a distant cousin of Ava Gardner.
Her theatre credits include "The Nutcracker" and the Broadway production of "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat" with Donny Osmond.
Her most notable roles are in movies such as Sky High (2005), Final Destination 3 (2006),The Ring Two (2005) and the horror remake, Black Christmas (2006).
On the small screen, Winstead is probably best known for her role as "Jessica Bennett" in the popular NBC daytime drama "Passions" (1999), for which she received nominations from the Hollywood Reporters' Young Star Awards and the Young Artist Awards for her performance on the show. Other television credits include the CBS series "Wolf Lake" (2001), the MTV original telepic Monster Island (2004) (TV) and guest roles in popular shows such as "Touched by an Angel" (1994), "Tru Calling" (2003) and "Promised Land" (1996). She ia a distant cousin of Ava Gardner.
Trivia
Has three older
sisters and an older brother.
Born to James Ronald
Winstead and his wife Betty Lou Knight.
Enjoys cooking,
sewing, dancing, and singing.
Ranked #92 on
Maxim's Hot list 2007.
Distant cousin of
actress Ava Gardner.
Chosen by Empire
magazine as one of the 100 Sexiest Stars in film history (#100). [2007].
Ranked #10 on
Maxim's "Hottest Women of Horror Movies" list.
Ranked #91 on
Askmen.com's 100 Most Desirable Women in the World (2008).
Ranked #88 in FHM's
100 Sexiest Women of 2009.
Represented by CAA
agent Jim Toth.
Chosen by Empire
magazine as one of the 20 "young, talented, and really happening right
now" (2009).
Was featured as The
Women Of GQ.
Named as Hottest
Girls of Comic-Con 2010.
Ranked #17 out of
101 for Men's Health 'Hottest Women of 2011'.
Personal Quotes
You have to believe
that it is what you want to do with your life and you have to be dedicated to
it.
On the "Die
Hard" series: I think they're some of the best action movies ever made. Bruce Willis just brings such a great character to
life, and John McClane is someone we can all relate to and root for. He's so
much fun to watch on screen. It's iconic the character he's created and it's so
much fun to be part of an iconic series.
On her career: I've
been performing since I came out of the womb. I've been dancing and singing
since I was a toddler. Acting seemed like a natural progression from that. I
just started getting roles naturally because it was something I was interested
in. I didn't plan on taking it out to Hollywood.
On what she is
looking for in a man: I'd say someone who doesn't take themselves seriously.
That's my biggest thing.
You don't have to
play masculine to be a strong woman.
[on sex scenes]: I
prefer to do a love scene with someone I've just met.
You find yourself in
situations where you have to put on a front, where you have to put on a happy
face even if you are frustrated or annoyed. I think actors are in those
situations all the time because they are constantly being put in situations
where you have to be smiling. If you are not happy that day, you have to be
nice to everyone around you if you want to get ahead. So yeah, absolutely you
have to. I don't feel that I do that too much because I am a pretty happy
person in general, so it comes pretty easily to me.
I acted in theater
and I took film classes when I was 12 and just obsessed over it. I loved it and
spent hours and hours in the film studio learning and watching. I always knew
exactly what I wanted to do with my life. That is why I was home schooled. I
was always busy, so normal school didn't work out for me.
For some reason I
never feared being type cast. I just take my roles based on the character, and
the script, and the people that are doing the film and whether or not I think
it would be fun to do the film. But as an actor you do want to challenge
yourself and step outside what you have done in the past and that what I like
to do, I like to jump around and try different things and stretch myself. I
most likely won't do horror for a while but it's just because I've done it
already and you move onto the next thing.
Where Are They Now
(July 2010)
Announced her engagement to writer Riley
Stearns in an interview on Spin.com
and said she will be getting married in her fiancé's hometown of Austin, TX in
October 2010.
(October 2010)
Married Riley Stearns in Austin, TX.
