Minnie Driver

Minnie Driver
Driver at the premiere of Barney's Version in January 2011
Born	Amelia Fiona J. Driver 31 January 1970 (1970-01-31) London, England
Occupation	Actress, singer
Years active	1990–present
Awards	Emmy, Golden Globe
Website
http://www.minniedriver.com/

Minnie Driver (born Amelia Fiona J. Driver; 31 January 1970) is an English actress and singer-songwriter. She was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in the 1997 film Good Will Hunting, as well as for an Emmy Award and a Golden Globe for her work in the television series The Riches.

Early life

Driver was born Amelia Fiona J. Driver in Finsbury Park, London, the daughter of Gaynor Churchward (née Millington), a designer and former couture model, and Ronnie Driver, a Welsh businessman and financial adviser from Swansea. Her mother was her father's mistress, and her father's wife was not aware of his other family. Driver has Irish, Welsh, Scottish, French and Italian ancestry. Her sister, Kate, is a model and producer.^{[citation needed]} Driver was brought up in Barbados and educated at Bedales, an independent school near Petersfield, Hampshire, England, and the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art in London.^{[citation needed]}

Acting career

Driver made her stage debut in 1991, supplementing her income by performing as a jazz vocalist and guitarist. She appeared on British television with comedians such as Steve Coogan and Armando Iannucci and had small parts in such shows as Casualty, The House of Eliott, Lovejoy and Peak Practice. Driver first came to broad public attention when she played the lead role in Circle of Friends in 1995. She followed this with a string of supporting roles in big studio films like the 17th James Bond installment GoldenEye (1995), Sleepers (1996) and Grosse Pointe Blank (1997). She achieved greater recognition playing opposite Matt Damon in Gus Van Sant's Good Will Hunting (1997), a role for which she was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress and a Screen Actors Guild Award, among others. In 2003 and 2004, she had a noted recurring role on Will & Grace as Lorraine Finster, the nemesis of Karen Walker (Megan Mullally) and daughter of Karen's lover, Lyle Finster (John Cleese). Driver has also worked on several animated features, voicing Jane in Disney's 1999 version of Tarzan, and Lady Eboshi in the 1999 English dubbed release of the Japanese film Princess Mononoke.

On 12 March 2007, Driver made her return to television starring alongside Eddie Izzard on the FX Network show The Riches, a series about a family of Travellers living in an upscale gated community in the suburbs. She was nominated for an Emmy Award and a Golden Globe Award as Best Lead Actress in a Drama Series in 2007 and 2008, respectively.

Driver at the 2010 Toronto International Film Festival

Driver guest-starred in the January 2010 episode of Modern Family entitled "Moon Landing". Her role was that of Claire's friend and former co-worker whom she hasn't seen in years. She also starred alongside James Nesbitt and Goran Visnjic in the British series The Deep, which was shown on BBC One over the summer of 2010.

In 2010, Driver appeared in Conviction, a film depicting the real-life story of Betty Ann Waters (Hilary Swank), a single mother who spends a decade pursuing a law degree so she can represent her wrongfully convicted brother (played by Sam Rockwell) at court. Driver plays a fellow law student and friend of Swank's character who helps her with the case. The film received generally positive reviews according to the review aggregate Rotten Tomatoes listing an average score of 6.3/10 and a 68% of approval from critics. Also in 2010, Driver starred alongside Paul Giamatti in the comedy-drama Barney's Version. According to Rotten Tomatoes, the film received an 80% of positive reviews from critics and Driver herself went on to win a Genie Award for Best Supporting Actress.

In 2011, Driver appeared alongside Vera Farmiga, David Duchovny, Will Arnett and Keri Russell in the comedy Goats.

Music career

Early in her career, Driver was a member of a band called "Puff, Rocks and Brown"; the band was signed to a development deal with Island Records, which ended without a release.^{[citation needed]}

She began a low-profile return to music in 2000; the following year, she signed with EMI and Rounder Records and performed at SXSW.^{[citation needed]} Canadian music producer Colin Craig assisted in the eventual release of Everything I've Got in My Pocket, which reached No. 34 in the UK, and a second single, "Invisible Girl" peaking at No. 68. The album was backed by a group including members of the Wallflowers and Pete Yorn's band. Driver wrote 10 of the 11 songs on the album and also covered "Hungry Heart" from Bruce Springsteen's The River. In 2004, Driver was the support act for the Finn Brothers on the UK portion of their world tour.^{[citation needed]}

In 2004, Driver played Carlotta Giudicelli in Joel Schumacher's film of The Phantom of the Opera. Because of the vocal requirements of the role, Driver was the sole cast member to have her voice dubbed. However, she did lend her own voice to Learn to be Lonely, a song written by Andrew Lloyd Webber specifically for the film version of his musical (it plays over the closing credits of the movie). Driver released her second album entitled Seastories on 17 July 2007. The 12-track set is produced by Marc "Doc" Dauer, who also produced Everything I've Got in My Pocket. Ryan Adams and his band the Cardinals and Liz Phair are among the list of collaborators for the album.

Personal life

On 5 September 2008, Driver gave birth to a boy named Henry Story Driver. She did not then reveal the identity of the father. In February 2012, she said her son's father was a writer on her television show "The Riches."

She was once engaged to Josh Brolin but the pair amicably split.

Filmography

Films

Year	Film	Role	Notes
1990	God on the Rocks	Lydia	TV film
1992	The Zebra Man	Emily Ashdown	Short film
1995	Circle of Friends	Bernadette 'Benny' Hogan
	GoldenEye	Irina
	Cruel Train	Flora Mussell	TV film
	The Politician's Wife	Jennifer Caird	TV film
1996	Big Night	Phyllis
	Sleepers	Carol Martinez
1997	Grosse Pointe Blank	Debi Newberry
	Good Will Hunting	Skylar	Nominated—Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress Nominated—Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role Nominated—Satellite Award for Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture London Film Critics Circle Award for Best Supporting Actress
1998	Hard Rain	Karen
	The Governess	Rosina da Silva
	At Sachem Farm	Kendal
1999	An Ideal Husband	Miss Mabel Chiltern
	Tarzan	Jane Porter	Nominated—Annie Award for Outstanding Individual Achievement for Voice Acting
	South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut	Brooke Shields
	Princess Mononoke	Lady Eboshi	Voice: English version
2000	Return to Me	Grace Briggs
	Beautiful	Mona Hiburd
	Slow Burn	Trina McTeague
	The Upgrade	Constance Levine	Short film
2001	D.C. Smalls	Waitress	Short film
	High Heels and Low Lifes	Shannon
2003	Owning Mahowny	Belinda
	Hope Springs	Vera Edwards
2004	Ella Enchanted	Mandy
	The Phantom of the Opera	Carlotta	Nominated—London Film Critics Circle Award for Best Supporting Actress Nominated—Satellite Award for Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture
	Portrait	Donna	Short film
2006	The Virgin of Juarez	Karina Danes
2007	Ripple Effect	Kitty
	Take	Ana
	The Simpsons Movie	A counselor	Scenes deleted
2009	Motherhood	Sheila
2010	Conviction	Abra
	Barney's Version	Mrs. P	Genie Award for Best Supporting Actress Nominated—London Film Critics Circle Awards for Best Supporting Actress
2011	Goats	Johanna
	Hunky Dory	Vivienne

Television series

Year	Film	Role	Notes
1991	The House of Eliott	Mary
	Casualty	Zena Mitchell
1992	Lovejoy	Sarah
1993	Mr. Wroe's Virgins	Leah
	Maigret	Arlette
	Screen One	Sally
1994	That Sunday	Rachel	Short film
	Peak Practice	Sue Keel
	The Day Today	Lally Sampson
	Knowing Me Knowing You with Alan Partridge	Daniella Forrest
1995	My Good Friend	Ellie
1996	Murder Most Horrid	Sgt. Cole
2000	The X-Files	Cinema Audience
2001	The Kumars at No. 42	Herself
2003	Absolutely Fabulous	Herself
2003–2004	Will & Grace	Lorraine Finster
2007	Re\Visioned: Tomb Raider Animated Series	Lara Croft
2007–2008	The Riches	Dahlia Malloy	Nominated—Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Television Series Drama Nominated—Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress – Drama Series Nominated—Satellite Award for Best Actress – Television Series Drama
2010	Modern Family	Valerie	Season 1, Episode 14 – Moon Landing
	The Deep	Frances Kelly

Other

• Driver provided the voice of Anne in the videogame Jurassic Park: Trespasser.
• She was the subject of a cut-away gag in Family Guy's "Saving Private Brian" as having a big head, and the director had difficulty fitting it on the screen.

Discography

Albums

Year	Album	US Heat	Label
2004	Everything I've Got in My Pocket	43	Zoë
2007	Seastories	25

Singles

Year	Single	Album
2004	"Invisible Girl"	Everything I've Got in My Pocket
2005	"Everything I've Got in My Pocket"

External links

• Official website
• Minnie Driver at the Internet Movie Database
• September 2004 interview from The Guardian
• Minnie Driver at Emmys.com