Elizabeth Banks Biography
Elizabeth Banks is an American actress and filmmaker best known for The Hunger Games (2012–2015), Pitch Perfect (2012–2017), and Charlie’s Angels (2019). She rose to fame after starring in the American comedy horror film Cocaine Bear (2023).
Elizabeth Banks Career
Banks auditioned in New York and was given a part in the soap opera Santa Barbara. She turned down the part because it would have meant giving up her studies at the American Conservatory Theater. She had taken out loans to pay for her degree, so she couldn’t do it. In 1998, she made her acting start in the independent film Surrender Dorothy as Elizabeth Casey. Over the next seven years, she was in many movies, such as Wet Hot American Summer (2001), Swept Away (2002), and Seabiscuit (2003). Betty Brant in Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man trilogy (2002–2007) was her most famous part up to that point.
Banks started her own production business, Brownstone Productions, with Max Handelman in 2002. They would be married in 2004. Banks became better known to a wider audience with her part in the comedy The 40-Year-Old Virgin, which came out in 2005. In August 2005, she played the girl who wants to be a bar singer in William Inge’s Bus Stop at the Williamstown Theatre Festival.
Jeffrey Borak wrote that Banks played the part “with poise, clarity, and a smart sense of how complicated Cherie is.” Every part of her performance fits in with the other performers around her in terms of style. She was on the show Stella in 2005, and in May 2006, she played Dr. Kim Briggs, J.D. (Zach Braff)’s love interest, in the season five end of “Scrubs” on NBC. As a regular guest star, Banks was in seasons six, seven, and eight.
Banks produced and starred in the 2012 movie Pitch Perfect. In 2015, she directed the follow-up, Pitch Perfect 2, which was her first full-length movie. She also helped make and appeared in both Pitch Perfect 2 and its follow-up, Pitch Perfect 3. The 2015 documentary Love & Mercy is based on the life of Brian Wilson, who played the lead singer of The Beach Boys, and Banks played his wife, Melinda Ledbetter Wilson. John Cusack played Wilson.
The 2015 Venice Film Festival put her on the list of people who would judge the films in the Main Competition. Alfonso Cuarón was in charge of the event. Additionally, in 2015, Banks appeared in several TV ads for Realtor.com as a spokesman. Around the middle of February 2016, Banks was in ads for the clothes company Old Navy. She also played Rita Repulsa, an enemy from space, in the 2017 Power Rangers movie.
While Melissa McCarthy and Maya Rudolph played Jenny in the 2018 comedy film The Happytime Murders, Banks also played Jenny. She played the lead part of Lucy/Wildstyle again in the 2019 animated comedy The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part. After that, she played Tori Breyer in the superhero horror movie Brightburn.
Banks was named host of the summer 2019 return of the game show Press Your Luck by ABC on May 2, 2019. She also serves as an executive producer for the show. Charley’s Angels, an action comedy that came out in November 2019, was directed, produced, written, and starring Banks as Bosley. In the 2020 FX miniseries Mrs. America, she played the socialist Jill Ruckelshaus.
Additionally, a new version of The Invisible Woman (1940), based on Banks’s original story pitch, was reported to be made in November 2019. Moreover, she would star in, direct, and produce it. The reboot of the female monster will have a story written by Erin Cressida Wilson. Max Handelman will be the producer, and Alison Small will be the executive producer.
In February 2020, Universal Pictures let Banks pitch a project from the list of Universal Monsters. Additionally, she chose to pitch The Invisible Woman. They said in June 2020 that Banks would play Ms. Frizzle in a mix of live-action and animated versions of The Magic School Bus. She will also create the show through her company Brownstone Productions.
It was reported in March 2021 that Banks would direct the thriller film Cocaine Bear. She produced the movie with Max Handelman for Brownstone Productions and with Phil Lord and Christopher Miller. Peacock announced in May 2021 that Banks would direct and star in the upcoming TV show Red Queen, which is based on the same-named dystopian book.
Banks was chosen in the movie The Beanie Bubble in January 2022. Additionally, Kristin Gore and Damian Kulash teamed up to direct it. It was revealed in March 2023 that Banks would be an executive producer and voice the character Pebbles Flintstone in the upcoming Fox animated prime-time show Bedrock. Nevertheless, the show will be a reboot of the original Flintstones and will take place twenty years after the end of that show.
Elizabeth Banks Age
Banks was born on February 10, 1974, in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, United States. She is 49 years old as of 2023, and she celebrates her birthday on the 10th of February every year.
Elizabeth Banks Height and Weight
Banks stands at a height of 5 feet 5 inches tall (1.65m) and weighs 55 kgs (121 lbs).
Elizabeth Banks Husband
Banks has been married to Max Handelman, an American sportswriter and film producer since 2003. They met in 1993, at the University of Pennsylvania as students. They tied the knot in July 2003 at the Greystone Mansion in Beverly Hills. The couple is blessed with two children Felix Handelman, and Magnus Handelman.
Elizabeth Banks Net Worth
Banks has an estimated net worth of about $20 Million – $30 Million which she has earned through her career as an actress.
Elizabeth Banks Salary
Banks earn a salary of about $1 Million-$5 Million annually.
Elizabeth Banks Call Jane
Banks plays the role of Joy in the drama film Call Jane. In the 1960s in the United States, Joy, a traditional housewife, finds out that she is pregnant with her second child. However, the pregnancy puts her life in danger. When her hospital’s all-male board turns down her request for an abortion, she joins the Jane Collective, an underground women’s group in Chicago. The group started in the late 1960s and ended with the Roe v. Wade decision in 1973. They took risks to help women get safe, illegal abortions.
Elizabeth Banks Cocaine Bear
Banks is the film director of Cocaine Bear. Cocaine Bear came out in the US on February 24, 2023, thanks to Universal Pictures. The movie opened to mostly positive reviews from reviewers and made over $89 million, even though it cost $30–35 million to make.
Elizabeth Banks The Beanie Bubble
Banks plays the role of Robbie in the American comedy-drama film The Beanie Bubble. Robbie is a smart businesswoman who started the company that makes Beanie Babies with Warner (Zach Galifianakis). Moreover, Robbie and Sheila, two important characters in The Beanie Bubble, are both based on real people who helped make Beanie Babies popular.
While reading The Beanie Bubble, Robbie and Sheila are the women who date Ty Warner. A lot of time is spent building or improving Ty Inc. by both characters while they are together. Sheila finds out near the end of The Beanie Bubble that Ty has been seeing Robbie instead of her. The women don’t turn against each other; instead, they are angry at Ty, who has hurt them many times.
Robbie quits her job by storming out of the building and into the waiting car of her new boyfriend. Moreover, she did this to get back at Ty for betraying her by, among other things, putting an audio transmitter under her desk to listen in on her talks. As an epilogue shows, she went on to build her own successful business and become one of the best-paid female leaders in the UK.
Sheila sells her limited edition Beanie Babies to buy a new house and pay for her daughter’s college tuition. Meanwhile, Maya (Geraldine Viswanathan), a tech-savvy worker, is hired by another company that sees how useful her skills are and starts her own consulting business.
Elizabeth Banks Hunger Games
Banks plays the role of Effie Trinket in the film series Hunger Games. Effie Trinket is a chaperone from Capitol who was put in charge of District 12’s tributes in the Hunger Games. In the 74th and 75th Games, she was in charge of Katniss and Peeta. However, as part of her job, she has to do things like draw the tributes’ names at the Reaping and lead them to the Capitol. At first, she doesn’t like being connected to District 12.
She thinks that after a few years of doing her job, she will be moved to a better, wealthier district. Later, Effie grows close to the people she is in charge of in District 12. Effie has no moral concerns about the 74th Hunger Games or the Capitol. Moreover, she doesn’t seem to know about the bad things happening in District 12. She dresses in the fancy, expensive way that people in the Capitol do, and her wig matches the color of her clothes. This makes Katniss wonder if people who live in the Capitol know “how freakish they look to the rest of us.”
Effie is mostly interested in moving up in Capitol society, which is why she doesn’t like managing the tributes from District 12. She doesn’t seem very smart, and she often gets basic facts wrong, like getting diamonds and pearls mixed up. But because she wants to be a socialite, Effie pays close attention to and knows a lot about Capitol norms, courtesy, and manners. She also always shows up on time. Kate says in the first book that Effie has “a very keen instinct about certain things” and “a certain determination I admire,” even though she can be annoying. This is what Effie always says: “Happy Hunger Games, and may the odds be ever in your favor!”
A happy, polite Effie breaks down during the 75th Hunger Games when she thinks about Katniss and Peeta being forced into the arena again. In the movie Catching Fire, Effie first tries to come up with a yellow-and-gold outfit for herself, Haymitch, Katniss, and Peeta to wear together. It’s to “Show them we are a team!” she says. Then she has a hard time going on. “They can’t just-” is all she can say before she gets too upset to go on. As a result, Haymitch, Katniss, and Peeta all kindly show that they understand and appreciate Effie’s concern.
Effie was not included in the plan to stop the 75th Hunger Games and save the winners so they could start a second uprising against the Capitol. No one knows why. In Mockingjay, it is said that she was jailed after Katniss escaped, but she is not put to death as many other people Katniss knew in the Capitol. She sees Katniss again before Snow is put to death, and Katniss says that she has a “vacant look” in her eyes now.
According to the book, Haymitch and Plutarch had a hard time stopping her from being killed at the end of the war. However, her being locked up helped them do that. In the movies, Effie’s part grows in the third one, Mockingjay Part 1, because she is not captured by the Capitol, but instead is taken to District 13 against her will by the Rebels. At first, she doesn’t want to help Katniss, but in the end, she agrees. She takes the place of Katniss’ prep team, who doesn’t show up again after the second movie.
Elizabeth Banks Movies and TV Shows
- Call Jane
- Cocaine Bear
- Charlie’s Angels
- Pitch Perfect
- Surrender Dorothy
- Spider-Man trilogy
- Walk of Shame
- Magic Mike XXL
- Power Rangers
- Brightburn
- 30 Rock
- Modern Family
- Love & Mercy
Elizabeth Banks Social Media Platforms
Banks is very active on her Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook pages and she has 2.1M followers on Twitter, 4M followers on Instagram, and 1.8k followers on Facebook.