Angelina Jolie

Angelina Jolie Bio

Angelina Jolie Voight, known professionally as Angelina Jolie, is an American actress, filmmaker, and humanitarian. The daughter of actors Jon Voight and Marcheline Bertrand, she made her screen debut as a child in Lookin’ to Get Out (1982) and has built one of the most celebrated careers in modern Hollywood. She is the recipient of numerous accolades, including an Academy Award, three Golden Globe Awards, and a Tony Award.

Beyond film, Angelina Jolie has served as a Special Envoy for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and is widely recognized for her humanitarian advocacy on behalf of refugees, women, and children around the world.

Early Life and Background

Angelina Jolie Voight was born on June 4, 1975, at Cedars-Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles, California, into a family rooted in acting. Her father, Jon Voight, and her mother, Marcheline Bertrand, were both actors, and her brother, James Haven, also pursued a career in film. Her godparents were actors Jacqueline Bisset and Maximilian Schell, and her uncles include singer Chip Taylor and geologist Barry Voight. After her parents separated in 1976, Angelina Jolie and her brother were raised by their mother, who had stepped away from acting to focus on her children.

When Angelina Jolie was six years old, her mother moved the family to Palisades, New York; they returned to Los Angeles five years later. Inspired by the films she watched with her mother, she enrolled at the Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute, where she trained for two years and appeared in several stage productions. She attended Beverly Hills High School and later transferred to Moreno High School, an alternative school where she embraced a punk identity before ultimately graduating at age 16.

Path to Acting

Determined to become a professional actress, Angelina Jolie committed to acting at sixteen, though she often heard that her demeanor was too dark for auditions. She appeared in her brother James Haven’s student films at the USC School of Cinema-Television and in music videos for artists including Lenny Kravitz, Antonello Venditti, The Lemonheads, and Meat Loaf. Her professional film career began in 1993 with a leading role in the direct-to-video science-fiction sequel Cyborg 2, followed by a supporting role in the independent film Without Evidence (1995).

That same year, Angelina Jolie landed her first major studio role in the cult favorite Hackers (1995), which critics described as the film that launched her career. She went on to appear in a series of independent and studio projects, including Love Is All There Is (1996), Foxfire (1996), Mojave Moon (1996), and Playing God (1997), steadily building the range and intensity that would soon define her work.

Angelina Jolie Career

Early Career (1993–1997)

Angelina Jolie’s early career was marked by determination and a willingness to take risks across genres. After Cyborg 2 and Hackers, she took on dramatic roles in Foxfire and Mojave Moon, earning praise from Los Angeles Times critic Jack Mathews for the presence she brought to the character of Legs. Her television work soon followed, with leading roles in the CBS miniseries True Women (1997) and the TNT biographical film George Wallace (1997), in which she portrayed Cornelia Wallace opposite Gary Sinise.

For George Wallace, Angelina Jolie won her first Golden Globe Award and earned a Primetime Emmy Award nomination. These early honors established her as a serious dramatic actress and opened the door to the most pivotal period of her career.

Breakthrough (1998–2000)

In 1998, Angelina Jolie delivered what many consider her breakout performance as supermodel Gia Carangi in the HBO biographical film Gia. Her raw portrayal earned her a second consecutive Golden Globe Award and her first Screen Actors Guild Award. The following year, she starred as Lisa, a sociopathic patient in the psychiatric drama Girl, Interrupted (1999), a role that would change her career forever.

For Girl, Interrupted, Angelina Jolie won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, along with a Golden Globe Award and a Screen Actors Guild Award. She capped this breakthrough period with a role in the action hit Gone in 60 Seconds (2000), which became her highest-grossing film to that point.

Worldwide Recognition (2001–2010)

Angelina Jolie solidified her status as an international superstar with her starring role as Lara Croft in Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2001). Despite mixed critical reviews, the film earned $274.7 million worldwide and established her as a leading action star. She continued her rise with commercially successful films including Mr. & Mrs. Smith (2005), Wanted (2008), Salt (2010), and The Tourist (2010), while earning critical acclaim for dramatic performances in A Mighty Heart (2007) and Changeling (2008), the latter earning her an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress.

She also voiced Tigress in the Kung Fu Panda franchise and appeared in the fantasy films Maleficent (2014) and Maleficent: Mistress of Evil (2019), the first of which became her highest-grossing film ever at $757.8 million worldwide. In 2008, Forbes named her the highest-paid actress in Hollywood.

Expansion to Directing (2011–Present)

Angelina Jolie made her feature directorial debut with In the Land of Blood and Honey (2011), a Bosnian War drama that earned a Golden Globe nomination for Best Foreign Language Film. She went on to direct Unbroken (2014), By the Sea (2015), First They Killed My Father (2017), and Without Blood (2024), while also producing the Broadway musical The Outsiders (2024), which won the Tony Award for Best Musical. In 2024, she starred as opera singer Maria Callas in Pablo Larraín’s Maria, earning another Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress.

Notable Works and Milestones

Angelina Jolie is associated with a body of work that includes critically acclaimed performances in Girl, Interrupted, A Mighty Heart, Changeling, and Maria, alongside blockbuster action roles in the Tomb Raider franchise, Mr. & Mrs. Smith, Salt, and the Maleficent films. Her directorial achievements, particularly Unbroken and First They Killed My Father, reflect her commitment to stories rooted in resilience and human dignity, while her humanitarian work has been recognized with a Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award from the Academy in 2013.

Angelina Jolie Award Nominations

Throughout her career, Angelina Jolie has received nominations from major awards bodies for both her acting and her humanitarian work. She earned Academy Award nominations for Best Actress for Changeling (2008) and Maria (2024), as well as nominations for two Golden Globe Awards for Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama for A Mighty Heart and Changeling, and another Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Comedy or Musical for The Tourist. She has also received British Academy Film Awards nominations and Primetime Emmy Award nominations for her television work in George Wallace and Gia.

Angelina Jolie Awards Won

Angelina Jolie has won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, three Golden Globe Awards, two Screen Actors Guild Awards, and a Tony Award as a producer of The Outsiders. In 2013, she received the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award, an honorary Academy Award, in recognition of her humanitarian efforts.

Angelina Jolie Family

Angelina Jolie is the daughter of actors Jon Voight and Marcheline Bertrand. She has a brother, James Haven, who is also an actor. Her godparents are actors Jacqueline Bisset and Maximilian Schell, and her uncles include singer Chip Taylor and geologist Barry Voight.

Personal Life

Angelina Jolie was married to actors Jonny Lee Miller from 1996 to 2000 and to Billy Bob Thornton from 2000 to 2003. She was subsequently in a long-term relationship with actor Brad Pitt, with whom she married in 2014 and divorced in 2019. She has six children: Maddox Chivan, Zahara Marley, Shiloh Nouvel, Pax Thien, Knox Léon, and Vivienne Marcheline, three of whom are adopted and three biological. After the loss of her mother to ovarian cancer in 2007, Jolie underwent a preventive double mastectomy in 2013 and a preventive salpingo-oophorectomy in 2015 after learning she carried a defective BRCA1 gene. She also holds honorary Cambodian citizenship, granted in 2005 in recognition of her humanitarian work in the country.