Elizabeth Banks

Elizabeth Banks (birthname: Elizabeth Maresal Banks) has developed a diverse and wide-ranging profile as a director, producer, actor, and screenwriter. She was on the early end of the current wave of women actors who have broken into feature filmmaking, starting in 2015 with her three-way role as director-producer-co-star of the hit sequel, Pitch Perfect 2, with Anna Kendrick, Rebel Wilson, Hailee Steinfeld, Brittany Snow, Skylar Astin, Katey Sagal, and which grossed ten times costs with a global take of $287.5 million.

After an early set of credits under the name of “Elizabeth Casey” and her birthname, Elizabeth Maresal Mitchell, Banks’ first notable appearance was in Wet Hot American Summer (2001), with Janeane Garofalo, David Hyde Pierce, Molly Shannon, Paul Rudd, and Christopher Meloni, becoming a cult item after a modest run following its Sundance premiere. Banks’ huge break arrived in 2002 (just four years after her first feature credit in Surrender Dorothy (1998) with Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man, starring Tobey Maguire, Willem Dafoe, Kirsten Dunst, James Franco, Cliff Robertson, and Rosemary Harris, and grossing a blockbuster $825 million.

Banks had a larger supporting role in Guy Ritchie’s universally panned remake (of Lina Wertmüller’s Italian original), Swept Away (2002), with Madonna and Adriano Giannini, and then had a supporting role in Steven Spielberg’s crime comedy, Catch Me If You Can (2002), starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hanks, with Christopher Walken, Martin Sheen, and Amy Adams, and earning $352 million globally. Elizabeth Banks was cast in a larger role in writer-director Gary Ross’ drama, Seabiscuit (2003), reuniting with Maguire, along with Jeff Bridges, Chris Cooper, and William H. Macy, earning $148 million, then rejoined Maguire again for Raimi’s acclaimed sequel, Spider-Man 2 (2004), grossing $789 million worldwide.

Elizabeth Banks was cast in her first starring role in the Merchant-Ivory production, Heights (2005), starring Glenn Close, Jesse Bradford, James Marsden, Isabella Rossellini, George Segal, and Eric Bogosian, and premiering at the Sundance Film Festival. After some mostly minor indie films, the next major project for Banks was cast member in Judd Apatow’s smash hit comedy, The 40-Year-Old Virgin (2005), starring Steve Carrell, Catherine Keener, and Paul Rudd, earning nearly eight times ($177.4 million) production costs ($26 million).

After co-starring with Mark Wahlberg and Greg Kinnear in the sports drama, Invincible (2006), Banks joined Maguire once again for Raimi’s most successful (and final) film in the series, Spider-Man 3 (2007), grossing a powerhouse $895 million worldwide. After a string of modestly performing movies, mostly rom-coms, Elizabeth Banks enacted her first real-life role as Laura Bush in Oliver Stone’s W (2008), starring Josh Brolin, James Cromwell, Ellen Burstyn, Scott Glenn, and Thandiwe Newton, earning only $29.5 million.

Banks earned a significant co-starring role opposite Seth Rogen in Kevin Smith’s Zack and Miri Make a Porno (2008), with Craig Robinson and Tracy Lords, but the movie failed to make a profit with an under-$43 million box office. Banks joined the cast of Seann William Scott, Paul Rudd, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, and Jane Lynch for writer-director David Wain’s hilarious comedy, Role Models (2008), grossing a boisterous $92.4 million. After co-starring with Russell Crowe in writer-director Paul Haggis’ thriller, The Next Three Days (2010), Banks rejoined Rudd for the well-received comedy, Our Idiot Brother (2011), co-starring with Zooey Deschanel, Emily Mortimer, Steve Coogan, and Kathryn Hahn, earning five times costs for a $26 million global take.

For something completely different, Elizabeth Banks as Effie Trinket in her next smash franchise project, The Hunger Games (2012), starring Jennifer Lawrence, with Josh Hutcherson, Liam Hemsworth, Woody Harrelson, Stanley Tucci, and Donald Sutherland, earning a dazzling $694.4 million globally. Banks joined Ben Falcone and Dennis Quaid in her section of the $84-million-grossing anthology comedy, What To Expect When You’re Expecting (2012), followed by Banks’ first project as producer-actor, the smash hit musical, Pitch Perfect (2012), with Anna Kendrick, Rebel Wilson, and Brittany Snow, earning $115.4 million worldwide.

With two franchises going simultaneously, Elizabeth Banks alternated between The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (2013) and the two-part The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 (2014) and Part 2 (2015)—earning a combined $2.28 billion global box office—alongside Pitch Perfect 2 (2015) and Pitch Perfect 3 (2017), which marked Banks’ elevation to director-producer status (for the second film, as well as actor in all three), a rare triumvirate at that moment for a woman in Hollywood, with both earning a combined $470 million worldwide. In between these huge projects, Banks starred in writer-director Sara Colangelo’s acclaimed Sundance premiere, Little Accidents (2014).

Banks was then cast in another hit franchise, as a voice actor in Phil Lord’s and Christopher Miller’s brilliant The Lego Movie (2014), with Chris Pratt, Will Ferrell, Will Arnett, Nick Offerman, Alison Brie, Liam Neeson, and Morgan Freeman, and earning a knockout $468 million on a $60 million budget, and which spawned the sequel, The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part (2019) with Banks reprising her role and grossing a mediocre $192.5 million.

Banks received some of the biggest accolades of her career as Melinda in director-producer Bill Pohlad’s fine Brian Wilson biopic, Love & Mercy (2014), starring John Cusack, Paul Dano, and Paul Giamatti, premiering at the Toronto Film Festival and grossing $28.6 million. Banks guested in yet another franchise, the sequel Magic Mike XXL (2015), directed and co-produced by Gregory Jacobs, starring Channing Tatum, Joe Manganiello, Amber Heard, Donald Glover, Andie MacDowell, and Jada Pinkett Smith, and earning a strong $122.5 million.

Elizabeth Banks starred in a genre in which she has seldom appeared—superhero horror—in the James Gunn-produced Brightburn (2019), which returned a profit for Sony Pictures/Screen Gems with $33 million. Banks’ biggest personal project to date was her first as director-writer-producer-co-star, an updated version of the hit TV series, Charlie’s Angels (2019), starring Kristen Stewart, Naomi Scott, Elia Balinska, Djimon Hounsou, and Patrick Stewart, though it failed commercially with a $73 million global take.

Banks starred in another female-led project, the 60s-era set Call Jane (2022), directed by Phyllis Nagy and co-starring Sigourney Weaver, Kate Mara, Wunmi Mosaku, and John Magaro, and premiering at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival. Another fact-based movie was Banks’ next acting project, The Beanie Bubble (2023), written and directed by Kristen Gore and featuring Zach Galifianakis and Sarah Snook. Banks’ third movie as director-producer (collaborating with her Lego Movie filmmakers, Phil Lord, and Christopher Miller) was the comedy action film, Cocaine Bear (2023), with Keri Russell, Alden Ehrenreich, Ray Liotta, Isaiah Whitlock Jr., Margo Martindale, and Matthew Rhys.

and which earned a global gross of nearly $90 million against $30 million costs for Universal Pictures. After serving as a producer on the acclaimed high school comedy,
Bottoms (2023), co-written and directed by Emma Seligman (with co-writer and lead Rachel Sennott), Banks co-starred with Kumail Nanjiani in a lead voice role in the Illumination/Universal Pictures animated comedy, Migration (2023), directed by Benjamin Renner and written by Mike White, and featuring the voices of Awkwafina, Keegan-Michael Key, David Mitchell, Carol Kane, and Danny DeVito.

As a live-action actor, Banks starred in writer-director Christine Jeffs’ adaptation of the Carl Shuker hospital drama, A Mistake (date to be announced), as well as co-starring in co-writer/director Austin Peters’ Skincare (date to be announced); co-starring opposite Jamie Foxx and Anthony Mackie in the Johnnie Cochran biopic drama, Signal Hill (date to be announced); and a co-starring role with John C. Reilly in the A.I.-themed drama,
DreamQuil (date to be announced).