Catherine Keener was the third of five children born to Evelyn and Jim Keener, an automobile business manager, in Miami, Florida. She is Irish on her father’s side and Lebanese on her mother’s.
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Catherine Keener Biography
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Catherine Keener is an American actress who was born on March 23, 1959. Keener is noted for portraying unhappy and gloomy yet sympathetic women in independent films as well as supporting roles in studio films.
She is considered one of the indie cinema industry’s most trustworthy performers.
She was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress twice, once for Being John Malkovich (1999) and once for Capote, for her portrayal of author Harper Lee (2005).
Keener also starred in the critically acclaimed films The 40-Year-Old Virgin (2005), Into the Wild (2007), Synecdoche, New York (2008), and Get Out (2017).
Keener is Nicole Holofcener’s muse, having appeared in each of the director’s first five films. She also appears in three Spike Jonze films and each of director Tom DiCillo’s first four films.
She starred in the Showtime dramedy series Kidding from 2018 to 2020.
Catherine Keener Early Life
Keener was born in Miami, Florida, the third of five children to Evelyn and Jim Keener, an automobile store manager. On her father’s side, she is Irish, and on her mother’s, she is Lebanese.
Elizabeth, her sister, is also an actor. Keener went to Hialeah, Florida’s Immaculate Conception Catholic School.
Although she had never been in trouble as a child, Keener began rebelliously acting out in high school at Monsignor Edward Pace High School.
She was eventually dismissed from 11th grade, but she later returned and maintained good grades, which allowed her to be admitted into college.
She went to Wheaton College in Norton, Massachusetts, where she lived with an aunt to save money on room and board and felt out of place among her wealthier classmates.
Keener studied English and history and only took a theatrical class because she couldn’t get into a photography programme.
During her junior year at Wheaton, she participated in the Wendy Wasserstein play “Uncommon Women and Others.” She assumed the role of “Rita.”
Keener travelled to New York after graduating in 1983, where she worked as an assistant to casting agent Gail Eisenstadt. Keener followed Eisenstadt to Los Angeles shortly after, despite the fact that she was still rather unambitious.
When Eisenstadt asked her about her future plans, she acknowledged that she intended to try acting, which was an unusual departure from the casting industry. Keener began earning modest acting roles after Eisenstadt pulled some ropes.
Catherine Career
Keener made his cinematic debut with a single line in About Last Night (1986). Despite her career struggles over the next few years, one low-quality job paid out in an unexpected way.
After Mulroney became stuck while attempting to mount a cliff, Keener met her future husband, actor Dermot Mulroney, in 1987 while working on Survival Quest (1989).
She also appeared as an artist in the episode “The Letter” of Seinfeld. She portrayed Jerry’s girlfriend, a painter who created the famed Kramer painting.
Keener then landed her first leading role in Johnny Suede, alongside Brad Pitt, who was still relatively unknown at the time.
Her performance garnered her a nomination for Best Female Lead at the Independent Spirit Awards for the first time.
She later collaborated with filmmaker Tom Dicillo on the film Living in Oblivion (1995).
She was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award two years later for her performance in the independent cult comedy Walking and Talking.
Keener’s naturalness onscreen won over the critics.
In 2000, Keener received her first Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress for her part in Spike Jonze’s Being John Malkovich.
Lovely and Amazing, which she co-directed with Nicole Holofcener in 2001, earned her a third Independent Spirit Award nomination.
She co-starred in the off-Broadway revival of Burn This in 2002, as well as the films Full Frontal and S1m0ne, all of which were box office flops at the time of their release, but have subsequently garnered a following.
She made a spectacular resurgence in 2005, appearing alongside Daniel Day-Lewis in the political thriller The Interpreter, The Ballad of Jack and Rose, and playing the love interest of the main character in The 40-Year-Old Virgin.
Keener received multiple honours and nominations for her role as writer Harper Lee in Capote (also 2005), including her second Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress.
Nicole Holofcener directed her in the film Friends with Money, which she starred in in 2006.
Sean Penn’s critically praised film Into the Wild, based on Jon Krakauer’s best-selling book of the same name, starred Keener as Jan Burres in 2007.
In 2008, her film An American Crime will debut on Showtime, based on the true tale of Gertrude Baniszewski, a middle-aged mother who tortured and murdered Sylvia Likens in her Indiana home.
Baniszewski is Keener’s character. Her performance got her an Emmy nomination for Best Actress in a Television Miniseries or Movie.
In the next film ‘Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief,’ Keener will play a happy mother. The Percy Jackson film is based on Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson series of books.
Keener Personal life
In 1990, Keener married actor Dermot Mulroney. Before divorcing in September 2005, the couple had a son, Clyde Keener Mulroney (born June 21, 1999).
Mulroney filed for divorce in June 2007, alleging irreconcilable differences. On December 19, 2007, the divorce was finalised.
Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston are personal friends of Keener’s, and the two met while filming Johnny Suede. Keener lives in North Carolina and Los Angeles.
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