Early life
Garner is the second of three daughters born into a middle class family in Houston, Texas. Her mother, Patricia Ann (née English), was an English teacher from Oklahoma, and her father, Bill John Garner, worked as a chemical engineer at Union Carbide. When she was four years old, her father's job with Union Carbide relocated her family to Princeton, West Virginia, and then later to Charleston, West Virginia, where Garner resided until her college years. She has credited her older sister, Melissa Lynn Garner Wylie, who resides in Boston, Massachusetts, as a source of inspiration to her. Her younger sister is Susannah Kay Garner Carpenter.
Garner's conservative upbringing included going to church every Sunday, not wearing make-up or a bikini, and waiting at least until the age of 16 to be allowed to get her ears pierced, which, she later joked, made her family "just a step away from being Amish."She began taking ballet lessons at the age of three and continued to dance throughout her youth, but she did not envision herself becoming a classical ballerina. Garner attended George Washington High School in Charleston. In 1990, she enrolled at Ohio's Denison University, where she majored in drama and worked in numerous theatrical productions.She graduated from Denison, where she was initiated into the sorority Pi Beta Phi, in 1994.
Career
In 1994, Garner appeared in Atlanta productions of two Shakespeare plays, The Merchant of Venice and A Midsummer Night's Dream, by the Georgia Shakespeare Company.
In 1995, Garner started pursuing theater in New York City and earned $150 a week as an understudy in the play A Month in the Country for Roundabout Theatre Company. She was then cast in her first television role as part of a made-for-television movie Zoya, based on the Danielle Steel novel. In the late 1990s, she made brief appearances in individual episodes of Spin City and Law & Order while also securing roles in two short-lived television series, Significant Others and Time of Your Life.
Garner made her first big screen appearance of the 21st century in the comedy Dude, Where's My Car?, playing Ashton Kutcher's character's girlfriend. In 2001, she appeared as the supporting character of a nurse in the big-budget epic Pearl Harbor, starring her future husband Ben Affleck.
Later in 2001, J. J. Abrams, the producer of Felicity, in which Garner had played a recurring role since 1998, approached Garner to audition for the role of Sydney Bristow in his new spy drama Alias. Garner, who up until now had mostly played weepy waifs, did not learn that she "might have to throw a punch or kick" until the first few days of audition. Told that she "throws like such a girl" and with no background in martial arts or gymnastics, she enrolled in a month-long, private Taekwondo class to prepare for the audition. Even as Garner was cast after several auditions, Abrams revealed that he remained panicked with the thought that she might not be able to pull off the role, especially as, on the first day of shooting, he was told by Garner herself, "I don't think I can do this." Garner later commented, "I was such a girlie-girl then. I didn't even know how to punch." While she performed many of the action sequences during the series herself, the dangerous explosions and complex fights were handled by her stunt double, Shauna Duggins. The first few episodes of season one of Alias, which averaged about 10.2 million weekly viewers, earned Garner the award for "Best Actress in a Television Series — Drama" at the 2002 Golden Globe Awards. Garner's salary for the show began at $40,000 an episode and rose to $150,000 per episode by the series' end. During the show's run, Garner received four consecutive Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Television Series Drama nominations as well as Emmy nominations for her lead performance. She won the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Drama Series in 2005. That same year, during the fourth season, Garner directed the Alias episode, "In Dreams", which aired in May. She received producer credit during the series' final season. The series concluded in May 2006 after a shorter fifth season that was abbreviated from 22 to 17 episodes due to Garner's pregnancy, which was written into the season's storyline.
After the initial success of Alias, Garner made a big screen cameo in the Steven Spielberg film Catch Me if You Can in 2002. Her breakout film role came when she played Ben Affleck's love interest as Elektra Natchios in the action movie Daredevil (2003), an adaptation of the comic book. Garner stated that her training for Daredevil was more gruesome than her work on Alias, and revealed that as she got hung up on wires several times during fight sequences, Affleck became "in charge of reaching up and saving her." Garner starred in her first leading role in 13 Going on 30 (2004), a moderate commercial success Reviewers praised her performance as "radiant" and "effervescent without ever being cloying", and The Christian Science Monitor commented that "while Garner is no Tom Hanks, she's consistently appealing". Her second lead role saw her reprising the character of Elektra in the 2005 Daredevil spin-off titled Elektra, a box office disaster that was panned by critics. The Boston Globe stated, "Based on Garner's humorlessness, lack of vocal inflection, and generally bland disposition, "the Way" she has yet to grasp seems to be that of acting,"whereas USA Today concluded that "Jennifer Garner ... is far more appealing when she's playing charming and adorable, as she did so winningly in 13 Going on 30.
Garner performed the Frank Loesser song "My Heart Is So Full of You" on the 2006 charity album Unexpected Dreams – Songs From the Stars. She appeared in the films Catch and Release (2006) and The Kingdom (2007) alongside Jamie Foxx, Jason Bateman and Ashraf Barhom. She then appeared in the Jason Reitman-directed comedy/drama feature Juno, which became a sleeper box office hit. After that film's premiere at the Toronto Film Festival, Entertainment Weekly declared Garner's work the best female supporting performance of the festival, saying, "The star of Alias and The Kingdom does no butt-kicking in this sweet comedy. Instead, as a young wife desperately hoping to adopt, she's funny, a bit tough, and unbelievably touching.
Garner made her Broadway debut on November 1, 2007, playing Roxanne in Cyrano de Bergerac alongside Kevin Kline at the Richard Rodgers Theatre on Broadway.The show was originally set to run until December 23, 2007, but it was extended through January 6, 2008 due to the Broadway stagehand strike in late 2007.
Garner appeared in the hit ensemble romantic comedy Valentine's Day in 2010.
Personal life
Marriages and family
On October 19, 2000, Garner married actor Scott Foley, whom she had met on the set of Felicity in 1998. After separating from Foley in March 2003, Garner filed for divorce in May 2003, citing irreconcilable differences, and the two were officially divorced on March 30, 2004. Following her separation, Garner dated Alias co-star Michael Vartan from August 2003 to March 2004.
Sometime in early to mid 2004, Garner started dating Daredevil co-star Ben Affleck and the two made their first public appearance as a couple by attending the Boston Red Sox's opening World Series games in October 2004. Since her relationship with Affleck, first as girlfriend and then as wife, Garner has been a tabloid staple. "Ben taught me that you cannot read that stuff, that it’s poison," she said in 2009. On Garner's 33rd birthday, Affleck proposed to her with a 4.5 carats (900 mg) diamond ring from Harry Winston. Affleck married Garner, who was three months pregnant at the time, on June 29, 2005 in a private ceremony in the Caribbean, officiated by family friend and Garner's Alias co-star, Victor Garber, at the Parrot Cay resort on the Turks and Caicos Islands. In December 2005, Garner gave birth to their first daughter, Violet Anne Affleck. The couple's second child, Seraphina Rose Elizabeth Affleck, was born in January 2009. It was announced on August 22, 2011 that the couple is expecting their third child due in 2012.
Stalking
Garner had been stalked since 2002 by a man, Steven Burky, who was eventually arrested in December 2009, after violating a 2008 restraining order against him. Burky was charged with two counts of stalking, to which he pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity; in March 2010, he was ruled insane and sent to the California state mental hospital with a court order to stay away from the Affleck family for 10 years if released from the hospital.
In the media
In 2002, Garner topped the Maxim Hot 100 list. In December 2007, Garner was named The Charleston Sunday Gazette-Mail's 2007 West Virginian of the Year "for her dedication, work ethic and unique role as role model and ambassador for West Virginia."
Filmography
1997 In Harm's Way Kelly
1997 Deconstructing Harry Woman in Elevator
1997 Washington Square Marian Almond
1997 Mr. Magoo Stacey Sampanahodrita
1998 1999 Annabell Alternative title: Girls & Boys
2000 Dude, Where's My Car? Wanda
2001 Pearl Harbor Nurse Sandra
2001 Rennie's Landing Kiley Bradshaw Alternative title: Stealing Time
2002 Catch Me If You Can Cheryl Ann Cameo Role
2003 Daredevil Elektra Natchios
2004 13 Going on 30 30-year-old Jenna Rink
2005 Elektra Elektra Natchios
2006 Catch and Release Gray
2007 The Kingdom Janet Mayes
2007 Juno Vanessa Loring Nominated—Online Film Critics Society Award for Best Supporting Actress
Nominated—Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Cast
2009 Ghosts of Girlfriends Past Jenny Perotti
2009 The Invention of Lying Anna
2010 Valentine's Day Julia Fitzpatrick
2011 Arthur Susan Johnson
2011 Butter Laura Pickler Also Producer
2012 The Odd Life of Timothy Green Cindy Green
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