Amy Adams' early life
Amy Lou Adams was born August 20, 1974 in Vicenza, Italy. The future Junebug star's dad Richard Adams was stationed in Italy with the US Army, hence her birth overseas. Part of a big family which consisted of four boys and three girls, Amy only settled in Castle Rock, Colorado after eight years of being stationed across the world with her parents and siblings.
Performing is clearly in Amy's blood - her father sang professionally in restaurants, meanwhile her mother Kathryn was once a semi-professional bodybuilder. Amy was raised a Mormon – although her family left the church after her parents divorced when she was 11 years old.
Performing talent
At school Amy took up ballet and went on to eschew college in favor of musical theatre. The Enchanted star began her career working as a dancer in a Minneapolis dinner theatre, but after three years was forced to quit when a pulled muscle put her out of action. It was then that she attended her first audition, which was for a part in the 1999 comedy Drop Dead Gorgeous. Having won her role, the emerging talent never returned to dancing.
Swapping Minnesota for LA, Amy focused on trying to break into Hollywood. After a difficult first year, work began to filter in, and she gained a lead part in a Cruel Intentions spin off in 1999. This led to more film roles, including one in 2002 Spielberg thriller Catch Me If You Can, where she played Leonardo DiCaprio's love interest. The film should have jump-started her Hollywood career, but afterwards she was unemployed for a year.
Hollywood success
When Amy hit 30 in 2005, the actress began to wonder where she was going with acting. But just before she decided to pursue another career, the script for low budget indie flick Junebug landed in her lap, and everything changed. Although distributed on limited release, the film was a huge hit with critics who heaped praise on Amy for her performance as pregnant optimist Ashley Johnson. The role didn't just get her noticed, it also brought nominations from the Screen Actors Guild and Academy awards.
From then on work flowed in for Amy. Other notable roles include 2007's Charlie Wilson's War with Tom Hanks, Disney's Enchanted, and Doubt, the role for which she was singled out for her second Academy Award nomination in 2009. In 2013, Amy achieved further success portraying a con artist in American Hustle.
In 2016, the actress starred in the critical and commercial success Arrival. Since, Amy has starred in more films including 2018's Vice, TV such as HBO's Sharp Objects, starred on stage in the 2022 West End production of The Glass Menagerie and returned to the screen as her Disney princess Giselle in Disenchanted.
Personal Life
Amy became engaged to her actor husband Darren Le Gallo in 2008. The couple met during an acting class in 2001 and started dating a year later after their friendship blossomed into romance when they worked together on a short film.
In 2010, the couple's daughter Aviana was born. Then, seven years after the couple got engaged, they married in a private ceremony in California.
