9:12AM, Jan 09, 2009
The actress has left the tweeny roles far behind with hi-profile parts in the likes of Brokeback Mountain and Rachel Getting Married.
Born: 1982
Where: Brooklyn, New York
Hathaway had to overcome a difficult obstacle in the theatre to land her winning role in the American hit The Princess Diaries.
At five foot eight she was too tall to get parts as children...but she looked so young that she was never cast as adults in auditions for Broadway shows.
However, she was perfect for TV and made her primetime acting debut as eldest daughter Meghan Green in the short-lived Fox drama series "Get Real".
Segueing to the big screen, Hathaway was cast in the independently produced fact-based tale of a missionary to Tonga The Other Side of Heaven.
Audiences, however, first saw the actress as Mia, an awkward San Francisco teen who learns she's actually royalty, in the comedy The Princess Diaries, directed by veteran Garry Marshall.
She held her own with such talented co-stars as Julie Andrews (as her grandmother), Hector Elizondo (as an adviser) and Heather Matarazzo as Mia's pal.
She was next seen in Nicholas Nickleby with Christopher Plummer, Jim Broadbent and Miranda Richardson and was also cast in the lead role of Ella in Ella Enchanted alongside Joanna Lumley.
In 2002 she provided the voice of schoolgirl Haru in the Japanese children's fantasy The Cat Returns and landed plaudits in the Oscar-winning Ang Lee drama Brokeback Mountain.
Switching from drama to comedy, the starred in the waspish fashion comedy The Devil Wears Prada in 2006 and went on to play authoress Jane Austen in the intriguing romantic drama Becoming Jane.
In 2008, she starred opposite Steve Carell in the comedy spoof Get Smart and landed serious critical acclaim as a recovering drug addict in the bleak drama Rachel Getting Married.
Bride Wars opposite Kate Hudson is probably best forgotten but - showing her versatility - she takes the lead in the horror thriller Passengers alongside Patrick Wilson.
