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Jennifer Garner Biography

Jennifer Anne Garner[1] (born April 17, 1972) is an Emmy-nominated and Golden Globe- and SAG Award-winning American actress. She is best known for her role as CIA agent Sydney Bristow on TV's Alias, as well as for her roles in the films Juno, Pearl Harbor, Dude, Where's My Car?, 13 Going on 30, Catch Me if You Can, Daredevil, Elektra, Catch and Release, and The Kingdom.

Garner was born in Houston, Texas, the daughter of Patricia Ann (née English), an English teacher from Oklahoma, and Billy Jack Garner, a chemical engineer who worked for Union Carbide in Texas. She is the middle child between two sisters, Melissa Garner Wylie (born 1969, resides in Boston, Massachusetts) and Susannah Kay Garner Carpenter (born January 24, 1975 in Texas,[2] resides in Charleston, West Virginia). Her family is Methodist.[3][4] At three years old, Garner began taking ballet lessons which she continued throughout her youth. Although she admitted that she loved dancing, she never had ambitions to become a classical ballerina.[5] When she was four years old, her father's job with Union Carbide relocated her family to Princeton, West Virginia, then to Charleston, West Virginia, where Garner resided until her college years.

In New York City, Garner earned $150 a week as an understudy in the play, A Month in the Country, for Roundabout Theatre Company in 1995. She was then cast in her first television role, a part in the made-for-television movie, Zoya, based on the Danielle Steel novel. Her next acting jobs were in two short-lived television series, Significant Others and Time of Your Life, and a recurring role in the series Felicity. Garner appeared in the comedy Dude, Where's My Car?, playing Ashton Kutcher's girlfriend. In 2001, she appeared as a nurse in the big-budget epic Pearl Harbor, co-starring with Kate Beckinsale and Garner's future husband Ben Affleck.

Garner entered the Forbes' "Power 100" list of celebrities in 2005 at 70th place. From June 2004 to June 2005, she earned an estimated US $14 million.

She earned an estimated $3 million for her first film role in 13 Going on 30. The actress then received a bump up to a $5 million paycheck for Elektra and a similar sum for Catch and Release. She negotiated a reported $7 million for The Kingdom and by settling for a percentage point deal on Juno, Garner is assured at least $8.5 million from the independent movie. The actress settled on percentage points as a gesture of goodwill to star in the small movie instead of demanding an A-list salary, but the film became a runaway smash at the box office.