Cate Blanchett was born in Melbourne on May 14, 1969. She gained international attention for her role as Elizabeth I of England in Elizabeth (1998), for which she received her first Oscar nomination.

In 2005 she won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her portrayal of Katharine Hepburn in Martin Scorsese's The Aviator, while in 2014 she won the Academy Award for Best Actress for Woody Allen's Blue Jasmine.

In doing so, she became one of only seven actresses in history to win Academy Awards for both Best Actress in a Leading Role and Best Supporting Actress. At the same time she became the first person of Australian nationality to have won two Academy Awards in the categories reserved for acting. In 2020 she was president of the jury of the Venice Film Festival.

Considered one of the best actresses of her generation, she was nominated a total of eight times for the Academy Awards, the fourth most nominated actress ever in the history of the award. She was also nominated for Notes on a Scandal (2006), Elizabeth: The Golden Age (2007), I'm Not Here (2007), Carol (2015) and Tár (2022). Her efforts in the motion picture industry have been recognized with numerous other accolades, including four Golden Globes, four BAFTA Awards, three Screen Actors Guild Awards, three Critics Choice Awards, two Volpi Cups and her BFI Lifetime Achievement Award.

Among national honours, she was awarded a knighthood of the Ordre des arts et des lettres by the French government in 2012 and a companion of the Order of Australia for services rendered in the arts, humanitarian and environmental support , the latter delivered to her by Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom.