OurBiography

Carey Mulligan received an Academy Award nomination for the film ‘An Education’ and has starred in an array of other projects, including ‘The Great Gatsby’ and ‘Far From the Madding Crowd.’

Synopsis

Carey Mulligan was born on May 28, 1985, in London, England. She grew up in Germany and England and performed in theater productions. In 2005, she starred in her first major film, Pride & Prejudice, with Keira Knightley. She later earned an Oscar nomination for her lead role in An Education. She has since starred in films such as The Great Gatsby and Suffragette, and is wed to musician Marcus Mumford.

Early Life and Career

Actress Carey Mulligan was born on May 28, 1985, in London, England. Scoring an Academy Award nomination in 2010, Carey Mulligan has emerged as one of today's most promising young film stars. She is the daughter of a hotel manager, spending her youth in Germany and England. While in school, Mulligan performed in a number of theatrical productions, including the musical Sweet Charity.

Mulligan met screenwriter Julian Fellowes when he spoke at her school. He eventually put her in touch with a casting agent. That agent helped her land a role in 2005's Pride & Prejudice, starring Keira Knightley and Matthew Macfadyen, who played the legendary literary couple from the classic Jane Austen novel. Mulligan and Knightley became good friends during filming. That same year, Mulligan had a featured role in the British miniseries Bleak House, based on the work by Charles Dickens. She played an orphan engaged in a protracted legal battle set in 19th-century England. More television projects soon followed, including 2006's The Amazing Mrs. Pritchard and 2007's Northanger Abbey.

Oscar Nod for 'An Education'

Making her Broadway debut, Mulligan starred in a revival of the Anton Chekhov classic The Seagull with Peter Sarsgaard and Kristin Scott Thomas in 2008. Back on the big screen, she played a prostitute in the 2009 gangster film Public Enemies, starring Johnny Depp. Mulligan re-teamed with Sarsgaard for one of her greatest successes, the critically acclaimed coming-of-age drama An Education. In the film she played Jenny, a smart but restless teenager who becomes involved with a much older businessman (Sarsgaard) in England during the early 1960s.

Mulligan's nuanced portrayal of Jenny earned rave reviews when the film was shown at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival. And the critical support just continued to grow, with the drama eventually netting three Academy Award nominations. Mulligan was nominated for best actress, a honor she shared with some of Hollywood's top performers, including Meryl Streep and Helen Mirren.

'The Great Gatsby' and Broadway

After An Education, Mulligan's career enjoyed a substantial boost. She went on to appear as Michael Douglas's daughter in Wall Street 2: Money Never Sleeps (2010).While working on the film, she began dating one of her co-stars, Shia LaBoeuf. Mulligan has also reunited with friend Knightley for the quiet sci-fi drama Never Let Me Go (2010).

Mulligan tied the knot with musician Marcus Mumford in 2012. The pair had actually known each other in their youth before reuniting as adults. The following year, Mulligan starred opposite Leonardo DiCaprio in the film adaptation of the F. Scott Fitzgerald novel The Great Gatsby. She also appeared opposite Oscar Isaac in the critically acclaimed Inside Llewyn Davis that same year. 

In 2015, Mulligan returned to Broadway in the play Skylight, co-starring Bill Nighy. She earned a Tony nomination for her work, with the show itself winning for Best Play Revival. Around this time, Mulligan also starred in the film adaptation of Thomas Hardy's Far From the Maddening Crowd (2015). Continuing to garner awards buzz, during the fall Mulligan stared as a stalwart activist in the historical drama Suffragette, a retelling of the fight for women's voting rights in early 20th-century England.