Drew Barrymore

DREW BARRYMORE embodies versatility, having added to her status as one of the film business’ most popular leading ladies by becoming a successful producer and director.

Since making her film debut at the age of five in 1980, in director Ken Russell’s science-fiction thriller Altered States, the actress has built a celebrated career as a performer that has branched out into film production as well as direction.

Born in Culver City, California, into a revered family of actors that includes, among many others, her grandfather John Barrymore and grand-uncle Lionel Barrymore, she started performing in commercials before her first birthday. At age six, she was chosen by director (and godfather) Steven Spielberg to co-star as Gertie in his (at the time) small-scale feature E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial. Once the film was released to overall acclaim in 1982, the young actress had instantly become a movie star.

Much in demand as a child performer, she starred in such well-received films as Firestarter, Irreconcilable Differences, See You in the Morning and Cat’s Eye, as well as television films such as Babes in Toyland and the television series 2000 Malibu Road.

As she became an adult, she continued her prolific output of work by starring in the popular motion pictures Poison Ivy, Guncrazy, Wayne’s World 2, Bad Girls, Boys on the Side, Mad Love, Batman Forever, director Woody Allen’s Everyone Says I Love You and the blockbuster Scream (as the franchise’s first victim).

In 1995, she set out to become involved in films as a producer, creating Flower Films with partner Nancy Juvonen. Their first production was the 1999 comedy Never Been Kissed, followed by the box-office hit Charlie’s Angels in 2000. Firmly established as a production powerhouse, Flower Films subsequently produced the features 50 First Dates, cult favorite Donnie Darko, Duplex, Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle, Music and Lyrics, Fever Pitch and Whip It (which she directed and appeared in), as well as the Ken Kwapis-directed He’s Just Not That Into You (in which she starred along with Jennifer Aniston and Ben Affleck, among others). The company has also produced projects for television, including the animated feature Olive, the Other Reindeer (which was nominated for an Emmy Award in 1999 for Outstanding Animated Program).

Among her many other successes as an actress are leading roles in the films The Wedding Singer, Ever After, Home Fries, Riding in Cars With Boys, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind and Lucky You, and she has lent her voice to the animated features Beverly Hills Chihuahua, Titan A.E. and Curious George.

She starred in the films Everybody’s Fine and Going the Distance, and won a 2009 Golden Globe Award and a Screen Actors Guild Award and received an Emmy Award nomination for her role as fallen heiress Edith Bouvier Beale in the lauded HBO production of Grey Gardens, opposite Jessica Lange.

She is much in demand on television, having voiced characters on the animated series Family Guy and The Simpsons and hosted Saturday Night Live. She is also sought after as a spokesperson for several top fashion retail companies, including Gucci and Covergirl Cosmetics.

As a longtime animal and human rights activist, she is devoted to such causes as the United Nations World Food Program (for which she was chosen to serve as an Ambassador Against Hunger) and the ASPCA, among many others.

(c) 2012 Universal Pictures