Who is Mary Elizabeth Winstead? The entertainment anc acting world knows her as an American actress. Winstead has been called a prominent
scream queen because of her roles in the
horror films Monster Island,
The Ring Two,
Final Destination 3,
Black Christmas,
Death Proof, and
The Thing. She has also branched out into other genre films, including
Sky High,
Bobby,
Live Free or Die Hard/Die Hard 4.0,
Make It Happen and
Scott Pilgrim vs. the World. During her career, she has been nominated for a
Young Artist Award, for her performance in
Passions, and received a
Screen Actors Guild Award nomination as part of the cast of
Bobby.
Early life

Winstead was born November 28, 1984 in
Rocky Mount, North Carolina, the daughter of Betty Lou (
née Knight) and James Ronald Winstead. When she was five, her family moved to
Sandy, Utah, a
Salt Lake City suburb. Her interest in
performing art also began to emerge with interests in
ballet and
acting. As a child, Winstead appeared in the Mountain West Ballet's version of
The Nutcracker. Hoping to become a ballerina, at the age of eleven, she received the opportunity to study dance in a summer program of the prestigious
Joffrey Ballet School in New York City. There, she studied ballet and
jazz dance, but decided to also study acting. Winstead ended up appearing on
Broadway during
Donny Osmond’s successful run of
Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. She was also a member of the International Children's Choir during her youth and honed her skills performing at her
church.
Career
Early work

Winstead began her acting career at age 13, guest starring in episodes of the
CBS drama series
Touched by an Angel and
Promised Land, before being cast as
Jessica Bennett in the
NBC soap opera series
Passions, a role she played from 1999 to 2000. She subsequently appeared in the short-lived CBS drama series
Wolf Lake (2001–2002), and in the
made-for-television film
Monster Island (2002). Trying her hand at
comedy, Winstead went the
independent film route as the
Jewish daughter of a large, zany family in the indie feature
Checking Out, but her screen time fared better in the more mainstream
Disney live-action film
Sky High, which was financially and critically successful. She starred as
Gwen Grayson, the in-disguise alter ego of the supervillain Royal Pain.
2006–2007
After the exposure
Sky High provided, 2006 saw her forge a professional relationship with the creative team of
James Wong and
Glen Morgan, formerly best known for their memorable contributions to
The X-Files. She and her co-star,
Ryan Merriman, landed in the path of the
grim reaper’s master plan in
Final Destination 3.
(Winstead also starred with co-lead
Ryan Merriman in 2005's
The Ring Two.) The film also acts as the first feature she has a lead role in as well as being the highest-grossing film to date that she has had a lead role in. Morgan and Wong wanted to collaborate with her again and convinced her to appear in their sorority slasher
Black Christmas,
where she once again teamed up with fellow
Final Destination castmate
Crystal Lowe. They initially wanted her to play the lead, but afraid of being typecast, Winstead would only accept if she were cast in a supporting role. The film fared poorly with critics and viewers alike, but earned her a nomination for
Scream Queen at the 2007
Scream Awards. One day, Winstead inadvertently received a chance to lampoon horror scream queens when
The Tonight Show host
Jay Leno, unaware of who she was, knocked on her front door and included her in a comedy segment spoofing horror movies; She and
Riley parodied the
Saw series. That same year, she appeared in
Emilio Estevez's
Bobby,
a valentine to the politics and morals of
Robert F. Kennedy, which drew moderate critical attention, and became a minor box office success. The film's cast included
Laurence Fishburne,
Anthony Hopkins,
Ashton Kutcher,
William H. Macy,
Demi Moore, and
Sharon Stone, but most of her scenes were with
Shia LaBeouf and
Brian Geraghty. She and her co-stars were nominated for the
Screen Actors Guild Award for Best Cast in a Motion Picture but won the
Hollywood Film Festival Award for Best Ensemble Cast.

In 2007, Winstead appeared in a pair of high-profile event films.
Quentin Tarantino cast her as a well-intentioned but vapid and naïve actress in his high-speed segment of
Grindhouse called
Death Proof,

his half of a double-billed feature. The film failed to produce ticket sales, but drew critical acclaim.
Death Proof is the second film to feature Winstead with Kurt Russell (the first being
Sky High). Winstead appeared in most of the films marketing campaigns, possibly due to her clothes which resemble Uma Thurman's character in
Kill Bill, Tarantino's earlier film. The same summer, hot off the heels of its release, Winstead received another shot at action as
John McClane's estranged daughter
Lucy in
Live Free or Die Hard. The film earned over $130 million domestically, making it the highest grossing film that features Winstead.
2008–present

In 2008, Winstead screen-tested for the role of
Wonder Woman in the film adaption of
Justice League. She starred in a lead role in
Make It Happen, a
dance film. The film went
straight to DVD in the US, and gained a small collection in the UK, which eventually led to its financial failure. Nevertheless, the film proved a delight for Winstead to shoot, as she had always dreamed about becoming a dancer. It was also announced on May 16, 2008, that Winstead would co-star opposite
Michael Cera in the
comic-book adaptation Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, under the direction of
Edgar Wright.
Filming began in early March 2009 and wrapped on August 28, 2009. Also co-starring were
Chris Evans and
Brandon Routh. The film had a U.S. release on August 13, 2010. On February 2010, Winstead landed the lead role in the prequel to
The Thing, which is directed by
Matthijs van Heijningen Jr. and tentatively set for an April 29, 2011 release.

Winstead has expressed interest in returning as
Lucy McClane for the fifth installment of the
Die Hard film series, although her involvement in the project is yet to be confirmed. She was also mentioned in news regarding the prequel to
The Ring (tentatively titled
The Ring 3D), though further information is yet unknown.
In August 2010, shortly before the release of
Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, news emerge regarding Winstead's potential upcoming project, a
romcom penned by Elan Mastai,
The F Word.
Casey Affleck is set to star, while Winstead is up for the female lead, testing against
Rebecca Hall,
Rose Byrne and
Deborah Ann Woll.
Filmography
Cancelled projects
Awards and nominations
Personal life
Interviewed in 2006, Winstead said she was in a long-term relationship with Riley Stearns, an aspiring director from
Austin, Texas. In 2008, they worked together in
Stop/Eject – a short film he was making with Winstead's
Final Destination 3 co-star
Ryan Merriman, which is as of yet still in post-production. The project was shot on the weekends during the
2008 writers' strike. Winstead elaborates, "The whole short is 25 minutes long. We're currently working on post sound and music and we hope to show it at festivals."
On July 22, 2010, Winstead announced her engagement to longtime boyfriend Riley Stearns during an interview with
Spin.com. The wedding is to take place in October 2010 in
Austin, Texas, where Stearns is from.
Winstead had stated that at one point,
Final Destination 3 co-star
Amanda Crew "stayed with [her] for a while". She has also called
Lacey Chabert her "
confidant" and in the same interview, says she is good friends with
Death Proof co-stars
Rosario Dawson and
Sydney Tamiia Poitier. "I'm not a really "
cliquish" type of person," she says of herself. "There's usually one person that I gravitate to, who I feel I relate to the most, and kind of stick to throughout the whole thing." While filming
Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, Winstead made good friends with co-star
Anna Kendrick. “The two of us, we were just sitting up there watching the first fight [scene] in the balcony together for a week and a half, and we were always talking about gossip, film news and

just gabbing about everything!”
Winstead has been quoted saying she is a fan of the movies
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and
The Sixth Sense and the television shows
My So Called Life,
Third Rock From the Sun,
Just Shoot Me and
Will & Grace. She also favors
indie rock and
alternative music. Her favorite novel is S. E. Hinton's 1967
The Outsiders. Winstead has also voiced her like for the music of
Bat for Lashes,
French pop songs,
Alanis Morissette,
mewithoutYou,
The Shangri-Las,
The Shirelles,
Roy Orbison,
Madonna,
The xx and
Ben E. King's
Stand By Me.
Singing

Winstead has expressed her interest in singing, but does not plan on pursuing it as a career. "I wasn't ever really going to be a singer, but it's just something I've always loved." For his part of the
Grindhouse film, Tarantino had Winstead sing an
a cappella cover of
The Shirelles' hit recording
Baby It's You. She was asked impromptu to perform the song and the cast were reportedly "gob-smacked" by her singing. The clip can be found in the second disc of the 2-disc
Death Proof DVD.
In 2009, Winstead and
music producer Thai Long Ly worked on a song he wrote, "Warmth of Him".
Although first rumored to be a pre-release single, Winstead has since then confirmed that she was just exploring her interest and does not plan on releasing any music albums.
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