Birth Name: Mia Wasikowska
Date of Birth: October 1989
Birth Place: Canberra, Australia
Height: 5′ 6″ (1.68 m)

Mia Wasikowska is an Australian actress, born in 1989 in Australia’s capital city, Canberra. She originally was studying ballet, but in 2006 she decided to focus primarily as an actress. As a result, she was nominated for an AFI award in the category, Young Actor awards.

After accepting supporting roles in several projects produced in Australia (including the 2006 Suburban Mayhem and the 2007 September), beautiful yet distinguished actress broke through to international acclaim with her role as self-defeating Olympic-hopeful gymnast Sophie on the HBO series drama In Treatment (2008).

That assignment predated Wasikowska’s starring roles for two A-list directors: a turn as the young aviator Amelia Earhart in Mira Nair’s biopic Amelia (2009), and another as the little girl adrift in a colorful fantasyland in Tim Burton’s Lewis Carroll adaptation Alice in Wonderland (2010). Meanwhile, she also acted opposite Daniel Craig, Liev Schreiber, and others in the WWII-era adventure drama Defiance (2008), helmed by Edward Zwick (The Last Samurai).

TRIVIA

Studied ballet while growing up.
One of Variety magazine’s Top Ten Actors to watch (2008).
Last name pronounced “vash-i-kosska”.
Completed school via the Karabar High School Distance Education Centre, a form of correspondence school based in Queanbeyan, New South Wales, Australia, just outside of Canberra, so that she could continue acting while still in High School.
Has an older sister, Jess, and a younger brother, Kai.
Tied with Alicja w Krainie Czarów (2010) co-star Johnny Depp as the second highest-grossing actor of 2010, behind Leonardo DiCaprio.
Good friends with Jamie Bell.

QUOTES

I just wanted to try a different type of performance – ballet is more an image of perfection, and film can show a grittier side. Sometimes it’s the more realistic topic of real life that really intrigues me.