Jennifer Lynn Connelly born December 12, is an American actress. She began her career as a child model before making her acting debut in the crime film Once Upon a Time in America. After a few more years of modeling, she began to concentrate on acting, starring in a variety of films including the horror film Phenomena , the musical fantasy film Labyrinth , the romantic comedy Career Opportunities , and the period superhero film The Rocketeer She received praise for her performance in the science fiction film Dark City and playing a drug addict in Darren Aronofsky 's drama film Requiem for a Dream In the subsequent decades, she took on supporting roles in Aronofsky's biblical epic film Noah and in the action films Alita: Battle Angel and Top Gun: Maverick She also starred in the science fiction television series Snowpiercer β and Dark Matter She has been the face of Balenciaga and Louis Vuitton fashion advertisements, as well as for Revlon cosmetics.
In , she was named the first global face of the Shiseido Company. Magazines, including Time , Vanity Fair , and Esquire , as well as the Los Angeles Times newspaper, have included her on their lists of the world's most beautiful women.
After graduating from high school in , Connelly went to Yale University to study English literature. She has described herself as a conscientious student who "wasn't really concerned with having a social life or sleeping or eating much.
I was really nerdy and pretty much stayed in the law school library, which is open 24 hours, most of the time I wasn't in class. When Connelly was ten years old, an advertising executive friend of her father suggested she audition as a model. Connelly began modeling for print advertisements before moving on to television commercials. When her mother began taking her to acting auditions, a then 11 year-old Connelly was quickly selected for a supporting role as the aspiring dancer and actress Deborah Gelly in Sergio Leone 's Jewish gangster epic Once Upon a Time in America filmed β83, released During the audition, Connelly, who had no ballet training, tried to imitate a ballerina.
Her performance, and the similarity of her nose to Elizabeth McGovern 's, who played the character as an adult, convinced the director to cast her. Connelly's first leading role was in Italian giallo -director Dario Argento 's film Phenomena. In the film, she plays a girl who psychically communicates with insects to pursue the killer of students of the Swiss school where she has enrolled.
