Anna Kendrick (birthname:
Anna Cooke Kendrick) has reached the rare elite status of being nominated for the acting triple crown of the Tony, the Oscar, and the Emmy. After five years of acting success on Broadway, Kendrick was cast by writer-director Todd Graff for the musical comedy,
Camp (2003), released by IFC Films.
Kendrick’s next role was a co-starring slot in writer-director Jeffrey Blitz’s
Rocket Science (2007), with Reece Thompson, Nicholas D’Agosto, Vincent Piazza, and Aaron Yoo, and which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, where it won the dramatic directing prize. Kendrick’s movie breakthrough was with the role of Jessica in the runaway hit,
Twilight (2008), directed by Catherine Hardwicke and starring
Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, Billy Burke, Peter Facinelli, Elizabeth Reaser, Ashley Greene, Kellan Lutz, and Nikki Reed, and earning over ten times its costs with a return of over $408 million.
Anna Kendrick’s first starring feature role was in the Nathan Hope-directed crime drama,
Elsewhere (2009), with Paul Wesley and Tania Raymonde, followed by a co-starring role with Jason Schwartzman and Ben Stiller in writer-director Todd Louiso’s little-seen comedy,
The Marc Pease Experience (2009). Kendrick returned to her Jessica role in the trifecta of
The Twilight Saga: New Moon (2009),
The Twilight Saga: Eclipse (2010), and
The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn—Part 1 (2011), which grossed a global total of $2.12 billion.
Kendrick won wide acclaim and her first Oscar (supporting actress) nomination for her wonderful performance in writer-director
Jason Reitman’s comedy-drama,
Up in the Air (2009), with
George Clooney, Vera Farmiga,
Jason Bateman, J.K. Simmons, and Zach Galifianakis, premiering at the Telluride film festival and grossing $167 million globally.
Anna Kendrick won more fans with the cult classic,
Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (2010), from director/writer/producer
Edgar Wright and co-starring
Michael Cera, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Kieran Culkin,
Chris Evans, Alison Pill, and Jason Schwartzman. Kendrick then played opposite Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Seth Rogen in the Jonathan Levine/Will Reiser comedy-drama,
50/50 (2011), which premiered at the Toronto Film Festival and grossed over $41 million.
Kendrick was cast in a supporting role by star/director/producer Robert Redford for the adaptation of Neil Gordon’s
The Company You Keep (2012), with Shia LaBeouf, Julie Christie, Sam Elliott, and Susan Sarandon, which premiered at the Venice Film Festival and earned nearly $20 million. Anna Kendrick co-starred opposite
Jake Gyllenhaal and Michael Peña in director/writer/producer David Ayer’s cop drama,
End of Watch (2012), premiering at the Toronto Film Festival and grossing nearly $58 million globally.
Kendrick’s first voice performance in an animated feature was in Sam Fell’s and Chris Butler’s ambitious stop-motion comedy-horror
ParaNorman (2012), with Kodi Smit-McPhee, Bernard Hill, Casey Affleck, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Leslie Mann, Jeff Garlin, Elaine Stritch, and John Goodman. Kendrick had her second role in a hit franchise as Beca in
Pitch Perfect (2012),
Pitch Perfect 2 (2015), and
Pitch Perfect 3 (2017), opposite an ensemble including
Rebel Wilson, Brittany Snow, Skylar Astin, Hailee Steinfeld, and Kathy Sagal, with the three movies earning a collective $488 million worldwide.
Kendrick joined the large ensemble of Cameron Diaz,
Jennifer Lopez,
Elizabeth Banks, Chace Crawford, Brooklyn Decker, Dennis Quaid, Chris Rock, and Rodrigo Santoro for Lionsgate’s generally dismissed rom-com,
What to Expect When You’re Expecting (2012), grossing over $84 million globally. Anna Kendrick went indie with filmmaker Joe Swanberg on his comedy,
Drinking Buddies (2013), with
Olivia Wilde, Jake Johnson, and Ron Livingston, which premiered at the South by Southwest film festival, followed by Kendrick co-starring with Chris Robinson in Lionsgate’s spoofy
Rapture-Palooza (2013), with Ken Jeong and Rob Corddry.
Kendrick went dramatic with Jennifer Aniston, Adriana Barraza, Felicity Huffman, William H. Macy, and Sam Worthington in the Daniel Barnz-directed
Cake (2014), which premiered at the Toronto Film Festival. Kendrick reunited with filmmaker Swanberg for
Happy Christmas (2014), starring Swanberg, Melanie Lynskey, Mark Webber, and Lena Dunham, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival.
Anna Kendrick finally had a musical role recalling her Broadway roots in the
Rob Marshall/James Lapine movie adaptation of Stephen Sondheim’s
Into the Woods (2014), with Oscar-nominated Meryl Streep, Emily Blunt, James Corden,
Chris Pine, Tracey Ullman, Christine Baranski, and Johnny Depp, and earning over $213 million globally. Kendrick scored her second musical in a row as co-star with Jeremy Jordan in director/writer/producer Richard LaGravenese’s
The Last Five Years (2014), released after its Toronto Film Festival premiere.
After playing supporting roles in horror-comedies in writer-director Jeff Baena’s
Life After Beth (2014) and director Marjane Satrapi’s
The Voices (2014), both of which premiered at the Sundance film festival, Kendrick again reunited with Swanberg on
Digging for Fire (2015), with Jake Johnson, Rosemarie DeWitt,
Brie Larson,
Sam Rockwell, and Orlando Bloom, which also premiered at Sundance.
After a co-starring role with Sam Rockwell in the little-seen comedy,
Mr. Right (2015), Kendrick took a co-starring role in a thriller with
Ben Affleck, the
Gavin O’Connor-directed
The Accountant (2016), with J.K. Simmons, Jon Bernthal, Jeffrey Tambor, and John Lithgow, and grossing a solid $155 million take. After a minor comedy in which she co-starred with
Miles Teller titled
Get a Job (filmed in 2012 but released in 2016), Kendrick joined the fine ensemble with (director-producer) John Krasinski, Sharlto Copley, Charlie Day, Richard Jenkins, and Margo Martindale in
The Hollars (2016), which premiered at Sundance.
Anna Kendrick played a tricky date opposite
Zac Efron,
Aubrey Plaza, and Adam DeVine in the Jake Szymanski comedy based on a true story,
Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates (2016), grossing over $77 million for 20
th Century Fox. Kendrick’s third movie franchise assignment came with her voice role as Poppy in DreamWorks Animation’s
Trolls series, starting with
Trolls (2016), then
Trolls World Tour (2020), and
Trolls Band Together (2023), with regular cast members Justin Timberlake, Zooey Deschanel, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, and Anderson.
Paak, and Kenan Thompson. Kendrick returned to her prime comedy stylings as the lead in writer-director Jeffrey Blitz’s
Table 19 (2017), with Craig Robinson, June Squibb, Lisa Kudrow, Stephen Merchant, and Wyatt Russell, and released by Fox Searchlight Pictures. Anna Kendrick then starred with Blake Lively in Lionsgate’s crafty crime thriller,
A Simple Favor (2018), directed by
Paul Feig, and co-starring Henry Golding, Rupert Friend, and Jean Smart, which earned a solid $97 million global gross.
After co-starring in writer-director Chris Morris’
The Day Shall Come (2019), in the Disney+-released Christmas comedy with Bill Hader,
Noelle (2019), and in Joe Penna’s Netflix-streamed sci-fi drama,
Stowaway (2021), Kendrick starred in Lionsgate’s psychological thriller,
Alice, Darling (2022), directed by Mary Nighy and premiering at the Toronto film festival. After starring in debuting director/writer/producer (and actor) Jake Johnson’s Hulu-streamed
Self Reliance (2023), Kendrick made her debut as director, producer, and star of
Woman of the Hour (2023), based on the true story of serial killer Rodney Alcala, and which premiered at the Toronto film festival to rave reviews.
