Hailing from Brooklyn, where she was born November 12, 1982, Hathaway became involved in the theater at a young age, and as a teenager performed with the Barrow Group, a prestigious New York theatre company. She did her first industry work in the short-lived but critically praised TV series Get Real before auditioning for Marshall, who, according to legend, cast the actress as the accident-prone princess after she fell off a chair during her audition. The success of The Princess Diaries opened a number of doors for Hathaway, but she chose the one that led to Vassar College, where she enrolled in 2000. In the years that followed Hathaway's studies in English and Women's Studies took notable precedence over her screen career - but alas the call of Hollywood was too much to resist and it didn't take long for the studious young actress to once again step before the cameras.

Though a supporting performance in the 2002 box-office disappointment Nicholas Nickleby offered the radiant Hathaway little chance to shine, a lead performance as the eponymous character in thefantasy-themed romantic comedy Ella Enchanted (2004) found her stepping into some big slippers for the unique take on the Cinderella legend. If one large-scale Hollywood production wasn't enough to usher in Hathaway's return to film, fans could rest easy knowing that in addition to returning to familiar territory in The Princess Diaries 2 (2004) she would be moving into edgier territory with the gritty street drama Havoc (also 2004).