Anna Helene Paquin was born July 24, 1982 in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. Anna moved to Lower Hutt, New Zealand with her family when she was 4 years old. Her father, Brian, is a physical education teacher, and her mother, Mary, is an English teacher. Anna has one brother, Andrew, and one sister, Katya.

Anna's claim to fame came at the young age of 11, when she was cast as Flora McGrath in The Piano, starring Holly Hunter and Harvey Keitel. She won the part over 5000 other girls and she became the first New Zealander to receive the Best Supporting Actress Oscar, and the second youngest Oscar winner ever for her performance.

The success of the 1993 film and her Oscar win, entered Anna into the realm of international fame. Aside from a series of TV ads for a computer company, Anna retreated from the limelight until 1996, when she emerged, now a teenager, in the acclaimed family drama Fly Away Home. That same year, she could be seen playing a younger version of the title character in Franco Zeffirelli's adaptation of Jane Eyre.

After playing Queen Isabella in Steven Spielberg's Amistad (1997), Paquin assumed her first adult role, portraying a teenage runaway presented as a "care package" to two Hollywood bottom feeders in Hurlyburly (1998). The following year, she stepped back into more wholesome coming-of-age territory, playing Diane Lane's daughter in the critically acclaimed A Walk on the Moon and appearing in the popular high school comedy She's All That. That same year, she appeared in the star-studded ensemble drama All the Rage, which premiered at the Toronto Film Festival.

Though she was kept quite busy with acting, Anna didn't let that stop her from continuing her education. In June of 2000, she graduated from Windward School in West Los Angeles, California. She even completed the school's community service requirement by working in an LA soup kitchen and at a special education center. Anna is now a student at Columbia University, and has moved to New York City.

In 2000, the same year Anna graduated high school, she appeared in the popular science fiction film, the X-Men, also starring beauties Halle BerryandFamke Janssen. The same year, she appeared in Cameron Crowe's Almost Famous starringKate Hudson, and Gus Van Sant's Finding Forrester with Sean Connery. In 2002, she appeared in 25th Hour with Edward Norton andRosario Dawson, and in 2003, we had the pleasure of seeing Anna as Rogue a second time in X-Men 2.

Though Anna has moved to New York City and has begun a new career as a stage actress appearing both in New York and London, she will still be seen on the big screen. Next up, The Squid and the Whale, with Jeff Daniels and Laura Linney.

When Anna isn't studying, filming or on the stage, she enjoys rugby, running, playing the piano, singing, gymnastics, swimming, downhill skiing, reading, knitting, and listening to alternative music.