MINNIE DRIVER

'Minnie Driver' (born 'Amelia Fiona J. Driver' on January 31 1970) is a British actress and singer-songwriter. She was born in London to Ronnie Driver and his wife Gaynor. She first came to broad public attention when she played the lead role in ''Circle of Friends''. She was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in the 1997 film ''Good Will Hunting''.
In 2003 and 2004, she had a noted recurring role on ''Will & Grace'' as Lorraine Finster, Karen Walker's (Megan Mullally) nemesis and daughter of Karen's lover (John Cleese).
Driver has also worked on several animated features, including Disney's 1999 version of ''Tarzan'' and the dubbed English version of the 1999 Japanese film ''Princess Mononoke''.
On March 12, 2007, Driver made her return to television starring alongside Eddie Izzard on the FX Network show ''The Riches'', a show about a family of Travellers living in an upscale gated community in the suburbs. She has been nominated for an Emmy Award for Best Actress in a Dramatic Series for her performance.

Contents

Biography

Music career

Filmography

References

External links

Biography

Driver was born to parents of British (English & Scottish), Irish, Italian and French descent. She was raised in Barbados and educated at Bedales school near Petersfield, Hampshire, England, and the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art in London.

Music career

Early in her career Driver was a member of a band called "Puff, Rocks and Brown"; the band was signed to a development deal with Island Records, which ended without a release.
She began a low-profile return to music in 2000; the following year, she signed with EMI and Rounder Records and performed at SXSW. Canadian music producer Colin Craig assisted in the eventual release of ''Everything I've Got in My Pocket'', which reached No. 43[1] in the UK, and a second single, "Invisible Girl" peaking at No. 68. The album was backed by a group including members of the Wallflowers and Pete Yorn's band. Driver wrote 10 of the 11 songs on the album and also covered ''Hungry Heart'' from Bruce Springsteen's ''The River''. In 2004, Driver was the support act for the Finn Brothers on the UK portion of their world tour.
In 2004, Driver played Carlotta Giudicelli in Joel Schumacher's film of ''The Phantom of the Opera''. Because of the vocal requirements of the role, Driver was the sole cast member to have her voice dubbed. However, she did lend her own voice to ''Learn to be Lonely'', a song written by Andrew Lloyd Webber specifically for the film version of his musical (it plays over the closing credits of the movie).
Driver released her second album entitled ''Seastories'' on July 17, 2007. The 12-track set is produced by Marc "Doc" Dauer, who also produced ''Everything I've Got in My Pocket''. Ryan Adams and Liz Phair are among the list of collaborators for the album.^[1]

Filmography

Features:

★ ''Circle of Friends'' (1995)

★ ''GoldenEye'' (1995)

★ ''Big Night'' (1996)

★ ''Sleepers'' (1996)

★ ''Grosse Pointe Blank'' (1997)

★ ''Princess Mononoke'' (1997) (voice in English version)

★ ''Good Will Hunting'' (1997)

★ ''Hard Rain'' (1998)

★ ''The Governess'' (1998)

★ ''At Sachem Farm'' (1998)

★ ''An Ideal Husband'' (1999)

★ ''Tarzan'' (1999) (voice)

★ '' (1999) (voice)

★ ''Return to Me'' (2000)

★ ''Beautiful'' (2000)

★ ''Slow Burn'' (2000)

★ ''High Heels and Low Lifes'' (2001)

★ ''Owning Mahowny'' (2003)

★ ''Hope Springs'' (2003)

★ ''Freedom2speak v2.0'' (2004) (documentary)

★ ''Ella Enchanted'' (2004)

★ ''The Phantom of the Opera'' (2004)

★ ''The Virgin of Juarez'' (2006)

★ ''Delirious'' (2006)

★ ''Ripple Effect'' (2007)

★ ''Take'' (2007)

★ ''The Simpsons Movie'' (2007) (scenes deleted) (voice)
Short Subjects:

★ ''The Zebra Man'' (1992)

★ ''Baggage'' (1997)

★ ''The Upgrade'' (2000)

★ ''D.C. Smalls'' (2001)

★ ''Film Trix 2004'' (2004)

★ ''Portrait'' (2004)
Discography

★ ''Everything I've Got in My Pocket'' (2004)

★ ''Seastories'' (2007)

References

1. http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003559457

External links

★ Video Interview on the W
★ USA-TV 9, Washington, DC website

★

★

★ SXSW'04 Performance review from the ''Austin Chronicle''

★ Publicity and Album pages from Rounder Records

★ September 2004 interview from ''The Guardian''

★ Minnie Driver at Tv.com

★ Minnie Driver Discussion Thread
www.myspace.com/minniedriver