Jennifer Connelly's Real Name: Jennifer Connelly

Quick answer: Jennifer Connelly is her real name, not a stage name. She was born on December 12, 1970, in the Catskill Mountains of New York. She won the Academy Award for best supporting actress for A Beautiful Mind (2001) (Britannica; Library of Congress).

Real name and early life

Britannica and the Library of Congress name authority both list her as Jennifer Connelly. The LOC record notes "b. December 12, 1970 in Catskill Mountains, New York, USA." Neither source records a separate birth surname or alias. Some references, including Wikipedia, give her middle name as Lynn. The two primary sources used here do not include a middle name, so we list only the name they confirm.

Britannica says she spent most of her childhood in the Brooklyn Heights neighborhood of New York City. She began modeling at 10 and appeared in print ads and TV commercials. Her first film role was a small part in Sergio Leone's Once Upon a Time in America (1984). As a teenager she starred in Jim Henson's Labyrinth (1986). She later studied English at Yale University and drama at Stanford University.

Career highlights

Connelly drew notice in Disney's The Rocketeer (1991) and later in the noir drama Mulholland Falls (1996). Her portrayal of addiction in Darren Aronofsky's Requiem for a Dream (2000) earned strong reviews, and she also appeared in the biopic Pollock (2000).

Her biggest prize came for playing Alicia Nash, wife of mathematician John Nash (Russell Crowe), in A Beautiful Mind. The role won her an Oscar, a BAFTA, and a Golden Globe. She went on to House of Sand and Fog (2003) with Ben Kingsley, Blood Diamond (2006) with Leonardo DiCaprio, Reservation Road (2007), and The Day the Earth Stood Still (2008).

She played Charles Darwin's wife in Creation (2009) opposite her real-life husband, Paul Bettany, and Noah's wife in Aronofsky's Noah (2014). Later films include American Pastoral (2016), Only the Brave (2017), and Alita: Battle Angel (2019). She led the TV series Snowpiercer (2020–), her first series since The $treet (2000–01), and co-starred with Tom Cruise in Top Gun: Maverick (2022).

Name notes for searchers

Connelly is her family surname, and she has not used a pseudonym. People searching for "Jennifer Connelly maiden name" should note that she kept her name professionally after marrying Paul Bettany. The surname is spelled Connelly, with an "e," not "Connolly."