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Bryce Dallas Howard (born March 2, 1981) is an American actress, perhaps best known for her film roles in the M. Night Shyamalan-directed The Village and Lady in the Water, and as Gwen Stacy in Sam Raimi's Spider-Man 3. As the daughter of Oscar-winning director Ron Howard of “Beautiful Mind” (2001), it would have been easy for Bryce Dallas Howard to become a successful actress. Her father would no doubt have done all he could to assure his daughter’s success. Determined to make it on her own, however, Howard opted not to use her father’s influence in her rise to stardom; instead choosing to pursue acting on her own terms. For Howard, success – or failure – rested squarely on her own shoulders. Conceived in Dallas, Texas – the source of her middle name – Howard was born in Los Angeles, California, the daughter of Cheryl (née Alley), a writer, and Hollywood actor-director Ron Howard. Her paternal grandparents were actors Jean Speegle Howard and Rance Howard and her uncle is actor Clint Howard; her godfather is actor Henry Winkler, who co-starred on Happy Days (1974) with her father. Howard and her younger sisters, twins Jocelyn and Paige, and their younger brother, Reed, were raised away from the world of showbusiness. Their parents didn't allow them access to television and instead encouraged reading, outside play, and hobbies. Nevertheless, all four Howard children can be seen as extras in some of their father's films, such as in 1999's EDtv. She grew up in Greenwich, Connecticut, where she graduated from Greenwich Country Day School in 1996. When she was in ninth grade at Greenwich Country Day School, she performed as Miss Adelaide in the musical Guys and Dolls, and in a variety show with her own unique version of Leiber and Stoller's "I Am A Woman." She later attended Byram Hills High School in Armonk, New York, where she performed in a number of shows on their stage, and graduated in 1999. Howard also attended Stagedoor Manor, a performing arts camp in upstate New York, with one of her good friends, actress Natalie Portman. After graduating from high school, Howard studied at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts for three years, during which time she also attended the Stella Adler Conservatory, The Experimental Wing, and International Theatre Wing in Amsterdam. During her schooling, Bryce took part in the concept recording of the Broadway-bound musical, A Tale of Two Cities. She graduated with her BFA in Drama in 2003. Howard is also an alumna of the Steppenwolf Theatre Company's prestigious School at Steppenwolf in Chicago and The Actors Center in New York City. On the advice of producer Scott Rudin, director M. Night Shyamalan of “Sixth Sense” (1999) fame, went to see Howard in “As You Like It” and was immediately taken by her performance. When Kirsten Dunst, who was previously attached to star in “The Village” (2004), dropped out, Shyamalan offered the unknown Howard the part. She starred alongside such Hollywood heavyweights as Joaquin Phoenix, William Hurt and Sigourney Weaver in the period thriller about an isolated 19th Century village cut off from the rest of the world. Once again, Howard was lauded for her performance as Ivy Walker, a mesmerizing young blind woman with an unusual wisdom beyond her years. To bolster her Hollywood arrival, Howard was cast in Lars Von Trier’s “Manderlay” (2005), the second in the director’s trilogy “U, S and A.” As with “The Village,” Howard was cast to replace a previously attached star – in this case, she took over for Nicole Kidman, playing Grace, the part Kidman originated in "Dogville" (2004), this time discovering a Southern town living as if slavery had never been abolished. She appeared in several of her father's films as an extra before her feature film début came in director Alan Brown's 2004 drama, Book of Love. She also appeared in numerous productions on the New York stage, but her breakthrough role came in M. Night Shyamalan's The Village, which she was cast in without having to audition after Shyamalan saw her in a Broadway show. Following that, Howard was cast by Lars Von Trier to replace Nicole Kidman as Grace in Manderlay (2005). She collaborated again with Shyamalan in the 2006 release Lady in the Water, in which she plays Story, a type of water nymph called a "narf." In 2006 she starred as Rosalind in Kenneth Branagh's film version of Shakespeare's As You Like It, opposite David Oyelowo as Orlando. The film played theatres in Europe, but went directly to cable in the U.S. Ms. Howard was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for her performance. In May 2007 she appeared as Peter Parker's new love interest Gwen Stacy in Sam Raimi's Spider-Man 3 starring Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunst. She dyed her naturally red hair blonde for the role (while the naturally blonde Dunst's hair is dyed red for the role of Mary Jane Watson). Howard won the role and beat out Elisha Cuthbert and Sienna Miller for the part. She will play the lead role in her upcoming film, The Loss of a Teardrop Diamond, co-starring Chris Evans, Ellen Burstyn and David Strathairn. She landed the role after Lindsay Lohan dropped out. She wrote and directed a short film, Orchids, starring Alfred Molina as part of Glamour magazine's "Reel Moments" series funded by Cartier and FilmAid International. On June 17, 2006, Howard married Seth Gabel in Hollywood, Florida, whom she had met at New York University and dated for five years. They currently live in Hollywood. Howard and Gabel welcomed their first child, a son named Theodore Norman Howard Gabel, nicknamed Theo, on February 16, 2007. In May, Howard introduced her son by sharing a photo of him on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. Until recently, she had been a devoted vegan since Joaquin Phoenix, her The Village co-star, showed her a documentary on animal cruelty called Earthlings, for which he had provided the narration at the request of Nation Earth. However, in August 2006, Howard announced that she had switched her diet from vegan to vegetarian in order to help her boost her amino acid levels in preparation for pregnancy. She is close friends with Kirsten Dunst (her co-star in Spider-Man 3), Natalie Portman, and Jake Gyllenhaal. |
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