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Mary Elizabeth Winstead (born November 28, 1984) is an American actress. Her first major role was that of Jessica Bennett on the NBC soap opera Passions (1999–2000). She came to wider attention for her roles in the horror series Wolf Lake (2001–2002), the horror films Final Destination 3 (2006) and Death Proof (2007), and the slasher film Black Christmas (2006); by the end of the 2000s she had gained a reputation as a scream queen. Further success came with her roles as John McClane's daughter in Live Free or Die Hard (2007) and Ramona Flowers in Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (2010). Her critically acclaimed performance as an alcoholic struggling with sobriety in the drama Smashed (2012) was followed by a series of roles in other independent films, including The Beauty Inside (2012), The Spectacular Now (2013), Faults (2014), Alex of Venice (2014), and Swiss Army Man (2016). Winstead had further horror film roles in The Thing (2011), Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter (2012), and 10 Cloverfield Lane (2016). Since 2013, Winstead has performed as music duo Got a Girl with Dan the Automator. Winstead returned to television with the drama series The Returned (2015), the comedy series BrainDead (2016), the medical drama series Mercy Street (2016–17), and the third season of the crime drama Fargo (2017). Her other roles include the comedy-drama All About Nina (2018), the action film Gemini Man (2019), the Huntress in Birds of Prey (2020), and Hera Syndulla in the Star Wars series Ahsoka (2023). Early life Mary Elizabeth Winstead was born on November 28, 1984, in Rocky Mount, North Carolina, to Betty Lou (née Knight) and James Ronald Winstead and is the youngest of five children. Her grandfather, Ambler William Winstead, was a cousin of actress Ava Gardner. When she was five years old, her family moved to Sandy, Utah, where she attended Peruvian Park Elementary and took advanced classes. She studied dance in a Joffrey Ballet summer program in Chicago and sang in the International Children's Choir. During her youth, she hoped to pursue a career as a ballerina and appeared in local ballet productions. As she entered her teens, she was forced to quit ballet due to her height. She later said, "I realized pretty early on that I was already too tall by the time I was 13... You know, your body has to stay that way for your entire life, and it's pretty hard on your muscles and your bones." Realizing a dance career was unlikely, she turned to acting. As she was still a teenager at the time, this required her to be homeschooled through most of high school. Career Acting 1997–2004 Winstead appeared in a production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat starring Donny Osmond. After her brief performance in that show, Winstead began making appearances in various television series and earned guest roles in Touched by an Angel and Promised Land. She gained her first major role as Jessica Bennett in the NBC soap opera Passions, from 1999 to 2000. She left to pursue other interests, later stating, "I really had one of the smallest roles on Passions, so I didn't get too involved... I was able to leave pretty easily". Winstead's next significant television role was in the short-lived CBS drama series Wolf Lake (2001–02), as the daughter of Tim Matheson's character. The series was canceled after ten episodes. In 2004, Winstead played a supporting role in MTV's made-for-television film Monster Island. She was offered a role in the film A Cinderella Story, but turned it down as she had just graduated from school and was going on a cruise with friends (where she met Riley Stearns, her future husband). 2005–2011 Following a minor role in the indie comedy Checking Out (2005), she took on a larger role as a school senior turned the main antagonist in the Walt Disney Pictures film Sky High, about an airborne school for teenage superheroes. Winstead said of her role, "I bounced around. I was either the hero of the sidekicks or the sidekick to the heroes." The film was released on July 29, 2005, receiving favorable reviews, and budgeted at US$35 million, it grossed US$63.9 million domestically. Winstead then began working with filmmakers James Wong and Glen Morgan, previously known for their contributions to The X-Files. She starred in the 2006 horror movie Final Destination 3 (which Wong directed and Morgan produced) as lead character Wendy Christensen, the "beleaguered heroine who experiences the premonition" that sets the story in motion. The production was a commercial success, but received a mixed response from critics. Winstead's performance fared positively with reviewers; James Berardinelli stated she "does as competent a job as one could expect in these dire circumstances," while Felix Gonzalez, Jr found her "likeable" in her role. Winstead would collaborate again with Morgan and Wong later that year, in the slasher film Black Christmas. The movie, a loose remake of the 1974 film of the same name, follows a group of sorority sisters who are stalked and murdered by the house's former inhabitants during a winter storm. It received poor reviews, but earned her a nomination for Scream Queen at the 2007 Scream Awards. Winstead got a chance to lampoon horror scream queens when Tonight Show host Jay Leno, unaware of who she was, knocked on her front door and included her in a comedy segment spoofing horror films. She appeared in Emilio Estevez's Bobby, a 2006 film depicting the last hours of Robert F. Kennedy. Winstead became interested in Bobby after learning that Anthony Hopkins would appear in the film. A moderate box office success in selected theaters, Bobby received mixed reviews with many criticisms directed at the film's script. The film's cast was nominated for the Screen Actors Guild Award for Best Cast in a Motion Picture, but won the Hollywood Film Festival Award for Best Ensemble Cast. In 2007, Winstead appeared in a pair of high-profile event films. Quentin Tarantino cast her as a well-intentioned but vapid and naïve actress in Death Proof, his high-speed segment of the double–feature exploitation horror Grindhouse. She appeared alongside Rosario Dawson, Tracie Thoms, Zoë Bell, and Kurt Russell in the movie's second part, which followed a psychopathic stunt man, played by Russell, stalking and murdering young women. It is the second film to feature Winstead with Russell (after Sky High), although she only filmed scenes with Dawson, Thoms, and Bell. The production under-performed commercially but attracted significant media buzz and critical acclaim, Variety magazine noted that Death Proof "proves its worth as a stand-alone feature" and found Winstead's "emergence" to be "one agreeable plus [to the movie]". Her next film appearance of the year was opposite Bruce Willis in Live Free or Die Hard, portraying John McClane's estranged daughter, Lucy. The movie grossed US$383.5 million and was highly acclaimed. She starred in a lead role in Make It Happen, a dance film. The film .... Discover the Elizabeth Gonzalez James popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Elizabeth Gonzalez James books.