title: Mandy Moore

text: When Moore was thirteen she began working on music by herself. One day while working in an Orlando studio, she was overheard by Victor Cade, a FedEx delivery man who had a friend in A&R at Epic Records. Cade later sent this friend a copy of Moore's unfinished demo, and Moore signed on with the label.


title: Mandy Moore

text: After signing with Epic Records, Moore began working on her debut album. While recording the album, Moore had to leave Bishop Moore Catholic High School when she was only in the ninth-grade, but continued receiving her education from tutors. In the summer of 1999, Moore began touring with the boy band NSYNC. Later that year, Moore also toured with the boy band Backstreet Boys.


title: Mandy Moore

text: Moore's debut single, "Candy", was released on August 17, 1999, in the U.S. The single was a commercial success in a number of countries, but was immediately compared to the singles of fellow teen pop singers Jessica Simpson, Christina Aguilera, and Britney Spears. It debuted at number 88 on the "Billboard" Hot 100, before peaking at number 41 on the chart. The single later received a Gold certification from the RIAA, for sales exceeding 500,000 copies in the U.S. The single was the most successful in Australia, where it peaked at number 2 on the ARIA Charts and received a Platinum certification. Moore began to host and VJ at MTV, contributing to numerous shows including "Total Request Live", "Say What? Karaoke", and her own talk show which was originally called "The Mandy Moore Show" before being retitled as "Mandy".


title: Mandy Moore

text: Moore's debut studio album, "So Real", was released on December 7, 1999, by 550 Music through Epic Records. The album received a limited release in only a few countries. It received generally mixed reviews from critics when it was released, and Moore continued to be compared to other teen pop singers. Allmusic said about the album, "Fifteen-year-old Mandy Moore's debut album sounded like it was inspired almost entirely by listening to recent hit albums by 'N Sync, the Backstreet Boys, and Britney Spears." "Entertainment Weekly" had a similar opinion about the album, and gave it a C− in their review.


title: Mandy Moore

text: The album debuted at number 77 on the "Billboard" 200 chart. The album eventually continued to climb the chart until it peaked at number 31. It later received a Platinum certification from the RIAA, for sales exceeding one million copies in the U.S. alone. The album's second single, "Walk Me Home", was released on the same day as the album. The single did not have the same success of its predecessor, failing to appear on any major charts.


title: Mandy Moore

text: Before promotion for "So Real" had ended, Moore had already begun working on more music. The single "I Wanna Be with You", was released on July 11, 2000. "I Wanna Be with You" spent 16 weeks on the chart and reached its peak of 24 during its ninth week on the chart. The song became her first Top 20 hit on the "Billboard" Pop Songs chart, where it peaked at number 11. The single also became Moore's second Top 20 hit in Australia, where it peaked at number 13. It was also a minor success on the German Media Control Charts, where it peaked at number 70. The single received mixed to positive reviews. "Billboard" praised the song and said, "Top 40 programmers and listeners alike will love Moore more with this track", and Allmusic called the song a highlight track from the album.


title: Mandy Moore

text: A reissue of "So Real", titled "I Wanna Be with You", was released on May 9, 2000. Marketed as "a new version of Mandy's debut", the album was a compilation of new songs, remixes, and songs from Moore's debut album "So Real". Internationally, where the "So Real" album was not released, "I Wanna Be with You" served as Moore's debut album, with multiple alternative track listings. The album received generally mixed reviews and was criticized for not being a true follow-up. Allmusic called the album "trashier, flashier, gaudier, and altogether more disposable" than its predecessor "So Real". The album was a commercial success, debuting and peaking at number 21 on the U.S. "Billboard" 200 chart. It later received a Gold certification from the RIAA, for sales exceeding 500,000 copies in the U.S. alone. Moore won the Kids' Choice Awards for "Favorite Rising Star" for the album in 2000. "Walk Me Home" was re-released in the United States as the second single from "I Wanna Be with You" and was slightly more successful than its original release, peaking at number 38 on the "Billboard" Pop Songs chart. The final single from the album, "So Real" was released exclusively in selected territories on June 13, 2000. In Australia, the single became her second Top 40 hit, peaking at number 21 on the ARIA Charts. The single also peaked at number 18 on the Official New Zealand Music Chart.


title: Mandy Moore

text: In 2001, Moore began working on her second studio album, which was said to move away from the "bubblegum pop" sound and image she became known for. Moore said during an interview with "Billboard" magazine that "All of the music has started to look and sound the same" and that she chose to move in a different musical direction. Moore also said that she wanted to feature more live instruments when performing, saying she wanted "no more dancers, no more singing to tracks. I got tired of that in a big way".


title: Mandy Moore

text: The album's lead single, "In My Pocket", was released on May 29, 2001. "Entertainment Weekly" said the single had "pumping, Indian-influenced Eurodisco". It failed to chart on the "Billboard" Hot 100 in the U.S., but peaked at number 2 on the "Billboard" Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles chart, and it reached number 21 on the "Billboard" Pop Songs chart. The song became her third Top 20 hit in Australia, where it peaked at number 11 on the ARIA Charts.


title: Mandy Moore

text: Moore's self-titled second studio album, "Mandy Moore", was released on June 19, 2001. The album had uptempo dance and pop songs and influences from Middle Eastern music. The album received mixed to average reviews from critics. Allmusic called the album a "lush, layered production". The album debuted and peaked at number 35 on the "Billboard" 200 chart, and later received a Gold certification from the RIAA. The album has sold an estimated 1.5 million copies worldwide. The album also reached number 37 on the ARIA charts in Australia, her highest peak in the country to date. The album's second single, "Crush", was released on August 28, 2001; it peaked at number 35 on the "Billboard" Pop Songs chart, and it climbed to number 25 on the ARIA Charts.


title: Mandy Moore

text: Moore made her feature film debut in 2001, where she voiced a Girl Bear Cub in the comedy "Dr. Dolittle 2," which starred Eddie Murphy. Later that year, Moore co-starred with Anne Hathaway in the comedy "The Princess Diaries," based on Meg Cabot's novel of the same name, and was released on August 3, 2001. She played Lana Thomas, the rival of Mia Thermopolis (Hathaway). On her role, Moore told "InStyle" Magazine, "I'm the crude popular girl who gets ice cream in her face." The film opened in 2,537 theaters in North America and grossed $22,862,269 in its opening weekend. It grossed $165,335,153 worldwide—$108,248,956 in North America and $57,086,197 in other territories. The film received mixed to positive reviews. Rotten Tomatoes reported that 47% of 113 sampled critics gave the film positive reviews and that it got a rating average of 5.2 out of 10. In the film, Moore performed a cover of Connie Francis's 1958 song "Stupid Cupid" while at a beach party.


title: Mandy Moore

text: In 2002, Moore made her starring debut with Shane West and Peter Coyote in the romantic drama "A Walk to Remember," based on Nicholas Sparks's novel of the same name. She played Jamie Sullivan, the unpopular daughter of Reverend Sullivan (Coyote). The film opened at #3 at the U.S. box office raking in $12,177,488 in its opening weekend, behind "Snow Dogs" and "Black Hawk Down." The film received generally negative reviews, but Roger Ebert of the "Chicago Sun-Times" praised Moore and West's "quietly convincing" performances. It was a modest box office hit, earning $41,281,092 in the U.S. alone, and was a sleeper hit in Asia. The total revenue generated worldwide was $47,494,916. Moore received a number of nominations and awards for her performance in the film.


title: Mandy Moore

text: Moore's self-titled album's third and final single, "Cry", was released on November 4, 2001, to help promote the film. Commenting on the film, she said: "It was my first movie and I know people say it may be cliché and it's a tearjerker or it's cheesy, but for me, it's the thing I'm most proud of."


title: Mandy Moore

text: In 2003, Moore began working on her third studio album, later revealed to be a cover album called "Coverage". The album had covers of 1970s and 1980s songs and was produced by John Fields. Moore's cover of John Hiatt's 1987 song "Have a Little Faith in Me" was released as the album's lead single shortly before the album, but it failed to enter any charts. The album was released on October 21, 2003, and received generally mixed reviews. Allmusic called the album a "leap to musical maturity," but "Entertainment Weekly" called it an "effort to shed her bubblegum-blond image."


title: Mandy Moore

text: The album debuted at number 14 on the "Billboard" 200 chart, with first week sales of 53,000. This made it Moore's highest debut on the chart, and highest-peaking album to date, but it is her lowest-selling, and her first album not to be certified by the RIAA. Moore's cover of XTC's 1982 song "Senses Working Overtime" was released as the album's second single and also failed to have any chart success. Moore's cover of Carole King's 1971 song "I Feel the Earth Move" was also on the compilation album "Love Rocks" from LGBT rights supporters. In 2004, Moore left Epic after five years of service because of creative differences. Moore and the label released her greatest hits album, "The Best of Mandy Moore" that had no new songs, on November 16, 2004, to end her contract. The album reached number 148 on the "Billboard" 200. Moore's third compilation album, "Candy," was released on April 5, 2005.


title: Mandy Moore

text: In 2003, Moore co-starred with Allison Janney, Peter Gallagher, and Trent Ford in the romantic comedy-drama "How to Deal" which was based on Sarah Dessen's novels "That Summer" and "Someone like You". She played Halley Martin, a cynical and rebellious seventeen-year-old who deals with falling in love with Macon Forrester (Ford), the new boy at her school and her relationships and issues with her family and friends. The film failed to find teenage audiences in the U.S. and grossed a total of $14 million domestically.


title: Mandy Moore

text: In 2004, Moore co-starred with Matthew Goode in the romantic comedy "Chasing Liberty". She played Anna Foster, the rebellious eighteen-year-old "First Daughter" who wants more freedom from the Secret Service. The film grossed approximately $12 million. Both "How to Deal" and "Chasing Liberty" received generally negative and lukewarm reviews, respectively; but Ebert singled Moore's performances out again and said in his review of "How to Deal" that Moore has "an unaffected natural charm" and "almost makes the movie worth seeing," and said in his review of "Chasing Liberty" that she has "undeniable screen presence and inspires instant affection." Other critics called Moore an "actress of limited range," but one review of "Chasing Liberty" called her the "most painless of former pop princesses." (Another romantic comedy with a similar theme, "First Daughter", which starred Katie Holmes, was released later that year.)


title: Mandy Moore

text: Late in 2004, Moore co-starred with Jena Malone, Macaulay Culkin and Patrick Fugit in the religion satirical comedy-drama "Saved!". She played Hilary Faye Stockard, a proper and popular girl at a Christian high school. The film received generally positive reviews, but it did not receive a wide release. Moore's performance was praised, with one critic calling her a "demented delight" and another calling it her best performance to date. She and Michael Stipe covered The Beach Boys' 1966 song "God Only Knows", which bookended the film.


title: Mandy Moore

text: In 2005, Moore co-starred in the sports family comedy-drama "Racing Stripes," where she voiced Sandy the white horse, and guest-starred in the HBO comedy-drama "Entourage." Moore was also originally scheduled to star in the films "Cursed", "Havoc" and "The Upside of Anger", which were all eventually released in 2005, but without her involvement in any of them.


title: Mandy Moore

text: In 2006, Moore guest-starred as Julie Quinn in two episodes of the fifth season of the NBC medical sitcom "Scrubs", that were the ninth episode "My Half-Acre" and the tenth episode "Her Story II". The same year, she guest-starred in the Fox animated sitcom "The Simpsons", where she voiced Tabitha Vixx in the seventeenth-season finale called "Marge and Homer Turn a Couple Play".


title: Mandy Moore

text: Moore also co-starred with Hugh Grant, Dennis Quaid and William Dafoe in Paul Weitz's satirical comedy "American Dreamz", which was released in April 2006. She played Sally Kendoo, a sociopathic contestant on a singing competition series modelled after "American Idol." Weitz said that he had Moore in mind for the role before she was cast, explaining that "there's something inherently sweet about Mandy; it makes it all the more interesting to see her in a villainess role." Moore has said that she enjoys playing mean-spirited characters, but fears being typecast as a villain. The film opened at number nine at the U.S. box office, eventually totaling barely $7 million, and it received generally mixed reviews. Owen Gleiberman of "Entertainment Weekly" praised Moore's and Grant's "wicked barbed chemistry" in their roles, but Robert Koehler of "Variety" called Moore's role a "pitch-perfect study of a woman for whom a reality show is reality."


title: Mandy Moore

text: Later in 2006, Moore voiced Nita, the heroine of the Disney animated sequel "Brother Bear 2," which was released directly to DVD on August 29, 2006. ComingSoon.net praised Moore's "surprisingly good performance". That same year, Moore was originally cast in Emilio Estevez's drama "Bobby," but was replaced by Mary Elizabeth Winstead.


title: Mandy Moore

text: In 2006, Moore talked about her early albums, saying she believed her debut album "So Real" was appropriate for her age at the time when she released it, but she felt it "sucked" and that her first two albums were "just awful". Moore also said that she "would give a refund to everyone who bought [her] first two albums" if she could. During a radio interview in April 2006, the show's co-host—who had seen Moore's comments—asked her for a refund on her debut album, which she fulfilled.


title: Mandy Moore

text: In early 2006, Moore said that she missed her music career and that singing is what she was the "most passionate about". In 2004, Moore signed with Sire Records after her contract with Epic ended, but she left the label in May 2006 because of creative differences. She signed with The Firm Music, owned by EMI, in July that year, calling her recording contract "especially exciting", and saying that she left Sire because she did not want to "follow the mainstream", but rather have "complete control and freedom" over her music.


title: Mandy Moore

text: Moore, citing her conservative upbringing, expressed displeasure with her appearance on a May 2006 cover of "Cosmopolitan" where the headline was "orgasms unlimited", which referred to an article unrelated to her. Afterward, Moore co-starred with Diane Keaton, Gabriel Macht and Tom Everett Scott in the romantic comedy "Because I Said So". In the film, Milly Wilder (Moore) describes in detail the feeling of an orgasm to her mother Daphne (Keaton). The film was released on February 2, 2007, and received mixed to negative reviews, but was a financial success, earning over $69 million worldwide at the box office. Later that year, Moore co-starred with John Krasinski and Robin Williams in the romantic comedy "License to Wed" which was released on July 3, 2007. The film received overwhelmingly negative reviews. Rotten Tomatoes gave the film a 7% rating and a critical consensus of "broad and formulaic". Metacritic.com rated it 25 out of 100, citing 21 generally negative reviews out of 30 for its rating.


title: Mandy Moore

text: "Variety" called the film "an astonishingly flat romantic comedy, filled with perplexing choices", but "Variety" called Moore's performance "appealing". The film grossed $10,422,258 in its opening weekend opening at #4 at the U.S. Box Office behind "Live Free or Die Hard", "Ratatouille" and "Transformers", which opened at the top spot. The film had grossed $43.8 million domestically and $69.3 million worldwide. On September 24, 2007, Moore guest-starred in the CBS sitcom "How I Met Your Mother" in the third-season premiere called "Wait for It". Later that year, she co-starred with Billy Crudup, Tom Wilkinson and Dianne Wiest in the romantic comedy "Dedication". She played Lucy Reilly, a struggling children's book illustrator who falls in love with Henry Roth (Crudup). The film premiered at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival and received mixed to positive reviews from critics. The review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reported that the film received 41% positive reviews, based on 46 reviews. Metacritic reported the film had an average score of 50 out of 100, based on 19 reviews.


title: Mandy Moore

text: Moore's fourth studio album "Wild Hope" was released on June 19, 2007, and Moore collaborated with record producer John Alagía and a number of musicians on it, including Chantal Kreviazuk, Lori McKenna, Rachael Yamagata and The Weepies. Moore stayed alone in a house in Woodstock in Upstate New York while recording the album in late 2006. Moore performed the album's lead single "Extraordinary" at the Brick Awards on April 12, 2007, and launched a tour in the summer of 2007.


title: Mandy Moore

text: The album received mixed to positive reviews from critics. "Billboard" said that ""Wild Hope" is the gratifying sound of a singer finally finding her comfort zone. Gone is the sugary pop of Moore's early career, replaced instead by thoughtful musings on love and life…an album full of subtle, but undeniable hooks." The album debuted on the U.S. "Billboard" 200 at #30, selling a mere 25,000 copies the first week of its release, according to "Billboard". It is Moore's third-highest-debuting album, falling short of her fourth studio album "Coverage" (2003), which debuted at No. 14 on the "Billboard" 200 chart, selling 59,000 copies. The album also reached No. 9 on The Top Internet albums. After five weeks, the album charted off the "Billboard" 200, but it returned to the chart at No. 118 after selling 5,500 copies. To date, the album has sold over 120,000 copies in the U.S. and more than 350,000 copies worldwide. On February 23, 2008, Moore released the album in Australia, and subsequently toured with musician Ben Lee and the West Australian Symphony Orchestra in Western Australia, supporting inaugural "American Idol" winner Kelly Clarkson on her tour.


title: Mandy Moore

text: Moore began working on her fifth studio album in 2008 that was scheduled to be released the following year. In October 2008, Moore posted on her website blog live videos of three songs that she had been working on with singer-songwriter, record producer, pianist and guitarist Mike Viola. It was rumored to be a duo album between Moore and Viola, but then in January 2009, it was revealed it would be Moore's fifth studio album with a collaboration with Viola, that was scheduled to be released in April 2009. Recording sessions for the album took place around December 2008 in Boston, Massachusetts. The album's lead single "I Could Break Your Heart Any Day of the Week" was released on March 17, 2009, as a digital download. The music video premiered on April 20, 2009, on Yahoo! Music. The single, like most of Moore's previous singles, failed to have much success on any charts. Moore's fifth studio album, "Amanda Leigh", was released on May 26, 2009. On the album, Moore said, "The music is all a reflection of me now, not somebody else's choices." Moore visited a number of talk shows including "The Ellen DeGeneres Show" and "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno".


title: Mandy Moore

text: On both shows, she performed "I Could Break Your Heart Any Day of the Week" to promote the album. On May 26, 2009, she performed songs from the album at Amoeba Music in Hollywood, together with Viola, the day the album was released by Storefront Records. The album was not released in some territories until 2010 and was not released in Brazil until 2011, two years after its initial release. The album received generally positive reviews. "Time" magazine called the album "impeccably recorded". An article on the album by "Paper" magazine said, "Mandy (in the album)... shows real thoughtful and emotional depth." "Paper" finished by saying that "Moore is a far better musician than she's often given credit for." It debuted at number 25 on the "Billboard" 200, selling 16,000 copies in the U.S. during the week of its release, and at number 4 on the Top Independent albums chart. To date, the album has sold an estimated 100,000 copies. The album was recorded just before Moore's marriage to musician Ryan Adams and it was her final album for over ten years.


title: Mandy Moore

text: After a break of almost two years from film roles, Moore co-starred with Martin Freeman in the romantic comedy "Swinging with the Finkels". The film was shot in the United Kingdom in 2009 and was released in 2011. Moore co-starred with Kellan Lutz in the romantic comedy "Love, Wedding, Marriage". The film was shot in 2010 and released in 2011. In 2010, Moore made a guest-starring appearance as Mary Portman in the ABC medical drama "Grey's Anatomy", for the two-part sixth-season finale, her first television role since 2007. She returned to the show for two episodes of the seventh season.


title: Mandy Moore

text: Also that year, Moore co-starred with Zachary Levi where she voiced Rapunzel in the CGI Disney animated fantasy musical comedy "Tangled". The film received generally positive reviews from critics. Rotten Tomatoes reported that 89% of critics have given the film a positive review based on 185 reviews, with an average score of 7.5/10. The site's consensus read: "While far from Disney's greatest film, "Tangled" is a visually stunning, thoroughly entertaining addition to the studio's classic animated canon." Another review aggregator Metacritic, which assigned a weighted average score from 0–100 out of reviews from mainstream film critics, calculated a score of 71 based on 34 reviews. CinemaScore polled conducted during the opening weekend revealed the average grade cinemagoers gave the film was an "A+" on an A+ to F scale. It earned $200,821,936 in North America, and $389,900,000 in other countries, for a worldwide total of $590,721,936.


title: Mandy Moore

text: Worldwide, it is the 17th-highest-grossing animated film, the eighth-highest-grossing film of 2010, and the third-highest-grossing 2010 animated film, behind "Toy Story 3" and "Shrek Forever After." It is also the third Disney film appearing in the Top 10 films of 2010. It was the third-highest-grossing film worldwide produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios, behind "Frozen" (2013) and "The Lion King" (1994), as of 2011. Moore and Levi performed the film's theme song, "I See the Light", at the 83rd Academy Awards, where it was nominated for Best Original Song. The song also won a Grammy Award for Best Song Written For Visual Media as well as Best Song at the Las Vegas Film Critics Society. In October 2011, it was announced that she was set to star in an ABC sitcom called "Us and Them", but the pilot was eventually passed by the network. In 2012, she co-starred with Carla Gugino and Rufus Sewell in Sebastian Gutierrez's crime drama "Hotel Noir," which was released on October 9, 2012, in the U.S. From 2012 to 2013, Moore voiced Mara in the short-lived Disney XD animated science fiction series "". She voiced the title character in the Disney Junior animated series "Sheriff Callie's Wild West" from 2014 to 2015.


title: Mandy Moore

text: In July 2012, Moore announced that she would be collaborating with her then-husband, musician Ryan Adams, on her upcoming sixth studio album. She said, "There's tremendous influence right now around the house... from the music I've been introduced to and being very happy and in a healthy, happy relationship… I think that still garners a lot of material to write about." She later said, "There's a lot to say and a lot that's happened to me in the last three or so years since the last record's come out, so I have been writing a lot and it's definitely going to be an intense, emotional record. I'm excited about it. I'm excited to get into the studio and start recording." She also said that she thought the album would be "intense, emotional". On February 20, 2013, it was announced Moore would be starring as Louise in the ABC sitcom "Pulling", based on the British sitcom of the same name. The pilot was written by Lee Eisenberg and Gene Stupnitsky, but in March, as the pilot came closer to production, Moore's character was moved in a different direction and she considered herself to be no longer right for the role. Moore asked to leave the pilot and ABC agreed to it. In a July 2014 interview with CBS News, Moore said that 2014 was "the year of actual progress forward" on her sixth album and said it was more "dangerous" and "raw" than her previous albums, and said that she hoped to start recording the album in Adams's studio later in the summer; she also revealed that she would appear on Adams's self-titled fourteenth album, "Ryan Adams," which was released on September 5, 2014. From 2014 to 2015, Moore had a recurring role as Dr. Erin Grace in the short-lived Fox medical comedy-drama "Red Band Society".


title: Mandy Moore

text: In June 2015, it was confirmed that Moore and Levi would reprise their roles as Rapunzel and Eugene "Flynn Rider" Fitzherbert in an animated television series based on "Tangled". The series, "", set between "Tangled" and "Tangled Ever After", premiered on the Disney Channel in 2017. Moore co-starred with Claire Holt in the underwater survival thriller "47 Meters Down." Filming began at Pinewood Studios in the United Kingdom and Dominican Republic on June 18, 2015, and finished on August 7, 2015. The film was released on June 16, 2017.


title: Mandy Moore

text: In September 2015, Moore said that she was continuing to work on her sixth album. "I've been working on music steadily for the last couple of years," she explained. "I guess 2016 will be the re-emergence of my music. That side of my life has been dormant for too long in my opinion."


title: Mandy Moore

text: Moore has been co-starring as Rebecca Pearson at ages ranging from mid-20s to late 60s and later 80 in the NBC family comedy-drama "This Is Us" since September 2016, where she received a Golden Globe Award nomination for her role. In July 2017, Moore announced her intentions to return to music in an interview with "People." She said, "I want to return to music" and that "I don't have a record label, but I have a lot of music written. Next year, I've decided I'm putting it out there!" In July 2018, she also said on "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" that she might collaborate with her future husband, musician Taylor Goldsmith, on her new music. In August 2018, Moore co-starred with Amandla Stenberg and Patrick Gibson in the dystopian science-fiction thriller "The Darkest Minds." In November, she reprised her role as Rapunzel in the Disney CGI animated comedy "Ralph Breaks the Internet" with John C. Reilly, Sarah Silverman, Gal Gadot, Taraji P. Henson, Kristen Bell and Jane Lynch. The film grossed almost $500 million worldwide and received generally positive reviews from critics, who called it a "worthy successor" and praised the animation, humor, characters, plot and the vocal performances of Reilly and Silverman. The film received a Best Animated Feature nomination at the 76th Golden Globe Awards and 24th Critics' Choice Awards.


title: Mandy Moore

text: In February 2019, Moore co-starred with Justin Bartha, Barbara Jacques and Paul Lieberstein in the short comedic action film "The Big Break". In March, she co-starred with J.K. Simmons, Sebastian Stan, Max Greenfield and Maika Monroe in the drama "I'm Not Here" and voiced Courtney in the Fox animated sitcom "Family Guy", in the season 17 episode "No Giggity, No Doubt". On March 25, 2019, Moore received her star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. After teasing fans with snippets of new music and photos from the studio throughout the year, on September 17, 2019, Moore released her first original song in over a decade, the single "When I Wasn't Watching", with an accompanying music video; this was followed by the single "I'd Rather Lose" on October 31. In November, she co-starred in the independent historical drama "Midway" with Ed Skrein, Patrick Wilson, Luke Evans, Aaron Eckhart, Nick Jonas, Dennis Quaid, and Woody Harrelson.


title: Mandy Moore

text: In January 2020, Moore said in an interview with "Billboard" that her sixth studio album was titled "Silver Landings" and would be released in early March, via Verve Forecast Records. She said regarding her decision to sign with Verve Forecast in late 2019, "I had slight PTSD from being on labels in the past [...] but Verve truly feels like it's run by a bunch of deeply creative people who aren't necessarily just concerned with the numbers game". Moore later announced a release date of March 6, and also released the single "Save a Little for Yourself" with an accompanying music video.


title: Mandy Moore

text: In early 2022, Moore released two singles from her seventh studio album, "In Real Life". On March 8, she released the audio for the album's title track, and, on the 17th, a cameo-laden video with many of her "This Is Us" co-stars and Matthew Koma, Hilary Duff, Wilmer Valderrama, Amanda Kloots, Karamo Brown, and others. On April 5, Moore debuted the audio from her second single off the album, "Little Dreams". The album was released on May 13, 2022.


title: Mandy Moore

text: When Moore's musical career began in 1999, she was known for her bubblegum pop sound and image, which she revealed was not the type of music she prefers, saying, "[The record company] was like, 'Here are your songs.' I was like, 'Hi, I'm fourteen. I'll do anything.' Those albums are why I'm here today, but god damn, I should give a refund to anyone who bought my first record".


title: Mandy Moore

text: Moore has often been praised by music critics for branching off and writing her own music. "Billboard" said, "She has successfully dropped all the tacky accoutrements of her past and turned into a sweet, classy singer-songwriter whose charms are readily apparent". AllMusic said, "Moore smoothly evolved from adolescent starlet to mature songwriter, continuing to distance herself from the scene that had launched her career one decade prior".


title: Mandy Moore

text: Moore has said that she was inspired by film and television as a child. She has also said, "I'm stuck in the '70s. I think I'll always have that kind of influence. Joni Mitchell, Todd Rundgren, Harry Nilsson, McCartney—that's the sort of stuff I'm really inspired and influenced by". Moore also said how her then-husband, musician Ryan Adams, had a huge influence on her music, and that he introduced her to heavy metal. "Not that I can necessarily differentiate between speed metal and black metal…" she said. "I'll tolerate it, but I turn it down". Moore has said that she has become more comfortable with her older music, and she even found new ways to present her more bubblegum-friendly songs with a more contemporary musical arrangement.


title: Mandy Moore

text: Moore's fashion career began in 2005 with her own fashion line called "Mblem." That was a brand of contemporary knitwear and cashmere. One of her focuses was to sell clothing for taller women; Moore herself is . In February 2009, Moore announced that the line would be discontinued, but that she hoped to return to her fashion career under different circumstances in the future.


title: Mandy Moore

text: Moore advocates "giving with your head", endorsing the philosophy of effective altruism. Moore has worked with and highlighted nonprofit organization Population Services International (PSI), and its subsidiary, Five & Alive, which addresses health crises facing children under the age of five and their families. Moore has served as the Honorary Chairperson of the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society's division on awareness for youth. She served as a spokesperson by helping young people be aware of the seriousness of leukemia and lymphoma. She also serves as the spokesperson for Cervical Cancer Awareness Month, held every January. In addition, to increase cervical cancer awareness, Moore collaborated with Dr. Yvonne Collins, The Gynecologic Cancer Foundation (GCF), and GlaxoSmithKline (GSK). Moore made a surprise visit at Children's Hospital Los Angeles as a part of Get Well Soon Tour. Moore is the ambassador for the UN Foundations's "Nothing But Nets" malaria prevention campaign. As a part of the "Nothing But Nets" campaign Moore interviewed Laurence D. Wohlers, United States Ambassador to the Central African Republic, in 2010 and helped the campaign raise $1.2 million. Moore is also the spokesperson for Dove's self-esteem movement and the "Women who should be famous" campaign. Moore also teamed up with Indrani Goradia, a domestic violence survivor and founder of Indrani's Light Foundation, along with Mom Bloggers Club, to help raise awareness and campaign against domestic violence.


title: Mandy Moore

text: In July 2016, Moore appeared on an a cappella version of Rachel Platten's song "Fight Song" along with several other celebrities for the 2016 Democratic National Convention for Hillary Clinton's unsuccessful second bid at the presidency.


title: Mandy Moore

text: On January 13, 2020, Moore officially endorsed Pete Buttigieg for President of the United States prior to the Iowa caucuses. Moore also uses her social media platforms to support criminal justice reform and Black Lives Matter.


title: Mandy Moore

text: Moore dated former "Scrubs" star Zach Braff from 2004 to 2006. In 2008, Moore began dating former Whiskeytown frontman Ryan Adams. They became engaged in February 2009 and married on March 10, 2009, in Savannah, Georgia. In January 2015, Moore filed for divorce from Adams while he was in New York, citing "irreconcilable differences". Moore and Adams later released a joint statement explaining their decision, calling it a "respectful, amicable parting of ways", but in 2019 she called him emotionally abusive. Court documents obtained later revealed that they had been legally separated for nearly six months before the filing. The divorce was finalized in June 2016.


title: Mandy Moore

text: In 2015, Moore began dating Dawes frontman Taylor Goldsmith. They were engaged in September 2017 and married on November 18, 2018, in Los Angeles, California. In February 2021, Moore gave birth to the couple's first child, a boy.


title: Mandy Moore

text: In 2018, Moore appeared on the eleventh season of "Who Do You Think You Are?", during which historian Turtle Bunbury revealed how her great-great-great-great-grandmother Mary Flynn had died at the age of 40 in an Irish workhouse.


title: Mandy Moore

text: In 2019, Moore, accompanied by friends and fellow hikers reached the Everest base camp which has an elevation of 17,598 ft.


title: Mandy Moore

text: In June 2022, Moore announced that she is expecting her second son with Goldsmith. On October 21, 2022, Moore announced that her second son was born.


title: Mandy Moore

text: In August 2022, Moore was diagnosed with immune thrombocytopenic purpura, an autoimmune disease that causes abnormally low levels of platelets.


title: Mandy Moore

text: In 2012, Moore was ranked number 96 on VH1's list of "100 Greatest Women in Music" as well as number 63 on their "Sexiest Artists of All Time List".


title: Mandy Moore

text: She was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Series, Miniseries or Television Film and a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series. As a part of the ensemble cast of "This Is Us", she received two Screen Actors Guild Awards for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series.


title: 2021 NFL Draft

text: The 2021 NFL Draft was the 86th National Football League Draft, the annual meeting of National Football League (NFL) franchises to select newly eligible players for the 2021 NFL season. The draft was held in Cleveland from April 29 to May 1, 2021.


title: 2021 NFL Draft

text: Five quarterbacks were selected in the first round — Trevor Lawrence, Zach Wilson, Trey Lance, Justin Fields, and Mac Jones — the second highest number of first-round quarterback selections (along with the 1999 and 2018 drafts) after the six selected in 1983. The draft also marked the third time the first three picks (Lawrence, Wilson, and Lance) were quarterbacks, following the 1971 and 1999 drafts. A total of eight quarterbacks were selected in the first three rounds, the most in NFL Draft history. Conversely, only two quarterbacks were taken in the remaining rounds.


title: 2021 NFL Draft

text: In addition to the high number of quarterbacks, six Alabama players were taken in the first round, which is tied with the six Miami players in 2004 for the most from an individual school. Conversely, no Big 12 Conference players were drafted in the first round for the first time since the conference began play in 1996 and no Michigan State players were selected for the first time since 1941.


title: 2021 NFL Draft

text: Scouts considered the later rounds of the draft lacking desirable prospects due to the COVID-19 pandemic shortening the 2020 college football season. The NCAA granted an extra year of eligibility and an opt-out option for athletes because of the shortened season, resulting in many prospects returning to school instead of declaring for the draft.


title: 2021 NFL Draft

text: The host city was chosen during the NFL Spring League Meeting on May 22, 2019. Cleveland and Kansas City were announced as the hosts for 2021 and 2023, respectively, from the remaining finalists from the 2019 draft after Las Vegas was chosen to host the 2020 event.


title: 2021 NFL Draft

text: In the explanations below, (PD) indicates trades completed prior to the start of the draft (i.e. Pre-Draft), while (D) denotes trades that took place during the draft.


title: 2021 NFL Draft

text: In November 2020 the NFL passed that year's Resolution JC-2A, which rewards teams for developing minority candidates for head coach and/or general manager positions. The resolution rewards teams whose minority candidates are hired away for one of those positions by awarding draft picks. These draft picks are at the end of the third round, after standard compensatory picks; if multiple teams qualify, they are awarded in draft order from the first round. These picks are in addition to, and have no impact on, the standard 32 compensatory picks. Four picks have been awarded for the draft pursuant to the resolution.


title: 2021 NFL Draft

text: A new record-high 65 players were drafted from one conference, the most in NFL history, surpassing the previous number of selections, 64, in 2019. Both numbers were set by the Southeastern Conference.


title: Pop Smoke

text: Bashar Barakah Jackson (July 20, 1999 – February 19, 2020), known professionally as Pop Smoke, was an American rapper and actor. Born and raised in Canarsie, Brooklyn, Pop Smoke began his musical career in late 2018 with his debut single "MPR (Panic Part 3 Remix)". Pop Smoke rose to fame with the release of his breakout singles "Welcome to the Party" and "Dior" in 2019. He often collaborated with UK drill artists and producers, who employed more minimal and aggressive instrumentation than American drill artists from Chicago, reintroducing the sound as Brooklyn drill.


title: Pop Smoke

text: Following his rise to fame, record producer Rico Beats introduced Pop Smoke to Steven Victor in April 2019. Victor would later have Pop Smoke sign a recording contract with Victor Victor Worldwide and Republic Records. He released his debut mixtape "Meet the Woo" in July 2019. His second mixtape, "Meet the Woo 2", was released on February 7, 2020, and debuted at number seven on the " Billboard" 200, becoming the rapper's first top-10 project in the United States.


title: Pop Smoke

text: Less than two weeks after the mixtape's release, Pop Smoke was murdered during a home invasion in Los Angeles. New York rapper 50 Cent was the executive producer of his posthumous debut studio album, "Shoot for the Stars, Aim for the Moon", released on July 3, 2020. The album debuted at number one on the "Billboard" 200 and all 19 tracks from the album were charted on the "Billboard" Hot 100. The album also spawned a string of international top-10 singles, including "For the Night" (featuring DaBaby and Lil Baby) and "What You Know Bout Love". A year later, Republic Records released Pop Smoke's second studio album, "Faith", on July 16, 2021.


title: Pop Smoke

text: Bashar Barakah Jackson was born on July 20, 1999, in Brooklyn, New York City, to a Jamaican mother, Audrey Jackson, and a Panamanian father, Greg Jackson. He has an older brother named Obasi. Jackson attended nine different schools while growing up in Canarsie, Brooklyn. He played the African drums in his local church as a child.


title: Pop Smoke

text: Jackson was expelled from eighth grade for bringing a gun to school. He spent two years on house arrest after being charged with possessing a weapon. Jackson started playing basketball as a point and shooting guard. He relocated to Philadelphia to enroll in Rocktop Academy. He was later forced to leave after being diagnosed with a heart murmur, and Jackson eventually turned to street life.


title: Pop Smoke

text: In a Genius interview, he stated that his artist name of Pop Smoke is a combination of Poppa, a name given to him by his Panamanian grandmother, and Smocco Guwop, a nickname from childhood friends and it was also his old Instagram name. He first attempted rapping during a 2018 visit to a Brooklyn recording studio with Jay Gwuapo. In late 2018, he was rapping over a beat from 808Melo's "YouTube" channel, Jackson recorded a track titled "MPR (Panic Part 3 Remix)" during the session. On January 28, 2019, he released "Flexin'". Meanwhile, Jackson befriended producer Rico Beats, who was acquainted with record executive Steven Victor.


title: Pop Smoke

text: The three set up an interview, and in April 2019, Jackson signed to Victor Victor Worldwide and Republic Records. On April 23, 2019, Jackson released his breakout single, "Welcome to the Party", that was produced by 808Melo. Many remixes of the song were later recorded, with the commercially released versions featuring Nicki Minaj and the other featuring Skepta. Jackson released his debut mixtape "Meet the Woo" on July 26, 2019. From October to December 2019, Jackson released multiple singles, including "War" with Lil Tjay, and "100k on a Coupe" with Calboy.


title: Pop Smoke

text: On December 27, 2019, Jackson appeared on Travis Scott's Cactus Jack Records compilation album "JackBoys" on the song "Gatti" which was also accompanied by a music video. "Gatti" debuted and peaked at number 69 on the US "Billboard" Hot 100, giving Jackson his first Hot 100 appearance. On January 16, 2020, Jackson released "Christopher Walking". On February 7, 2020, twelve days before his death, Jackson released his second mixtape "Meet the Woo 2", with features from Quavo, A Boogie wit da Hoodie, Fivio Foreign and Lil Tjay.


title: Pop Smoke

text: The mixtape debuted at number seven on the US "Billboard" 200, earning Jackson his first top-10 hit in the United States. Five days after its release, a deluxe edition was released with three new songs, each featuring a guest appearance, consisting of Nav, Gunna, and PnB Rock. Jackson teased to social media his debut headlining concert tour Meet the Woo Tour to promote both his mixtapes. The tour was planned to begin in the US in March, and end in the UK in April.


title: Pop Smoke

text: "Dior", the second single off "Meet the Woo", became Jackson's first posthumous solo hit, peaking at number 22 on the "Billboard" Hot 100 and number 33 on the UK Singles Chart. At the beginning of March 2020, American rapper 50 Cent announced on his Instagram that he had decided to executive produce and finish Jackson's debut studio album. After his announcement, 50 Cent called artists like Roddy Ricch, Drake, and Chris Brown wanting to feature them on the record. Pop Smoke had wanted to take his mother to an awards show prompting 50 Cent to promise to take her to one when the album was complete.


title: Pop Smoke

text: On April 16, 2020, a documentary on Pop Smoke's life was announced to be in the works. On May 14, 2020, Victor announced that Pop Smoke's debut studio album would be posthumously released on June 12, 2020. The album was named "Shoot for the Stars, Aim for the Moon". It was originally set for release on June 12, 2020, but was pushed back out of respect for the George Floyd protests. Instead, on the album's original release date, the lead single, "Make It Rain", featuring fellow Brooklyn rapper Rowdy Rebel was released.


title: Pop Smoke

text: Rebel's verse was recorded through a collect call since he was incarcerated at the time. Virgil Abloh created the album's original artwork. The cover artwork provoked significant criticism from fans who called it "lazy" and "rushed" and felt it was disrespectful. It prompted a Change.org petition attracting tens of thousands of signatures. Ryder Ripps created the final cover art with the chrome rose against a black background. Jackson's mother chose the final album cover hours before the album was released commercially.


title: Pop Smoke

text: The album was officially released on July 3, 2020, to commercial success, reaching number one in several countries, including on the "Billboard" 200. All 19 songs on the album charted on the "Billboard" Hot 100, with "For the Night" featuring Lil Baby and DaBaby, debuting and peaking at number six, giving Pop Smoke his first top-10 hit in the US. On July 20, 2020, which what would have been Jackson's 21st birthday, a deluxe edition of the album was released, and featured 15 new additional tracks.


title: Pop Smoke

text: The album's fifth single "What You Know Bout Love", ended up peaking at number nine on the "Billboard" Hot 100, giving Pop Smoke his second top-10 hit in the US. On February 26, 2021, "AP" was released as the lead single for the "Boogie" soundtrack. Pop Smoke was cast as Monk in a minor role for "Boogie".


title: Pop Smoke

text: Without assistance from 50 cent, a second posthumous album titled "Faith" was released on July 16, 2021, to mixed reviews. It debuted at number one on the "Billboard" 200, making Pop Smoke the first artist to have their first two posthumous albums debut at the top of the chart. A deluxe version, featuring four additional tracks, was released on July 20, 2021, which what would have been Jackson's 22nd birthday. Six more tracks were added on July 30.


title: Pop Smoke

text: On January 17, 2020, after returning from Paris Fashion Week, Jackson was arrested by federal authorities at John F. Kennedy International Airport after stealing a Rolls-Royce Wraith, valued at $375,000, whose owner reported it stolen after Jackson had reportedly borrowed it in California for a music video shoot on the condition it would be returned the next day. Investigators believed he arranged for the car to be transported on a flatbed truck to New York. He posted a photo of himself in front of the stolen car on Instagram and Facebook. The car was recovered by authorities at Jackson's mother's house, in the Canarsie section of Brooklyn.


title: Pop Smoke

text: After his arrest, police questioned him about a non-fatal shooting that took place in Brooklyn in June 2019. The police thought he had information on the shooting because they claimed to have footage of him driving a car in reverse near the scene of the crime. The police also tried to pressure Jackson into telling them more information about the Crips, GS9, and other Brooklyn street gangs, but he refused to talk.


title: Pop Smoke

text: He was charged with grand theft auto, posted a $250,000 bond, and agreed to stay away from known gang members and submit drug tests to the US pretrial services. The conditions Jackson was put under hindered some of his performances like the "BK Drip Concert" at Kings Theatre in Flatbush in February 2020, as gang members were in the audience.


title: Pop Smoke

text: On February 19, 2020, Jackson was renting a house through Airbnb owned by "The Real Housewives" star Teddi Mellencamp and her husband, Edwin Arroyave, in Hollywood Hills, California. At around 4:30 a.m., five hooded men, including one wearing a ski mask and carrying a handgun, broke into the house through a second-story balcony while Jackson was taking a shower (it is unclear if Jackson was in the shower or not). The intruders held a gun to a woman's head and threatened to kill her. Shortly thereafter, the woman heard the men shoot Jackson three times after an altercation.


title: Pop Smoke

text: The LAPD received news of the home invasion from a call from the East Coast. Police arrived at the home six minutes later and found Jackson with multiple gunshot wounds. He was rushed to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, where doctors performed a thoracotomy on the left side of his chest. A few hours later, he was pronounced dead. He was 20 years old. On February 21, the Los Angeles County Department of Medical Examiner-Coroner revealed that the cause of Jackson's death was a gunshot wound to the torso.


title: Pop Smoke

text: The LAPD at first suspected that Jackson's death was gang-related, as he was tied to the Crips. However, the LAPD later believed his death was the consequence of a home robbery gone wrong. It was believed the intruders stole Jackson's gold watch and other jewelry before running away from the house. In May 2021, a 15-year-old, the youngest of the four intruders, allegedly admitted to killing Jackson over a diamond-studded Rolex during a recorded interview with a cellmate at a juvenile detention center. The 15-year-old told the cellmate that Jackson at first complied with their requests for jewelry but then tried to fight them, and a confrontation broke out in which Jackson was pistol-whipped and shot with a Beretta M92. The intruders made off with his Rolex, which they sold for $2,000.


title: Pop Smoke

text: The day before his murder, Jackson and friend Michael Durodola posted several images on social media, including one in which Mellencamp's home address can be seen in the background. The rapper also posted a story on Instagram and Facebook of gifts he had received. One showed the house's full address on the packaging, giving out its location.


title: Pop Smoke

text: Jackson's body was originally planned to be buried at the Cypress Hills Cemetery but was later changed to Green-Wood Cemetery. Family, friends, and fans of Jackson gathered in his hometown of Canarsie, Brooklyn, to show their respects. His casket was pulled in a horse-drawn carriage and was surrounded by glass windows and white curtains. On September 11, 2021, it was discovered that his grave site was vandalized, with the headstone smashed.


title: Pop Smoke

text: On July 9, 2020, three adult men and two minors were arrested for the murder of the rapper. One of the adult suspects has been charged with murder with a special circumstance that alleged the killing was committed "during the commission of a robbery and a burglary", and another charged with attempted murder. The two juveniles were charged with murder and robbery in juvenile court. As California law requires a minor to be at least 16 at the time of the crime, the 15-year-old could not be tried as an adult; and, under George Gascón's policy to keep all juveniles in juvenile court, the 17-year-old could not be tried as an adult, either.


title: Pop Smoke

text: Jackson's parents, Audrey and Greg Jackson, shared memories of their son before saying how gun violence took him away from them.


title: Pop Smoke

text: Danny Schwartz wrote in The Ringer that "Pop Smoke conquered New York rap and gave the city the kind of readymade and potentially defining star it hadn't seen in years". He claimed that "in New York City city, 'Welcome to the Party' was more omnipresent than hits like 'Old Town Road'."


title: Pop Smoke

text: Jackson's work ethic was widely praised by his peers in the music industry. The executive producer of his posthumous album, 50 Cent, revealed Smoke was always "writing what [50] said down" on his telephone, while Quavo added he "felt like [he] was talking to somebody that had been in the game for three years already".


title: Pop Smoke

text: Producer Rico Beats stated that, in his last few months, Jackson started "telling kids, don't go the gang route", wanting to "be a better person". A few months after his death, his family announced the creation of Shoot for the Stars, a foundation Jackson had planned to create prior to his death, with the goal of helping and inspiring inner-city youth. After his death, several murals of him were created in Canarsie. Although his lyrics do not generally contend with police brutality or racism, his songs, particularly "Dior", were popularly used during the George Floyd protests in New York City as a symbol of resistance.


title: Pop Smoke

text: The Meet the Woo Tour was scheduled to be the debut headlining concert tour by Pop Smoke. It was launched in support of his two mixtapes, "Meet the Woo" (2019) and "Meet the Woo 2" (2020), and had been set to consist of concerts in North America and the United Kingdom. The tour was announced in January 2020, with dates being released at the same time. Pop Smoke later added more UK tour dates after high demand from fans. The tour was canceled after Pop Smoke was shot and killed.


title: Pop Smoke

text: Tour dates were released on the same day for North America, while dates for the United Kingdom were revealed in February. Due to high demand from fans, more tour dates for the UK were revealed on February 13, 2020. Pop Smoke shared a promotional flyer for the tour on social media. Pop Smoke and his team were planning on finishing, mixing, and mastering his debut studio album "Shoot for the Stars, Aim for the Moon", starting the first week of March 2020.


title: Pop Smoke

text: In an interview with Revolt, Pop Smoke's DJ Jeffrey Archer talked about the tour. "Honestly, it's nothing planned yet. We just got those dates. This is officially going to be our first real big tour. This is going to be a month. I’m very excited about it. We're going to a few places we've never been to. We've been getting feedback over the last seven months [from] fans like, 'Please come out here.' There are loyal fans at these shows. You should expect a lot more music and shows. He has a lot of music coming out with a lot of artists. He’s not playing. We're definitely shaking the room in 2020."


title: Pop Smoke

text: The Meet the Woo Tour was later canceled after Pop Smoke was killed by a torso wound at the age of 20 in a home invasion on February 19, 2020. Four hooded men, including one wearing a ski mask and carrying a handgun, broke into a house he was renting in Hollywood Hills, California, and shot him twice in the chest. Fans were offered refunds after Pop Smoke's death: "As we mourn the loss of this great artist, refunds will be available at point of purchase."


title: Hugh Grant

text: Hugh John Mungo Grant (born 9 September 1960) is an English actor. He established himself early in his career as both a charming, and vulnerable romantic lead and has since transitioned into a dramatic character actor. Among his numerous accolades, he has received a British Academy Film Award, a Golden Globe Award, Volpi Cup, and an Honorary César. , his films had grossed a total of nearly US$3 billion worldwide. In 2022, "Time Out" magazine listed Grant as one of Britain's Greatest Actors of all time.


title: Hugh Grant

text: Grant first received attention for his early roles in acclaimed costume dramas such as Merchant-Ivory's "Maurice" (1987), for which he won the Volpi Cup for Best Actor, and "The Remains of the Day" (1993), as well as "Sense and Sensibility" (1995) and "Restoration" (1995). Grant then reached global stardom as a leading man in Richard Curtis's romantic comedy film "Four Weddings and a Funeral" (1994), whereupon he received the Golden Globe Award and the BAFTA Award for Best Actor. He starred in the romantic comedies "Notting Hill" (1999), "Bridget Jones's Diary" (2001), "About a Boy" (2002), "Two Weeks Notice" (2002), "Love Actually" (2003), and "Music and Lyrics" (2007).


title: Hugh Grant

text: Grant began to take against-type parts, starting with multiple roles in The Wachowskis' epic science fiction film "Cloud Atlas" (2012). He then received critical acclaim for his roles in both "Florence Foster Jenkins" (2016), and "Paddington 2" (2017) for which he received a BAFTA Award for Best Supporting Actor nominations for each. He then starred in the television projects, the BBC miniseries "A Very English Scandal" (2018), and HBO miniseries "The Undoing" (2020) earning Primetime Emmy Award for Best Actor in a Limited Series or Movie nominations for both as well. During this time he has starred in the action films "The Man from U.N.C.L.E." (2015) and "The Gentlemen" (2019).


title: Hugh Grant

text: Hallmarks of his comic skills include a nonchalant touch of sarcasm and characteristic physical mannerisms. He has been outspoken about his antipathy towards the profession of acting, his disdain towards the culture of celebrity, and his hostility towards the media. He emerged as a prominent critic of the conduct of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation during the News International phone hacking scandal.


title: Hugh Grant

text: Grant was born on 9 September 1960 in White City, London, the second son of Fynvola Susan MacLean (née Wickham) and Captain James Murray Grant. His grandfather, Colonel James Murray Grant, DSO, was decorated for bravery and leadership at Saint-Valery-en-Caux during World War II. Genealogist Antony Adolph has described Grant's family history as "a colourful Anglo-Scottish tapestry of warriors, empire-builders, and aristocracy." His ancestors include Sir Walter Raleigh; William Drummond, 4th Viscount Strathallan; James Stewart; John Murray, 1st Marquess of Atholl; Heneage Finch, 1st Earl of Nottingham; Sir Evan Nepean; and a sister of Prime Minister Spencer Perceval.


title: Hugh Grant

text: Grant's father was an officer in the Seaforth Highlanders for eight years in Malaya and Germany. He ran a carpet firm, and pursued hobbies such as golf and watercolor painting; he raised his family in Chiswick, West London, and the Grants lived next to Arlington Park Mansions on Sutton Lane. In September 2006, a collection of Capt. Grant's paintings was hosted by the John Martin Gallery in a charity exhibition, organised by his son, called "James Grant: 30 Years of Watercolours". His mother worked as a schoolteacher and taught Latin, French, and music for more than 30 years in the state schools of West London. She died at the age of 67 of pancreatic cancer.


title: Hugh Grant

text: On "Inside the Actors Studio" in 2002, Grant credited his mother with "any acting genes that [he] might have". Both his parents were children of military families, but despite his parents' backgrounds, he has stated that his family was not always affluent while growing up. He spent many of his childhood summers shooting and fishing with his grandfather in Scotland. Grant has an older brother, James "Jamie" Grant, a New York-based investment banker.


title: Hugh Grant

text: Grant started his education at Hogarth Primary School in Chiswick, then moved to St Peter's Primary School in Hammersmith, followed by Wetherby School, an independent preparatory school in Notting Hill. From 1969 to 1978, he attended Latymer Upper School in Hammersmith, at the time a direct grant grammar school. He was educated on a scholarship and played 1st XV rugby, cricket, and football. He also represented Latymer Upper on the quiz show "Top of the Form", an academic competition between two teams of four secondary school students each.


title: Hugh Grant

text: In 1979, he won the Galsworthy scholarship to New College, Oxford. He studied English literature and graduated with second-class honours. Viewing acting as nothing more than a creative outlet, he joined the Oxford University Dramatic Society and was Fabian in a production of "Twelfth Night". He also starred in his first film, "Privileged" (1982), produced by the Oxford University Film Foundation.


title: Hugh Grant

text: He received an offer from the Courtauld Institute of Art, University of London, to pursue a PhD in art history, but decided not to take the offer because he failed to secure a grant.


title: Hugh Grant

text: After making his debut in the Oxford-financed film "Privileged" (1982), Grant dabbled in a variety of jobs, such as working as an assistant groundsman at Fulham Football Club, tutoring, writing comedy sketches for TV shows and working for Talkback Productions to write and produce radio commercials for products such as Mighty White bread and Red Stripe lager. At a screening of "Privileged" at BAFTA in London, he was approached by a talent agent offering to represent him. Still intending to begin his MPhil at the Courtauld Institute, Grant declined, but then later reconsidered, thinking that acting for a year would be a good way to save some money for his studies.


title: Hugh Grant

text: Soon afterwards he was offered a supporting role in "The Bounty" (1984) starring Mel Gibson and Anthony Hopkins, but was prevented from playing the role because he didn't yet have an Equity card, which could only be earned through acting in regional theatre. To obtain his Equity card, he joined the Nottingham Playhouse and lived for a year at Park Terrace in The Park Estate in Nottingham. Richard Digby Day directed him in small roles at the Nottingham Playhouse in "Lady Windermere's Fan", an avant-garde production of "Hamlet" and "Coriolanus".


title: Hugh Grant

text: Bored with small acting parts, Grant created a sketch-comedy group called The Jockeys of Norfolk, a name taken from Shakespeare's "Richard III", with friends Chris Lang and Andy Taylor. The group toured London's pub comedy circuit with stops at "The George IV" in Chiswick, "Canal Cafe Theatre" in Little Venice and "The King's Head" in Islington. The Jockeys of Norfolk proved a hit at the 1985 Edinburgh Festival Fringe after their sketch on the Nativity, told as an Ealing comedy, gained them a spot on Russell Harty's BBC2 TV show "Harty Goes to...". In 1986 he played Eric Birling in a production of "An Inspector Calls" at the Royal Exchange Theatre in Manchester, directed by Richard Wilson, giving a performance that Grevel Lindop, writing in the "Times Literary Supplement", described as "outstanding".


title: Hugh Grant

text: In 1985 and 1986, Grant had minor roles in eight television productions, including TV films, historical miniseries and single episodes of series. His first leading film role came in Merchant-Ivory's Edwardian drama film "Maurice" (1987), adapted from E. M. Forster's novel. He and co-star James Wilby shared the Volpi Cup for Best Actor at the Venice Film Festival for their portrayals of lovers Clive Durham and Maurice Hall, respectively.


title: Hugh Grant

text: During the late 1980s and early 1990s, he balanced small roles on television with film work, which included playing Hugh Cholmondeley, 3rd Baron Delamere in the BAFTA Award-nominated "White Mischief" (1987) and a supporting role in "The Dawning" (1988) opposite Anthony Hopkins and Jean Simmons.


title: Hugh Grant

text: In 1988 he had a leading role in Ken Russell's horror film, "The Lair of the White Worm". He was Lord Byron in a Goya Award-winning Spanish production called "Remando al viento" (1988) and portrayed legendary champagne merchant Charles Heidsieck in the television film "Champagne Charlie" (1989). In 1990 he had a small role in the sport/crime drama "The Big Man", opposite Liam Neeson, in which Grant assumed a Scottish accent; the film explores the life of a Scottish miner (Neeson) who becomes unemployed during a union strike. In 1991 he played Julie Andrews' gay son in the ABC made-for-television film "Our Sons". In 1991 he also starred as Frederic Chopin in "Impromptu", opposite Judy Davis as his lover George Sand.


title: Hugh Grant

text: In 1992 he appeared in Roman Polanski's film "Bitter Moon", portraying a fastidious and proper British tourist who is married but finds himself enticed by the sexual hedonism of a seductive French woman and her embittered, paraplegic American husband. The film was called an "anti-romantic opus of sexual obsession and cruelty" by "The Washington Post". In 1993 he had a supporting role in the Merchant-Ivory drama "The Remains of the Day".


title: Hugh Grant

text: Grant later jokingly called many of the productions of his early career "Europuddings, where you would have a French script, a Spanish director and English actors. The script would usually be written by a foreigner, badly translated into English. And then they'd get English actors in, because they thought that was the way to sell it to America."


title: Hugh Grant

text: At 32, Grant claimed to be on the brink of giving up the acting profession but was surprised by the script of "Four Weddings and a Funeral" (1994). "If you read as many bad scripts as I did, you'd know how grateful you are when you come across one where the guy actually is funny," he later recalled. Released in 1994 with Grant as the protagonist, "Four Weddings and a Funeral" became the highest-grossing British film to date with a worldwide box office in excess of $244 million, making him an overnight international star. His entry in "The Trouble with Men: Masculinities in European and Hollywood Cinema" states:


title: Hugh Grant

text: The film was nominated for two Academy Awards and, among numerous awards won by its cast and crew, it earned Grant a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy and a BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role. It also temporarily typecast him as the lead character, Charles, a bohemian and debonair bachelor. Grant saw it as an inside joke that the star, due to the parts he played, was assumed to have the personality of the screenwriter (Richard Curtis), who is known for writing about himself and his own life. Grant later expressed:


title: Hugh Grant

text: In July 1994, he signed a two-year production deal with Castle Rock Entertainment and, by October, he became founder and director of the UK-based Simian Films Limited. He appointed his then-girlfriend, Elizabeth Hurley, as the head of development to look for prospective projects. Simian Films produced two Grant vehicles in the 1990s and lost a bid to produce "About a Boy" to Robert De Niro's TriBeCa Productions. The company closed its US office in 2002 and Grant resigned as director in December 2005.


title: Hugh Grant

text: Before the release of "Four Weddings and a Funeral", Grant had reunited with its director Mike Newell for the tragicomedy "An Awfully Big Adventure" (1995), which was labelled a "determinedly off-beat film" by "The New York Times". He portrayed the supercilious director of a repertory company in post-World War II Liverpool. Critic Roger Ebert wrote, "It shows that he has range as an actor" but the "San Francisco Chronicle" disapproved on grounds that the film "plays like a vanity production for Grant". Janet Maslin, praising Grant as "superb" and "a dashing cad under any circumstances", commented, "For him this film represents the road not taken. Made before "Four Weddings and a Funeral" was released, it captures Mr. Grant as the clever, versatile character actor he was then becoming, rather than the international dreamboat he is today." His next role was as a cartographer in 1917 Wales in "The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill But Came Down a Mountain" (1995).


title: Hugh Grant

text: Grant's first studio-financed Hollywood project was opposite Julianne Moore in Chris Columbus's comedy "Nine Months" (1995). Though a hit at the box office, it was almost universally panned by critics. "The Washington Post" called it a "grotesquely pandering caper" and singled out Grant's performance, as a child psychiatrist reacting unfavourably to his girlfriend's unexpected pregnancy, for his "insufferable muggings". Grant himself has been highly critical of his performance in "Nine Months", stating in a 2016 interview:


title: Hugh Grant

text: Next in 1995, he starred as Emma Thompson's suitor in her Academy Award-winning adaptation of Jane Austen's "Sense and Sensibility", directed by Ang Lee. In 1995 he also performed in "Restoration"; Lisa Schwarzbaum wrote that Grant is "having a fine and liberating time playing a supercilious court portrait painter", and Kevin Thomas of "Los Angeles Times" said he has "some delicious moments" in the film.


title: Hugh Grant

text: He made his debut as a film producer with the 1996 thriller "Extreme Measures". Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel each gave the film three out of four stars, with Siskel writing "Hugh Grant's work in "Extreme Measures" is a refreshing standout."


title: Hugh Grant

text: After a three-year hiatus, in 1999 he paired with Julia Roberts in "Notting Hill", which was written by Richard Curtis and produced by much of the same team that was responsible for "Four Weddings and a Funeral". This new Working Title production displaced "Four Weddings and a Funeral" as the biggest British hit in the history of cinema, with earnings equalling $363 million worldwide. As it became exemplary of modern romantic comedies in mainstream culture, the film was also received well by critics. CNN reviewer Paul Clinton said, ""Notting Hill" stands alone as another funny and heartwarming story about love against all odds." Reactions to his Golden Globe-nominated performance were varied, with Salon.com's Stephanie Zacharek criticising that, "Grant's performance stands as an emblem of what's wrong with "Notting Hill". What's maddening about Grant is that he just never cuts the crap. He's become one of those actors who's all shambling self-caricature, from his twinkly crow's feet to the time-lapsed half century it takes him to actually get one of his lines out." The film provided both its stars a chance to satirise the woes of international notoriety, most noted of which was Grant's turn as a faux-journalist who sits through a dull press junket with what "The New York Times" called "a delightfully funny deadpan".


title: Hugh Grant

text: Grant also released his second production output, a fish-out-of-water mob comedy "Mickey Blue Eyes", that year. It was dismissed by critics, performed modestly at the box office and garnered its actor-producer mixed reviews for his starring role. Roger Ebert thought, "Hugh Grant is wrong for the role [and] strikes one wrong note and then another", whereas Kenneth Turan, writing in the "Los Angeles Times", said, "If he'd been on the Titanic, fewer lives would have been lost. If he'd accompanied Robert Scott to the South Pole, the explorer would have lived to be 100. That's how good Hugh Grant is at rescuing doomed ventures."


title: Hugh Grant

text: While promoting Woody Allen's "Small Time Crooks" (2000) on NBC's "The Today Show" in 2000, Grant told host Matt Lauer, "It's my millennium of bastards". "Small Time Crooks" starred Grant, in the words of film critic Andrew Sarris, as "a petty, petulant, faux-Pygmalion art dealer, David, [who] is one of the sleaziest and most unsympathetic characters Mr. Allen has ever created". In a role devoid of his comic attributes, "The New York Times" wrote: "Mr. Grant deftly imbues his character with exactly a perfect blend of charm and nasty calculation." In 2000, Grant also joined the supervisory board of IM Internationalmedia AG, the powerful Munich-based film and media company.


title: Hugh Grant

text: In 2001, his turn as a charming but womanising book publisher Daniel Cleaver in "Bridget Jones's Diary" was proclaimed by "Variety" to be "as sly an overthrow of a star's polished posh – and nice – poster image as any comic turn in memory". The film, adapted from Helen Fielding's novel of the same name, was an international hit, earning $281 million worldwide. He was, according to "The Washington Post", fitting as "a cruel, manipulative cad, hiding behind the male god's countenance that he knows all too well".


title: Hugh Grant

text: In 2002, Grant's "immaculate comic performance" (BBC) as the trust-funded womaniser, Will Freeman, in the film adaptation of Nick Hornby's best-selling novel "About a Boy" received raves from critics. Almost universally praised, with an Academy Award-nominated screenplay, "About a Boy" (2002) was determined by "The Washington Post" to be "that rare romantic comedy that dares to choose messiness over closure, prickly independence over fetishised coupledom, and honesty over typical Hollywood endings". "Rolling Stone" wrote, "The acid comedy of Grant's performance carries the film [and he] gives this pleasing heartbreaker the touch of gravity it needs", while Roger Ebert observed that "the Cary Grant department is understaffed, and Hugh Grant shows here that he is more than a star, he is a resource". Released a day after the blockbuster "", "About a Boy" was a more modest box office grosser than other successful Grant films, making all of $129 million globally. The film earned Grant his third Golden-Globe nomination, while the London Film Critics Circle named Grant its Best British Actor and "GQ" honoured him as one of the magazine's men of the year 2002. "His performance can only be described as revelatory", wrote critic Ann Hornaday, adding that "Grant lends the shoals layer upon layer of desire, terror, ambivalence and self-awareness." "The New York Observer" concluded: "[The film] gets most of its laughs from the evolved expertise of Hugh Grant in playing characters that audiences enjoy seeing taken down a peg or two as a punishment for philandering and womanising and simply being too handsome for words-and with an English accent besides. In the end, the film comes over as a messy delight, thanks to the skill, generosity and good-sport, punching-bag panache of Mr. Grant's performance." "About a Boy" also marked a notable change in his boyish look. Now 41, he had lost weight and also abandoned his trademark floppy hair. "Entertainment Weekly"'s Owen Gleiberman took note of Grant's maturation in his review, saying he looked noticeably older and that it "looked good on him". He added that Grant's "pillowy cheeks are flatter and a bit drawn, and the eyes that used to peer with 'love me' cuteness now betray a shark's casual cunning. Everything about him is leaner and spikier (including his hair, which has been shorn and moussed into a Eurochic bed-head mess), but it's not just his surface that's more virile; the nervousness is gone, too. Hugh Grant has grown up, holding on to his lightness and witty cynicism but losing the stuttering sherry-club mannerisms that were once his signature. In doing so, he has blossomed into the rare actor who can play a silver-tongued sleaze with a hidden inner decency."


title: Hugh Grant

text: He was paired with Sandra Bullock in Warner Bros.'s "Two Weeks Notice" (2002), which made $199 million internationally but received poor reviews. "The Village Voice" concluded that Grant's creation of a spoiled billionaire fronting a real estate business was "little more than a Britishism machine".


title: Hugh Grant

text: "Two Weeks Notice" was followed by the 2003 ensemble comedy, "Love Actually", headlined by Grant as the British Prime Minister. A Christmas release by Working Title Films, the film was promoted as "the ultimate romantic comedy" and accumulated $246 million at the international box office. It marked the directorial debut of Richard Curtis, who told "The New York Times" that Grant adamantly tempered the characterisation of the role to make his character more authoritative and less haplessly charming than earlier Curtis incarnations. Roger Ebert claimed that "Grant has flowered into an absolutely splendid romantic comedian" and has "so much self-confidence that he plays the British prime minister as if he took the role to be a good sport". Film critic Rex Reed, on the contrary, called his performance "an oversexed bachelor spin on Tony Blair" as the star "flirted with himself in the paroxysm of self-love that has become his acting style".


title: Hugh Grant

text: In 2004, he reprised his role as Daniel Cleaver for a small part in "", which, like its predecessor, made more than $262 million commercially.


title: Hugh Grant

text: Gone from the screen for two years, Grant next re-teamed with Paul Weitz ("About a Boy") for the black comedy "American Dreamz" (2006). Grant starred as the acerbic host of an "American Idol"-like reality show where, according to Caryn James of "The New York Times", "nothing is real ... except the black hole at the centre of the host's heart, as Mr. Grant takes Mr. Cowell's villainous act to its limit". "American Dreamz" failed financially but Grant was generously praised. He played his self-aggrandising character, an amalgam of Simon Cowell and Ryan Seacrest, with smarmy self-loathing. "The Boston Globe" proposed that this "just may be the great comic role that has always eluded Hugh Grant", and critic Carina Chocano said, "He is twice as enjoyable as the preening bad guy as he was as the bumbling good guy."


title: Hugh Grant

text: In 2007, he starred opposite Drew Barrymore in a parody of pop culture and the music industry called "Music and Lyrics". The Associated Press described it as "a weird little hybrid of a romantic comedy that's simultaneously too fluffy and not whimsical enough". Though he neither listens to music nor owns any CDs, Grant learned to sing, play the piano, dance (a few mannered steps) and studied the mannerisms of prominent musicians to prepare for his role as a has-been pop singer, based loosely on Andrew Ridgeley, member of 1980s pop duo Wham!. The film, with its revenues totalling $145 million, allowed him to mock disposable pop stardom and fleeting celebrity through its washed-up lead character. According to the "San Francisco Chronicle", "Grant strikes precisely the right note with regard to Alex's career: He's too intelligent not to be a little embarrassed, but he's far too brazen to feel anything like shame."


title: Hugh Grant

text: In 2009, he starred opposite Sarah Jessica Parker in the Marc Lawrence's romantic comedy "Did You Hear About the Morgans?", which was a critical failure and box office disappointment.


title: Hugh Grant

text: Grant was featured in the Wachowskis' and Tom Tykwer's epic science fiction film "Cloud Atlas" in 2012, playing six different dark characters. In the same year, Grant lent his voice to the Aardman stop motion animation "The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists!". He reunited with Lawrence again for a dramedy film "The Rewrite" (2014), starring opposite Marisa Tomei. The film received mixed-to-positive reviews, while Grant's performance was praised by many critics; director Quentin Tarantino has stated that the film is one of his favourites of the year and called Grant a "perfect leading man".


title: Hugh Grant

text: In 2015, he had a supporting role as Alexander Waverly in Guy Ritchie's crime thriller "The Man from U.N.C.L.E."; "Entertainment Weekly" described his performance as "the only bit of fun" in the film, and Glenn Kenny of Rogerebert.com gave the film a mixed review but stated that "while it can't be said that Hugh Grant saves the movie, his return to prominence in the last half-hour, after a plot-seeding-walk-on earlier in the movie, peps things up considerably".


title: Hugh Grant

text: In 2016, Grant played St. Clair Bayfield, partner of the title character, in the film "Florence Foster Jenkins", directed by Stephen Frears and starring Meryl Streep. His performance drew raves from film critics as "career-best" ("Screen International"), "one of his best performances in years" (Indiewire), "best work of his career" ("Variety") where he "goes deeper, darker and riskier" ("Rolling Stone"). Rafer Guzman of "Newsday" said "Surely the 55-year-old actor has just sealed his first-ever Oscar nomination." Carrie Rickey of "Yahoo! Movies" commented that Grant "deserves the Globe, an Oscar nomination, and the recognition — finally — that he is unique and irreplaceable among modern actors". He was nominated for his first individual Screen Actors Guild Award and also earned nominations for a BAFTA, a Golden Globe, a Critics' Choice Award, a Satellite Award and a European Film Award. Several critics put his work among the best acting performances of the year. Most award pundits predicted Grant would receive his first Academy Award nomination for his performance, but he was not nominated.


title: Hugh Grant

text: His next appearance was as Phoenix Buchanan, a villain in the family film "Paddington 2", which was a commercial and critical success. "The Guardian" described his performance as "scene-stealing", while "IGN" commented "Grant continues to make an astonishing comeback in his career, once again by playing into his expert comedic abilities as Phoenix Buchanan, who dons each of his ridiculous disguises with a kind of egotistical obliviousness that Grant is perfect at pulling off." Grant went on to win London Film Critics' Circle Award for Supporting Actor of the Year and was nominated for a BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role for his performance. Grant's performance was ranked as the 22nd greatest movie performance of the decade by IndieWire in 2019.


title: Hugh Grant

text: In 2018, Grant returned to television screens after 25 years, as Jeremy Thorpe in the BBC One miniseries "A Very English Scandal", which marked his second collaboration with director Stephen Frears. The miniseries, and in particular Grant, were widely and highly praised. "Digital Spy"'s review stated that "There's always been a bit of the devil in Grant's best turns, and in Thorpe, a man with a fully-realised dark side, he's found his richest part in years". The "New Statesman" wrote, "Hugh Grant is Thorpe, and everything about his performance is exactly so. It's the role of Grant's life, and he performs it even more brilliantly than he did Phoenix Buchanan in "Paddington 2"." "The Sunday Times" stated, "It's become tediously predictable to praise this drama but, as Thorpe, Hugh Grant really has proved he's getting better as he's getting older". "The Guardian" called him "utterly captivating", and "The Boston Globe" wrote, "Grant is a revelation". "The New Yorker" stated, "Hugh Grant gives a brilliant performance as Thorpe, whose arrogance, charm, and profoundly evasive nature he captures with subtlety. A quarter century after Grant established himself as everyone's crush with his romantic-comedy début, in "Four Weddings and a Funeral" ... the actor, who is now in his late fifties, has turned out to have a gift for conveying what happens to an individual when charm curdles into something considerably darker." For his performance, Grant was nominated for several awards, including the Primetime Emmy Award, Screen Actors Guild Award, Golden Globe Award, British Academy Television Award.


title: Hugh Grant

text: In 2019, Grant played another against-type role, in Guy Ritchie's "The Gentlemen", his second collaboration with the director following "The Man From U.N.C.L.E." Grant plays Fletcher, a seedy and unscrupulous private investigator, which he called "a fun bit of casting" referring to his Hacked Off campaigning. He has stated he based his character on tabloid reporters who "used to be my enemies and now they're my friends". Even though the film received mostly mixed reviews, Grant's performance was praised. Stephen Dalton of "The Hollywood Reporter" called Grant "a beating comic heart" of the film, adding that "he weighs up every wry line with relish, and Ritchie makes strong use of his deadpan comic talents." Joe Morgenstern of "Wall Street Journal" also highly praised his work, writing, "[I]n a word, Mr. Grant is sensational. In two more words, he's absolutely hilarious; it's some of the best work he's done on screen."


title: Hugh Grant

text: In 2020, Grant starred in HBO miniseries "The Undoing", opposite Nicole Kidman and Donald Sutherland. The miniseries was premiered on 25 October 2020 to mixed reviews, though Grant's performance was widely acclaimed. Film critic Caryn James said Grant has the "richest part" and added, "He sharply defines Jonathan as a slippery character, and walks the line expertly to keep us off guard. How much should we trust Jonathan? When he starts confessing some secrets, is all or any of it true? With this role and that in the recent "A Very English Scandal", Grant has become expert at bringing his charm to darker characters." Brian Tallerico of RogerEbert.com was less impressed with the series but called Grant's performance as the "series-best". Grant received a Screen Actor Guild Award, Golden Globe Award and Critics' Choice Television Award nomination for his performance.


title: Hugh Grant

text: Grant reunited with Guy Ritchie for the action "" alongside Jason Statham and Aubrey Plaza with a released date yet to be announced. He is also set to star in the fantasy adventure film "" and the Jerry Seinfeld comedy film "".


title: Hugh Grant

text: Grant began his career as a character actor but became predominantly a comedy (especially a romantic comedy) actor from his rise to stardom in mid-1990s until the 2010s. He said he moved away from romantic comedies after the failure of "Did You Hear About the Morgans?" (2009). In a 2020 interview with "The Sydney Morning Herald", he said: "I got old and ugly and I'm not appropriate for romantic comedy films anymore, which has been a great blessing". Even though his recent credits include political dramas like "A Very English Scandal" and crime films like "The Gentlemen", Grant is still often associated with his Richard Curtis-scripted romantic comedy films. In the British press, it is common to compare young romantic comedy actors to him.


title: Hugh Grant

text: Remarking upon his romantic comedy star era, some film critics, such as Roger Ebert, have defended the limited variety of his performances, while some others have dismissed Grant as a "one-trick pony". Eric Fellner, co-owner of Working Title Films and a longtime collaborator, said, "His range hasn't been fully tested, but each performance is unique." Many of Grant's films of the 1990s followed a similar plot that captured an optimistic bachelor experiencing a series of embarrassing incidents to find true love, often with an American woman. In earlier films, he was adept at plugging into the stereotype of a repressed Englishman for humorous effects, allowing him to gently satirise his characters as he summed them up and played against the type simultaneously. These performances were sometimes deemed excessive, in the words of "The Washington Post"s Rita Kempley, due to Grant's "comic overreactions—the mugging, the stuttering, the fluttering eyelids". She added: "He's got more tics than Benny Hill." His penchant for conveying his characters' feelings with mannerisms, rather than direct emotions, has been one of the foremost objections raised against his acting style. Stephen Hunter of "The Washington Post" once stated that, to be effective as a comic performer, Grant must get "his jiving and shucking under control". Film historian David Thomson opined in "The New Biographical Dictionary of Film" that the actor equated merely "itchy mannerisms" with screen acting.


title: Hugh Grant

text: Grant's screen persona in his films of the 2000s gradually developed into a cynical, self-loathing cad. Claudia Puig of "USA Today" celebrated this transformation with the observation that finally "gone [were] the self-conscious 'Aren't I adorable' mannerisms that seemed endearing at the start of his film career but have grown cloying in more recent movies". According to Carina Chocano, amongst film critics, the two tropes most commonly associated with Grant are that he reinvented his screen persona in "Bridget Jones's Diary" and "About a Boy" and dreads the possibility of becoming a parody of himself.


title: Hugh Grant

text: Nonetheless, Grant has occasionally acted in dramas. He played a sleazy, snide community theatre director with a penchant for young actors in the drama film "An Awfully Big Adventure", which received critical praise, and for "a very quiet, dignified" performance as Frédéric Chopin in James Lapine's biopic film "Impromptu". In 2012, he played six "incredibly evil" characters in the epic drama film "Cloud Atlas", an experience he has talked about positively, saying:


title: Hugh Grant

text: After "Cloud Atlas", Grant has never starred in a romantic comedy film with an exception of the dramedy "The Rewrite" (2014), where "romantic comedy is only a small part of it." Grant is known as a meticulous performer who approaches his roles like a character actor, working hard to make his acting appear spontaneous. In a career spanning more than 35 years, Grant has repeatedly claimed that acting was not his true calling, but rather a career that developed by happenstance. However, in 2020, after moving on to more character roles, he has stated that he "enjoys acting now".


title: Hugh Grant

text: Grant has expressed boredom with playing the celebrity in the press and is known in the media for his guarded privacy. On probing of his personal life, he has remained steadfast in "offering a dead bat to any question he feels is not general enough". He has described himself as a reluctant actor, has called being a successful actor a mistake and has repeatedly talked of his hope that film stardom would just be "a phase" in his life, lasting no more than ten years.


title: Hugh Grant

text: A 2007 "Vogue" profile referred to him as a man with a "professionally misanthropic mystique". He has expressed distaste for focus groups, market research, and emphasis on opening weekend box-office numbers, saying: "It's so destructive to the filmmaking process. What was wrong with the way they used to release films, more slowly, let them build?" The director Mike Newell has said: "There is at least as much of Hugh that is charismatic, intellectual, and whose tongue is maybe too clever for its own good as there is of him that's gorgeous and kind of woolly and flubsy." Filmmaker Paul Weitz said that Grant is funny and that "he perceives flaws in himself and other people, and then he cares about their humanity nonetheless". British newspapers regularly refer to him as "grumpy".


title: Hugh Grant

text: Grant is a self-confessed "committed and passionate" perfectionist on a film set. The American film critic Dave Kehr has written that Grant "is known in the film industry as a meticulous performer who takes his time to prepare a role – someone who works hard to make it look easy – though that isn't a trait he admires in himself". He is noted by co-workers for demanding endless takes until he achieves the desired shot according to his own standard.


title: Hugh Grant

text: He dropped his agent in 2006, ending a 10-year relationship with CAA. He has proclaimed in interviews that he does not listen to external views on his career: "They've known for years that I have total control. I've never taken any advice on anything."


title: Hugh Grant

text: In 1996, Grant won substantial damages from News (UK) Ltd over what his lawyers called a "highly defamatory" article published in January 1995. The company's newspaper, "Today", which ceased publication the following November, had falsely claimed that Grant verbally abused a young extra with a "foul-mouthed tongue lashing" on the set of "The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill But Came Down a Mountain".


title: Hugh Grant

text: On 27 April 2007, he accepted undisclosed damages from Associated Newspapers over claims made about his relationships with his former girlfriends in three separate tabloid articles, which were published in the "Daily Mail" and "The Mail on Sunday" on 18, 21 and 24 February. His lawyer stated that all of the articles' "allegations and factual assertions are false". Grant said, in a written statement, that he took the action because: "I was tired of the "Daily Mail" and "Mail on Sunday" papers publishing almost entirely fictional articles about my private life for their own financial gain." He went on to take the opportunity to stress, "I'm also hoping that this statement in court might remind people that the so-called 'close friends' or 'close sources' on which these stories claim to be based almost never exist."


title: Hugh Grant

text: On 27 June 1995, Grant was arrested in Los Angeles, California, in a police vice operation near Sunset Boulevard for receiving oral sex in a public place from Hollywood prostitute Divine Brown. He pleaded no contest and was fined $1,180, placed on two years' summary probation, and was ordered to complete an AIDS education program by Judge Robert J. Sandoval.


title: Hugh Grant

text: The arrest occurred about two weeks before the release of his first major studio film, "Nine Months", which he was scheduled to promote on several American television shows. "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno" had him booked for the same week. In the much-watched interview (which saw Leno overtake David Letterman in the ratings), Grant did not make excuses for the incident after Leno asked him, "What the hell were you thinking?" Grant answered, "I think you know in life what's a good thing to do and what's a bad thing, and I did a bad thing. And there you have it."


title: Hugh Grant

text: On "Larry King Live", he declined host Larry King's repeated invitations to probe his psyche, saying that psychoanalysis was "more of an American syndrome" and he himself was "a bit old fashioned". He told the host: "I don't have excuses." CNN reported that "Many are also applauding Grant for his refreshing honesty in a culture that has become fed up with overuse of the word 'abuse,' but Grant did not resort to an excuse." Radio host Scott Shannon said, "He went ahead and faced the music and handled it with tongue [in] cheek."


title: Hugh Grant

text: In April 2007, he was arrested on allegations of assault made by paparazzo Ian Whittaker. Grant made no official statement and did not comment on the incident. Charges were dropped on 1 June 2007 by the Crown Prosecution Service on the grounds of "insufficient evidence".


title: Hugh Grant

text: In April 2011, Grant published an article in the "New Statesman" titled "The Bugger, Bugged" about a conversation (following an earlier encounter) with Paul McMullan, a former journalist and paparazzo for "News of the World". In unguarded comments which were secretly taped by Grant, McMullan alleged that editors at the "Daily Mail" and "News of the World", particularly Andy Coulson, had ordered journalists to engage in illegal phone tapping and had done so with the full knowledge of senior British politicians. McMullan also said that every British Prime Minister from Margaret Thatcher onwards had cultivated a close relationship with Rupert Murdoch and his senior executives. He stressed the friendship between David Cameron and Rebekah Brooks (née Wade), agreeing when asked that both of them must have been aware of illegal phone tapping, and asserting that Cameron's inaction could be explained by self-interest: "Cameron is very much in debt to Rebekah Wade for helping him not quite win the election ... So that was my submission to parliament – that Cameron's either a liar or an idiot."


title: Hugh Grant

text: When asked by Grant whether Cameron had encouraged the Metropolitan Police to "drag their feet" on investigating illegal phone tapping by Murdoch's journalists, McMullan agreed this had happened, and stated that police themselves had taken bribes from tabloid journalists: "20 percent of the Met has taken backhanders from tabloid hacks. So why would they want to open up that can of worms?... And what's wrong with that, anyway? It doesn't hurt anyone particularly."


title: Hugh Grant

text: Grant's article attracted considerable interest, due to both the revelatory content of the taped conversation, and the novelty of his "turning the tables" on a tabloid journalist.


title: Hugh Grant

text: While the allegations regarding the "News of the World" continued to receive coverage in the broadsheets and similar media (Grant appeared, for example, on BBC Radio 4) it was only with the revelation that the voicemail of murdered Milly Dowler had been hacked, and evidence for her murder enquiry had been deleted, that the coverage turned from media interest to widespread public (and eventually political) outrage. Grant became something of a spokesman against Murdoch's News Corporation, culminating in his appearance on BBC television's "Question Time" in July 2011. Grant later said: "It's been fascinating to have a little excursion into another world. I really needed that and also to be dealing with real life instead of creating synthetic life, which is what I've been doing for the last 25 years."


title: Hugh Grant

text: On 5 February 2018, Mirror Group Newspapers apologised for its actions towards Grant and other public figures, calling the affair "morally wrong". This came after Grant accepted a six-figure sum to settle a High Court action. He donated the payout to the press campaign group "Hacked Off".


title: Hugh Grant

text: In 1987, while playing Lord Byron in the Spanish production "Remando Al Viento" (1988), Grant met actress Elizabeth Hurley, who was cast in a supporting role as Byron's former lover Claire Clairmont. He began dating Hurley during filming and their relationship was subsequently the subject of much media attention. While dating Hurley, Grant gained international notoriety for soliciting the services of a prostitute in 1995. They separated in May 2000, but Grant is godfather to Hurley’s son Damian, born in 2002.