title: Tanzania

text: From independence until 1993, all recording and distribution of music was strictly managed by BASATA, primarily through Radio Tanzania Dar es Salaam (RTD). Only the 4 Tanzanian genres were permitted to be recorded or broadcast, which at the time was ngoma, taarab, kwaya and dansi. The Broadcasting Services Act of 1993 allowed private broadcast networks and recording studios. In the few years prior to the 1993 Act hip hop had been getting somewhat established in Dar es Salaam, Arusha and Mwanza. It was transitioning from English performances of hip hop originating in uzunguni, rich areas like Oysterbay and Masaki with international schools, to Kiswahili performances of kizazi kipya, originating in uswahilini Following the opening of the radio waves, bongo flava spreading throughout the country, and the rest of the Great Lakes.


title: Tanzania

text: The Tanzanian national anthem is "Mungu Ibariki Africa" (God Bless Africa). It has kiswahili lyrics adapted for "Nkosi Sikelel' iAfrika" composed by South African composer Enoch Sontonga in 1897. "Nkosi Sikelel' iAfrika" became a pan-African song adapted into the current national anthems for Tanzania, Zambia, and following the end of apartheid South Africa. It was previously used in the national anthems for Zimbabwe and Namibia, but has since been replaced by original new anthems. Another patriotic song is Tanzania, Tanzania.


title: Tanzania

text: Tanzania's literary culture is primarily oral. Major oral literary forms include folktales, poems, riddles, proverbs, and songs. The greatest part of Tanzania's recorded oral literature is in Swahili, even though each of the country's languages has its own oral tradition. The country's oral literature has been declining because of the breakdown of the multigenerational social structure, making transmission of oral literature more difficult, and because increasing modernisation has been accompanied by the devaluation of oral literature.


title: Tanzania

text: Books in Tanzania are often expensive and hard to come by. Most Tanzanian literature is in Swahili or English. Major figures in Tanzanian written literature include Shaaban Robert (considered the father of Swahili literature), Muhammed Saley Farsy, Faraji Katalambulla, Adam Shafi Adam, Muhammed Said Abdalla, Peter K. Palangyo, Said Ahmed Mohammed Khamis, Mohamed Suleiman Mohamed, Euphrase Kezilahabi, Gabriel Ruhumbika, Ebrahim Hussein, May Materru Balisidya, Fadhy Mtanga, Abdulrazak Gurnah, and Penina O. Mlama.


title: Tanzania

text: Two Tanzanian art styles have achieved international recognition. The Tingatinga school of painting, founded by Edward Said Tingatinga, consists of brightly coloured enamel paintings on canvas, generally depicting people, animals, or daily life. After Tingatinga's death in 1972, other artists adopted and developed his style, with the genre now being the most important tourist-oriented style in East Africa.


title: Tanzania

text: Historically, there were limited opportunities for formal European art training in Tanzania and many aspiring Tanzanian artists left the country to pursue their vocation.


title: Tanzania

text: Football is very popular throughout the country. The most popular professional football clubs in Dar es Salaam are the Young Africans F.C. and Simba S.C. The Tanzania Football Federation is the governing body for football in the country.


title: Tanzania

text: Other popular sports include basketball, netball, boxing, volleyball, athletics, and rugby. The National Sports Council also known as Baraza la Michezo la Taifa is the governing body for sports in the country under the Ministry of Information, Youth, Sports and Culture.


title: Tanzania

text: Tanzania has a popular film industry known as "Bongo Movie". The music industry is known as "Bongo Flava" which is in itself also a niche genre of music in Tanzania.


title: Suriname

text: Suriname (; or ), officially the Republic of Suriname ( , ), is a country on the northeastern Atlantic coast of South America. It is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the north, French Guiana to the east, Guyana to the west, and Brazil to the south. At just under , it is the smallest sovereign state in South America.


title: Suriname

text: It has a population of approximately , dominated by descendants from the slaves and labourers brought in from Africa and Asia by the Dutch Empire and Republic.


title: Suriname

text: Most of the people live by the country's (north) coast, in and around its capital and largest city, Paramaribo. It is also one of the least densely populated countries on Earth.


title: Suriname

text: Situated slightly north of the equator, Suriname is a tropical country dominated by rainforests. Its extensive tree cover is vital to the country's efforts to mitigate climate change and maintain carbon negativity. A developing country with a relatively high level of human development, Suriname's economy is heavily dependent on its abundant natural resources, namely bauxite, gold, petroleum, and agricultural products.


title: Suriname

text: Suriname was inhabited as early as the fourth millennium BC by various indigenous peoples, including the Arawaks, Caribs, and Wayana. Europeans arrived in the 16th century, with the Dutch establishing control over much of the country's current territory by the late 17th century. During the Dutch colonial period, Suriname was a lucrative source of sugar, its plantation economy driven by African slave labour, and after abolition of slavery in 1863, by indentured servants from Asia, predominantly from then British India, as well as the Dutch East Indies.


title: Suriname

text: In 1954, Suriname became one of the constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. On 25 November 1975, it left the Kingdom to become an independent state. Contrary to the preceding war for independence of Dutch colony Indonesia, this was an initiative of the Netherlands' then left-wing government. Suriname continues to maintain close diplomatic, economic, and cultural ties with the Netherlands.


title: Suriname

text: Suriname is considered a culturally Caribbean country, and is a member of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM). It is the only sovereign nation outside of Europe where Dutch is the official and prevailing language of government, business, media, and education. According to research by the Dutch Language Union, Dutch is the native language of 60% of Surinamese. Sranan Tongo, an English-based creole language, is a widely used "lingua franca".


title: Suriname

text: The name "Suriname" may derive from an indigenous people called "Surinen," who inhabited the area at the time of European contact. The suffix -ame, common in Surinamese river and place names (see also the Coppename River), may come from "aima" or "eima", meaning river or creek mouth, in Lokono, an Arawak language spoken in the country.


title: Suriname

text: The earliest European sources give variants of "Suriname" as the name of the river on which colonies were eventually founded. Lawrence Kemys wrote in his "Relation of the Second Voyage to Guiana" of passing a river called ""Shurinama"" as he travelled along the coast. In 1598, a fleet of three Dutch ships visiting the Wild Coast mention passing the river ""Surinamo"". In 1617, a Dutch notary spelled the name of the river on which a Dutch trading post had existed three years earlier as ""Surrenant"".


title: Suriname

text: British settlers, who in 1630 founded the first European colony at Marshall's Creek along the Suriname River, spelled the name as ""Surinam""; this would long remain the standard spelling in English. The Dutch navigator David Pietersz. de Vries wrote of travelling up the ""Sername"" river in 1634 until he encountered the English colony there; the terminal vowel remained in future Dutch spellings and pronunciations. In 1640, a Spanish manuscript entitled "General Description of All His Majesty's Dominions in America" called the river ""Soronama"". In 1653, instructions given to a British fleet sailing to meet Lord Willoughby in Barbados, which at the time was the seat of English colonial government in the region, again spelled the name of the colony ""Surinam"". A 1663 royal charter said the region around the river was "called Serrinam also Surrinam".


title: Suriname

text: As a result of the ""Surrinam"" spelling, 19th-century British sources offered the folk etymology ""Surryham"", saying it was the name given to the Suriname River by Lord Willoughby in the 1660s in honour of the Duke of Norfolk and Earl of Surrey when an English colony was established under a grant from King Charles II. This folk etymology can be found repeated in later English-language sources.


title: Suriname

text: When the territory was taken over by the Dutch, it became part of a group of colonies known as Dutch Guiana. The official spelling of the country's English name was changed from "Surinam" to "Suriname" in January 1978, but "Surinam" can still be found in English, such as Suriname's national airline Surinam Airways. The older English name is reflected in the English pronunciation, . In Dutch, the official language of Suriname, the pronunciation is , with the main stress on the third syllable and a schwa terminal vowel.


title: Suriname

text: Indigenous settlement of Suriname dates back to 3,000 BC. The largest tribes were the Arawak, a nomadic coastal tribe that lived from hunting and fishing. They were the first inhabitants in the area. The Carib also settled in the area and conquered the Arawak by using their superior sailing ships. They settled in Galibi ("Kupali Yumï," meaning "tree of the forefathers") at the mouth of the Marowijne River. While the larger Arawak and Carib tribes lived along the coast and savanna, smaller groups of indigenous people lived in the inland rainforest, such as the Akurio, Trió, Warrau, and Wayana.


title: Suriname

text: Beginning in the 16th century, French, Spanish and English explorers visited the area. A century later, Dutch and English settlers established plantation colonies along the many rivers in the fertile Guiana plains. The earliest documented colony in Guiana was an English settlement named Marshall's Creek along the Suriname River. After that there was another short-lived English colony called Surinam that lasted from 1650 to 1667.


title: Suriname

text: Disputes arose between the Dutch and the English for control of this territory. In 1667, during negotiations leading to the Treaty of Breda after the Second Anglo-Dutch War, the Dutch decided to keep the nascent plantation colony of Surinam they had gained from the English. In return the English kept New Amsterdam, the main city of the former colony of New Netherland in North America on the mid-Atlantic coast. The British renamed it after the Duke of York: New York City.


title: Suriname

text: In 1683, the Society of Suriname was founded by the city of Amsterdam, the Van Aerssen van Sommelsdijck family, and the Dutch West India Company. The society was chartered to manage and defend the colony. The planters of the colony relied heavily on African slaves to cultivate, harvest and process the commodity crops of coffee, cocoa, sugar cane and cotton plantations along the rivers. Planters' treatment of the slaves was notoriously brutal even by the standards of the time—historian C. R. Boxer wrote that "man's inhumanity to man just about reached its limits in Surinam"—and many slaves escaped the plantations. In November 1795, the Society was nationalized by the Batavian Republic and from then on the Batavian Republic and its legal successors (the Kingdom of Holland and the Kingdom of the Netherlands) governed the territory as a national colony, barring a period of British occupation between 1799 and 1802, and between 1804 and 1816.


title: Suriname

text: With the help of the native South Americans living in the adjoining rain forests, these runaway slaves established a new and unique culture in the interior that was highly successful in its own right. They were known collectively in English as Maroons, in French as "Nèg'Marrons" (literally meaning "brown negroes", that is "pale-skinned negroes"), and in Dutch as "Marrons." The Maroons gradually developed several independent tribes through a process of ethnogenesis, as they were made up of slaves from different African ethnicities. These tribes include the Saramaka, Paramaka, Ndyuka or Aukan, Kwinti, Aluku or Boni, and Matawai.


title: Suriname

text: The Maroons often raided plantations to recruit new members from the slaves and capture women, as well as to acquire weapons, food and supplies. They sometimes killed planters and their families in the raids; colonists built defenses, which were significant enough that they were shown on 18th-century maps.


title: Suriname

text: The colonists also mounted armed campaigns against the Maroons, who generally escaped through the rainforest, which they knew much better than the colonists did. To end hostilities, in the 18th century the European colonial authorities signed several peace treaties with different tribes. They granted the Maroons sovereign status and trade rights in their inland territories, giving them autonomy.


title: Suriname

text: From 1861 to 1863, with the American Civil War underway, and enslaved people escaping to Northern territory controlled by the Union, United States President Abraham Lincoln and his administration looked abroad for places to relocate people who were freed from enslavement and who wanted to leave the United States. It opened negotiations with the Dutch government regarding African-American emigration to and colonization of the Dutch colony of Suriname. Nothing came of the idea, and the idea was dropped after 1864.


title: Suriname

text: The Netherlands abolished slavery in Suriname in 1863, under a gradual process that required enslaved people to work on plantations for 10 transition years for minimal pay, which was considered as partial compensation for their masters. After that transition period expired in 1873, most freedmen largely abandoned the plantations where they had worked for several generations in favor of the capital city, Paramaribo. Some of them were able to purchase the plantations they worked on, especially in the district of Para and Coronie. Their descendants still live on those grounds today. Several plantation owners did not pay their former enslaved workers the pay they owed them for the ten years following 1863. They paid the workers with the property rights of the ground of the plantation in order to escape their debt to the workers.


title: Suriname

text: As a plantation colony, Suriname had an economy dependent on labor-intensive commodity crops. To make up for a shortage of labor, the Dutch recruited and transported contract or indentured laborers from the Dutch East Indies (modern Indonesia) and India (the latter through an arrangement with the British, who then ruled the area). In addition, during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, small numbers of laborers, mostly men, were recruited from China and the Middle East.


title: Suriname

text: Although Suriname's population remains relatively small, because of this complex colonization and exploitation, it is one of the most ethnically and culturally diverse countries in the world.


title: Suriname

text: During World War II, on 23 November 1941, under an agreement with the Netherlands government-in-exile, the United States sent 2,000 soldiers to Suriname to protect the bauxite mines to support the Allies' war effort. In 1942, the Dutch government-in-exile began to review the relations between the Netherlands and its colonies in terms of the post-war period.


title: Suriname

text: In 1954, Suriname became one of the constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, along with the Netherlands Antilles and the Netherlands. In this construction, the Netherlands retained control of its defense and foreign affairs. In 1974, the local government, led by the National Party of Suriname (NPS) (whose membership was largely Creole, meaning ethnically African or mixed African-European) started negotiations with the Dutch government leading towards full independence, which was granted on 25 November 1975. A large part of Suriname's economy for the first decade following independence was fueled by foreign aid provided by the Dutch government.


title: Suriname

text: The first President of the country was Johan Ferrier, the former governor, with Henck Arron (the then leader of the NPS) as Prime Minister. In the years leading up to independence, nearly one-third of the population of Suriname emigrated to the Netherlands, amidst concern that the new country would fare worse under independence than it had as a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. Surinamese politics did degenerate into ethnic polarisation and corruption soon after independence, with the NPS using Dutch aid money for partisan purposes. Its leaders were accused of fraud in the 1977 elections, in which Arron won a further term, and the discontent was such that a large portion of the population fled to the Netherlands, joining the already significant Surinamese community there.


title: Suriname

text: On 25 February 1980, a military coup overthrew Arron's government. It was initiated by a group of 16 sergeants, led by Dési Bouterse. Opponents of the military regime attempted counter-coups in April 1980, August 1980, 15 March 1981, and again on 12 March 1982. The first counter attempt was led by Fred Ormskerk, the second by Marxist-Leninists, the third by Wilfred Hawker, and the fourth by Surendre Rambocus.


title: Suriname

text: Hawker escaped from prison during the fourth counter-coup attempt, but he was captured and summarily executed. Between 2 am and 5 am on 7 December 1982, the military, under Bouterse's leadership, rounded up 13 prominent citizens who had criticized the military dictatorship and held them at Fort Zeelandia in Paramaribo. The dictatorship had all these men executed over the next three days, along with Rambocus and Jiwansingh Sheombar (who was also involved in the fourth counter-coup attempt).


title: Suriname

text: The brutal civil war between the Suriname army and Maroons loyal to rebel leader Ronnie Brunswijk, begun in 1986, continued and its effects further weakened Bouterse's position during the 1990s. Due to the civil war, more than 10,000 Surinamese, mostly Maroons, fled to French Guiana in the late 1980s.


title: Suriname

text: National elections were held in 1987. The National Assembly adopted a new constitution that allowed Bouterse to remain in charge of the army. Dissatisfied with the government, Bouterse summarily dismissed the ministers in 1990, by telephone. This event became popularly known as the "Telephone Coup". His power began to wane after the 1991 elections.


title: Suriname

text: At the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, Suriname became the smallest independent South American state to win its first ever Olympic medal as Anthony Nesty won gold in the 100-metre butterfly.


title: Suriname

text: In 1999, the Netherlands tried Bouterse "in absentia" on drug smuggling charges. He was convicted and sentenced to prison but remained in Suriname. The 1999 Surinamese protests occurred in 1999.


title: Suriname

text: On 19 July 2010, Bouterse returned to power when he was elected as the president of Suriname. Before his election in 2010, he, along with 24 others, had been charged with the murders of 15 prominent dissidents in the December murders. However, in 2012, two months before the verdict in the trial, the National Assembly extended its amnesty law and provided Bouterse and the others with amnesty of these charges. He was reelected on 14 July 2015. However, Bouterse was convicted by a Surinamese court on 29 November 2019 and given a 20-year sentence for his role in the 1982 killings.


title: Suriname

text: After winning the 2020 elections, Chan Santokhi was the sole nomination for president of Suriname. On 13 July, Santokhi was elected president by acclamation in an uncontested election. He was inaugurated on 16 July in a ceremony without public attendance due to the COVID-19 pandemic.


title: Suriname

text: The Republic of Suriname is a representative democratic republic, based on the Constitution of 1987. The legislative branch of government consists of a 51-member unicameral National Assembly, simultaneously and popularly elected for a five-year term.


title: Suriname

text: In the elections held on Tuesday, 25 May 2010, the "Megacombinatie" won 23 of the National Assembly seats followed by "Nationale Front" with 20 seats. A much smaller number, important for coalition-building, went to the "A-combinatie" and to the "Volksalliantie." The parties held negotiations to form coalitions. Elections were held on 25 May 2015, and the National Assembly again elected Dési Bouterse as president.


title: Suriname

text: The president of Suriname is elected for a five-year term by a two-thirds majority of the National Assembly. If at least two-thirds of the National Assembly cannot agree to vote for one presidential candidate, a People's Assembly is formed from all National Assembly delegates and regional and municipal representatives who were elected by popular vote in the most recent national election. The president may be elected by a majority of the People's Assembly called for the special election.


title: Suriname

text: As head of government, the president appoints a sixteen-minister cabinet. A vice president is normally elected for a five-year term at the same time as the president, by a simple majority in the National Assembly or People's Assembly. There is no constitutional provision for removal or replacement of the president, except in the case of resignation.


title: Suriname

text: The judiciary is headed by the High Court of Justice of Suriname (Supreme Court). This court supervises the magistrate courts. Members are appointed for life by the president in consultation with the National Assembly, the State Advisory Council, and the National Order of Private Attorneys.


title: Suriname

text: Due to Suriname's Dutch colonial history, Suriname had a long-standing special relationship with the Netherlands.


title: Suriname

text: In 1999, Dési Bouterse was convicted and sentenced in absentia in the Netherlands to 11 years of imprisonment for drug trafficking. He was the main suspect in the court case concerning the December murders, the 1982 assassination of opponents of military rule in Fort Zeelandia, Paramaribo. He served as president between 2010 and 2020. These two cases still strain relations between the Netherlands and Suriname.


title: Suriname

text: The Dutch government stated during that time that it would maintain limited contact with the president.


title: Suriname

text: Bouterse was elected as president of Suriname in 2010. The Netherlands in July 2014 dropped Suriname as a member of its development program.


title: Suriname

text: Since 1991, the United States has maintained positive relations with Suriname. The two countries work together through the Caribbean Basin Security Initiative (CBSI) and the U.S. President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). Suriname also receives military funding from the U.S. Department of Defense.


title: Suriname

text: European Union relations and cooperation with Suriname are carried out both on a bilateral and a regional basis. There are ongoing EU-Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) and EU-CARIFORUM dialogues. Suriname is party to the Cotonou Agreement, the partnership agreement among the members of the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States and the European Union.


title: Suriname

text: On 17 February 2005, the leaders of Barbados and Suriname signed the "Agreement for the deepening of bilateral cooperation between the Government of Barbados and the Government of the Republic of Suriname." On 23–24 April 2009, both nations formed a Joint Commission in Paramaribo, Suriname, to improve relations and to expand into various areas of cooperation. They held a second meeting toward this goal on 3–4 March 2011, in Dover, Barbados. Their representatives reviewed issues of agriculture, trade, investment, as well as international transport.


title: Suriname

text: In the late 2000s, Suriname intensified development cooperation with other developing countries. China's South-South cooperation with Suriname has included a number of large-scale infrastructure projects, including port rehabilitation and road construction. Brazil signed agreements to cooperate with Suriname in education, health, agriculture, and energy production.


title: Suriname

text: The Armed Forces of Suriname have three branches: the Army, the Air Force, and the Navy. The president of the Republic is the Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces ("Opperbevelhebber van de Strijdkrachten"). The president is assisted by the minister of defence. Beneath the president and minister of defence is the commander of the armed forces ("Bevelhebber van de Strijdkrachten"). The military branches and regional military commands report to the commander.


title: Suriname

text: After the creation of the Statute of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, the Royal Netherlands Army was entrusted with the defense of Suriname, while the defense of the Netherlands Antilles was the responsibility of the Royal Netherlands Navy. The army set up a separate "Troepenmacht in Suriname" (Forces in Suriname, TRIS). Upon independence in 1975, this force was turned into the "Surinaamse Krijgsmacht" (SKM):, Surinamese Armed Forces. After the 1980 overthrow of the government, the SKM was rebranded as the "Nationaal Leger" (NL), National Army.


title: Suriname

text: In 1965, the Dutch and Americans used Suriname's Coronie site for multiple Nike Apache sounding rocket launches.


title: Suriname

text: The country is divided into ten administrative districts, each headed by a district commissioner appointed by the president, who also has the power of dismissal. Suriname is further subdivided into 62 resorts (ressorten).


title: Suriname

text: Suriname is the smallest independent country in South America. Situated on the Guiana Shield, it lies mostly between latitudes 1° and 6°N, and longitudes 54° and 58°W. The country can be divided into two main geographic regions. The northern, lowland coastal area (roughly above the line Albina-Paranam-Wageningen) has been cultivated, and most of the population lives here. The southern part consists of tropical rainforest and sparsely inhabited savanna along the border with Brazil, covering about 80% of Suriname's land surface.


title: Suriname

text: The two main mountain ranges are the Bakhuys Mountains and the Van Asch Van Wijck Mountains. Julianatop is the highest mountain in the country at above sea level. Other mountains include Tafelberg at , Mount Kasikasima at , Goliathberg at and Voltzberg at .


title: Suriname

text: Suriname contains six terrestrial ecoregions: Guayanan Highlands moist forests, Guianan moist forests, Paramaribo swamp forests, Tepuis, Guianan savanna, and Guianan mangroves. Its forest cover is 90.2%, the highest of any nation in the world. The country had a 2019 Forest Landscape Integrity Index mean score of 9.39/10, ranking it fifth globally out of 172 countries.


title: Suriname

text: Suriname is situated between French Guiana to the east and Guyana to the west. The southern border is shared with Brazil and the northern border is the Atlantic coast. The southernmost borders with French Guiana and Guyana are disputed by these countries along the Marowijne and Corantijn rivers, respectively, while a part of the disputed maritime boundary with Guyana was arbitrated by the Permanent Court of Arbitration convened under the rules set out in of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea on 20 September 2007.


title: Suriname

text: Lying two to five degrees north of the equator, Suriname has a very hot and wet tropical climate, and temperatures do not vary much throughout the year. Average relative humidity is between 80% and 90%. Its average temperature ranges from . Due to the high humidity, actual temperatures are distorted and may therefore feel up to hotter than the recorded temperature.


title: Suriname

text: The year has two wet seasons, from April to August and from November to February. It also has two dry seasons, from August to November and February to April.


title: Suriname

text: Climate change in Suriname is leading to warmer temperatures and more extreme weather events. As a relatively poor country, its contributions to global climate change have been limited. Because of the large forest cover, the country has been running a carbon negative economy since 2014.


title: Suriname

text: Due to the variety of habitats and temperatures, biodiversity in Suriname is considered high. In October 2013, 16 international scientists researching the ecosystems during a three-week expedition in Suriname's Upper Palumeu River Watershed catalogued 1,378 species and found 60—including six frogs, one snake, and 11 fish—that may be previously unknown species. According to the environmental non-profit Conservation International, which funded the expedition, Suriname's ample supply of fresh water is vital to the biodiversity and healthy ecosystems of the region.


title: Suriname

text: Snakewood ("Brosimum guianense"), a tree, is native to this tropical region of the Americas. Customs in Suriname report that snakewood is often illegally exported to French Guiana, thought to be for the crafts industry.


title: Suriname

text: On 21 March 2013, Suriname's REDD+ Readiness Preparation Proposal (R-PP 2013) was approved by the member countries of the Participants Committee of the Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF).


title: Suriname

text: As in other parts of Central and South America, indigenous communities have increased their activism to protect their lands and preserve habitat. In March 2015, the "Trio and Wayana communities presented a declaration of cooperation to the National Assembly of Suriname that announces an indigenous conservation corridor spanning 72,000 square kilometers (27,799 square miles) of southern Suriname. The declaration, led by these indigenous communities and with the support of Conservation International (CI) and World Wildlife Fund (WWF) Guianas, comprises almost half of the total area of Suriname." This area includes large forests and is considered "essential for the country's climate resilience, freshwater security, and green development strategy.


title: Suriname

text: The Central Suriname Nature Reserve has been designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site for its unspoiled forests and biodiversity. There are many national parks in the country including Galibi National Reserve along the coast; Brownsberg Nature Park and Eilerts de Haan Nature Park in central Suriname; and the Sipaliwani Nature Reserve on the Brazilian border. In all, 16% of the country's land area is national parks and lakes, according to the UNEP World Conservation Monitoring Centre.


title: Suriname

text: Suriname's democracy gained some strength after the turbulent 1990s, and its economy became more diversified and less dependent on Dutch financial assistance. Bauxite (aluminium ore) mining used to be a strong revenue source. The discovery and exploitation of oil and gold has added substantially to Suriname's economic independence. Agriculture, especially rice and bananas, remains a strong component of the economy, and ecotourism is providing new economic opportunities. More than 93% of Suriname's landmass consists of unspoiled rain forest; with the establishment of the Central Suriname Nature Reserve in 1998, Suriname signalled its commitment to conservation of this precious resource. The Central Suriname Nature Reserve became a World Heritage Site in 2000.


title: Suriname

text: The economy of Suriname was dominated by the bauxite industry, which accounted for more than 15% of GDP and 70% of export earnings up to 2016. Other main export products include rice, bananas, and shrimp. Suriname has recently started exploiting some of its sizeable oil and gold reserves. About a quarter of the people work in the agricultural sector. The Surinamese economy is very dependent on commerce, its main trade partners being the Netherlands, the United States, Canada, and Caribbean countries, mainly Trinidad and Tobago and the islands of the former Netherlands Antilles.


title: Suriname

text: After assuming power in the fall of 1996, the Wijdenbosch government ended the structural adjustment program of the previous government, claiming it was unfair to the poorer elements of society. Tax revenues fell as old taxes lapsed and the government failed to implement new tax alternatives. By the end of 1997, the allocation of new Dutch development funds was frozen as Surinamese Government relations with the Netherlands deteriorated. Economic growth slowed in 1998, with decline in the mining, construction, and utility sectors. Rampant government expenditures, poor tax collection, a bloated civil service, and reduced foreign aid in 1999 contributed to the fiscal deficit, estimated at 11% of GDP. The government sought to cover this deficit through monetary expansion, which led to a dramatic increase in inflation. It takes longer on average to register a new business in Suriname than virtually any other country in the world (694 days or about 99 weeks).


title: Suriname

text: Suriname had a population of roughly 618,040 according to estimates by the United Nations. This compares to 541,638 inhabitants from the 2012 census. The Surinamese populace is characterized by high levels of diversity, wherein no particular demographic group constitutes a majority. This is a legacy of centuries of Dutch rule, which entailed successive periods of forced, contracted, or voluntary migration by various nationalities and ethnic groups from around the world.


title: Suriname

text: The largest ethnic group are East Indians, who form over a quarter of the population (27.4%). They vast majority are descendants of 19th-century indentured workers from India, hailing mostly from Bhojpuri speaking areas of modern Bihar, Jharkhand, and northeastern Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Tamil Nadu. If counted as one group ethnic group, the Afro-Surinamese are the largest community, at around 37.4%; however, they are usually divided into two cultural/ethnic groups: the Creoles and the Maroons. Surinamese Maroons, whose ancestors are mostly runaway slaves that fled to the interior, comprise 21.7% of the population; they are divided into six tribes: Ndyuka (Aucans), Saramaccans, Paramaccans, Kwinti, Aluku (Boni) and Matawai. Surinamese Creoles, mixed people descending from African slaves and Europeans (mostly Dutch), form 15.7% of the population. Javanese make up 14% of the population, and like the East Indians, descend largely from workers contracted from the island of Java in the former Dutch East Indies (modern Indonesia). 13.4% of the population identifies as being of mixed ethnic heritage. Chinese, originating from 19th-century indentured workers and some recent migration, make up 7.3% of the population.


title: Suriname

text: Other groups include Lebanese, primarily Maronites, and Jews of Sephardic and Ashkenazi origin, whose center of population was Jodensavanne. Various indigenous peoples make up 3.7% of the population, with the main groups being the Akurio, Arawak, Kalina (Caribs), Tiriyó and Wayana. They live mainly in the districts of Paramaribo, Wanica, Para, Marowijne and Sipaliwini. A small but influential number of Europeans remain in the country, comprising about 1% of the population. They are descended mostly from Dutch 19th-century immigrant farmers, known as "Boeroes" (derived from "boer", the Dutch word for "farmer"), and to a lesser degree other European groups, such as Portuguese. Many Boeroes left after independence in 1975.


title: Suriname

text: More recently Suriname has seen a new wave of immigrants, namely Brazilians and Chinese (many of them laborers mining for gold); most do not have legal status.


title: Suriname

text: The option to choose between Surinamese or Dutch citizenship in the years leading up to Suriname's independence in 1975 led to a mass migration to the Netherlands. This migration continued in the period immediately after independence and during military rule in the 1980s and for largely economic reasons extended throughout the 1990s. The Surinamese community in the Netherlands numbered 350,300 (including children and grandchildren of Suriname migrants born in the Netherlands), compared to approximately 566,000 Surinamese in Suriname itself.


title: Suriname

text: According to the International Organization for Migration, around 272,600 people from Suriname lived in other countries in the late 2010s, in particular in the Netherlands (), France (c. 25,000, most of them in French Guiana), the United States (c. 15,000), Guyana (c. 5,000), Aruba (c. 1,500), and Canada (c. 1,000).


title: Suriname

text: Suriname's religious makeup is heterogeneous and reflective of the country's multicultural character. According to Pew research from 2012, Christians are the largest religious community, at slightly over half the population (51.6%), followed by Hindus (19.8%) and Muslims (15.2%); other religious minorities include adherents of various folk traditions (5.3%), Buddhists (<1%), Jews (<1%), practitioners of other faiths (1.8%), and unaffiliated (5.4%).


title: Suriname

text: According to the 2020 census, 52.3% of Surinamese were Christians; 26.7% were Protestants (11.18% Pentecostal, 11.16% Moravian, 0.7% Reformed (including Remonstrants), and 4.4% other Protestant denominations), while 21.6% were Catholics. Hindus are the second largest religious group in Suriname, comprising nearly one-fifth of the population (18.8% in 2020), the third largest proportion of any country in the Western Hemisphere, after Guyana and Trinidad and Tobago, both of which also have large proportions of Indians. Likewise, almost all practitioners of Hinduism are found among the Indo-Surinamese population. Muslims constitute 14.3% of the population, the highest proportion of Muslims in the Americas; they are largely of Javanese or Indian descent. Folk religions are practiced by 5.6% of the population and include Winti, an Afro-American religion practiced mostly by those of Maroon ancestry; Javanism (0.8%), a syncretic faith found among some Javanese Surinamese; and various indigenous folk traditions that are often incorporated into one of the larger religions (usually Christianity). In the 2020 census, 6.2% of the population declared they had "no religion", while a further 1.9% adhere to "other religions".


title: Suriname

text: Suriname has roughly 14 local languages, but Dutch ("Nederlands") is the sole official language and is the language used in education, government, business, and the media. Over 60% of the population are native speakers of Dutch and around 20%-30% speak it as a second language. In 2004, Suriname became an associate member of the Dutch Language Union.


title: Suriname

text: Suriname is the only Dutch-speaking sovereign country outside of Europe and in South America. And the only independent nation in the Americas in which Dutch is spoken by a majority of the population and one of the two non-Romance-speaking countries in South America, the other being English-speaking Guyana.


title: Suriname

text: In Paramaribo, Dutch is the main home language in two thirds of the households. The recognition of ""Surinaams-Nederlands"" ("Surinamese Dutch") as a national dialect equal to ""Nederlands-Nederlands"" ("Dutch Dutch") and ""Vlaams-Nederlands"" ("Flemish Dutch") was expressed in 2009 by the publication of the "Woordenboek Surinaams Nederlands" ("Surinamese–Dutch Dictionary"). It is the most commonly spoken language in urban areas; only in the interior of Suriname (namely parts of Sipaliwini and Brokopondo) is Dutch seldom spoken.


title: Suriname

text: Sranan Tongo, a local English-based creole language, is the most widely used vernacular language in daily life and business. Together with Dutch, it is considered to be the one of the two principal languages of Surinamese diglossia. Both are further influenced by other spoken languages which are spoken primarily within ethnic communities. Sranan Tongo is often used interchangeably with Dutch depending on the formality of the setting; Dutch is seen as a prestige dialect and Sranan Tongo the common vernacular.


title: Suriname

text: Sarnami, a fusion of Bhojpuri and Awadhi, is the third-most used language. It is primarily spoken by the descendants of Indian indentured labourers from the former British India.


title: Suriname

text: The six Maroon languages of Suriname are also considered English-based creole languages, and include Saramaccan, Aukan, Aluku, Paramaccan, Matawai and Kwinti. Aluku, Paramaccan and Kwinti are so mutually intelligible with Aukan that they can be considered dialects of the Aukan language. The same can be said about Matawai, which is mutually intelligible with Saramaka.


title: Suriname

text: Javanese is used by the descendants of the Javanese people, which were indentured laborers sent from the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia).


title: Suriname

text: Amerindian languages include Akurio, Arawak-Lokono, Carib-Kari'nja, Sikiana-Kashuyana, Tiro-Tiriyó, Waiwai, Warao, and Wayana.


title: Suriname

text: Hakka and Cantonese are spoken by the descendants of the Chinese indentured labourers. Mandarin is spoken by the recent wave of Chinese immigrants.


title: Suriname

text: English, Guyanese English Creole, Portuguese (both European and Brazilian dialects), Spanish, French and French Guianese Creole are spoken at areas near the country's borders where there are many migrants from neighboring countries speaking their respective languages.


title: Suriname

text: The national capital, Paramaribo, is by far the dominant urban area, accounting for nearly half of Suriname's population and most of its urban residents; indeed, its population is greater than the next nine largest cities combined. Most municipalities are located within the capital's metropolitan area, or along the densely populated coastline.


title: Suriname

text: Owing to the country's multicultural heritage, Suriname celebrates a variety of distinct ethnic and religious festivals.


title: Suriname

text: There are several Hindu and Islamic national holidays like Diwali (deepavali), Phagwa and Eid ul-Fitr and Eid-ul-adha. These holidays do not have fixed dates on the Gregorian calendar, as they are based on the Hindu and Islamic calendars, respectively. As of 2020, Eid-ul-adha is a national holiday, and equal to a Sunday.


title: Suriname

text: There are several holidays which are unique to Suriname. These include the Indian, Javanese and Chinese arrival days. They celebrate the arrival of the first ships with their respective immigrants.


title: Suriname

text: New Year's Eve in Suriname is called "Oud jaar", "Owru Yari", or "old year". Firecrackers called "pagaras" which have long ribbons attached are detonated at midnight.


title: Suriname

text: The major sports in Suriname are football, basketball, and volleyball. The Suriname Olympic Committee is the national governing body for sports in Suriname. The major mind sports are chess, draughts, bridge and troefcall.


title: Suriname

text: Many Suriname-born football players and Dutch-born football players of Surinamese descent have turned out to play for the Dutch national team, including Gerald Vanenburg, Ruud Gullit, Frank Rijkaard, Edgar Davids, Clarence Seedorf, Patrick Kluivert, Aron Winter, Georginio Wijnaldum, Virgil van Dijk and Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink. In 1999, Humphrey Mijnals, who played for both Suriname and the Netherlands, was elected Surinamese footballer of the century. Another famous player is André Kamperveen, who captained Suriname in the 1940s and was the first Surinamese to play professionally in the Netherlands.


title: Suriname

text: Swimmer Anthony Nesty is the only Olympic medalist for Suriname. He won gold in the 100-meter butterfly at the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul and he won bronze in the same discipline at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona. Originally from Trinidad and Tobago, he now lives in Gainesville, Florida, and is the coach of the University of Florida, mainly coaching distance swimmers.


title: Suriname

text: The most famous international track & field athlete from Suriname is Letitia Vriesde, who won a silver medal at the 1995 World Championships behind Ana Quirot in the 800 metres, the first medal won by a South American female athlete in World Championship competition. In addition, she also won a bronze medal at the 2001 World Championships and won several medals in the 800 and 1500 metres at the Pan-American Games and Central American and Caribbean Games. Tommy Asinga also received acclaim for winning a bronze medal in the 800 metres at the 1991 Pan American Games.


title: Suriname

text: Cricket is popular in Suriname to some extent, influenced by its popularity in the Netherlands and in neighbouring Guyana. The Surinaamse Cricket Bond is an associate member of the International Cricket Council (ICC). Suriname and Argentina were the only ICC associate members in South America when ICC had a three tiered membership, although Guyana is represented on the West Indies Cricket Board, a full member. The national cricket team was ranked 47th in the world and sixth in the ICC Americas region as of June 2014, and competes in the World Cricket League (WCL) and ICC Americas Championship. Iris Jharap, born in Paramaribo, played women's One Day International matches for the Dutch national side, the only Surinamese to do so.


title: Suriname

text: In the sport of badminton, the local heroes are Virgil Soeroredjo and Mitchel Wongsodikromo and also Crystal Leefmans. All winning medals for Suriname at the Carebaco Caribbean Championships, the Central American and Caribbean Games (CACSO Games) and also at the South American Games, better known as the ODESUR Games. Virgil Soeroredjo also participated for Suriname at the 2012 London Summer Olympics, only the second badminton player, after Oscar Brandon, for Suriname to achieve this. National Champion Sören Opti became the third Surinamese badminton player to participate at the Summer Olympics in 2016.


title: Suriname

text: Multiple time K-1 kickboxing world champions Ernesto Hoost and Remy Bonjasky were born in Suriname or are of Surinamese descent. Other kickboxing world champions include Rayen Simson, Melvin Manhoef, Tyrone Spong, Jairzinho Rozenstruik, Regian Eersel and Donovan Wisse.


title: Suriname

text: Suriname also has a national korfball team, with korfball being a Dutch sport. Vinkensport is also practised.


title: Suriname

text: In 2016, the Sports Hall of Fame Suriname was established in the building of the Suriname Olympic Committee and is dedicated to the achievements of the Surinamese sporters.


title: Suriname

text: Suriname, along with neighboring Guyana, is one of only two countries on the mainland South American continent that drive on the left, although many vehicles are left-hand-drive as well as right-hand-drive. One explanation for this practice is that at the time of its colonization of Suriname, the Netherlands itself used left-hand traffic, also introducing the practice in the Dutch East Indies, now Indonesia. Another is that Suriname was first colonized by the British, and for practical reasons, this was not changed when it came under Dutch administration. Although the Netherlands converted to driving to the right at the end of the 18th century, Suriname did not.


title: Suriname

text: The only international airport that supports large jet aircraft is Johan Adolf Pengel International Airport.


title: Suriname

text: The Global Burden of Disease Study provides an on-line data source for analyzing updated estimates of health for 359 diseases and injuries and 84 risk factors from 1990 to 2017 in most of the world's countries. Comparing Suriname with other Caribbean nations show that in 2017 the age-standardized death rate for all causes was 793 (males 969, females 641) per 100,000, far below the 1219 of Haiti, somewhat below the 944 of Guyana but considerably above the 424 of Bermuda. In 1990 the death rate was 960 per 100,000. Life expectancy in 2017 was 72 years (males 69, females 75). The death rate for children < 5 years was 581 per 100,000 compared to 1308 in Haiti and 102 in Bermuda. In 1990 and 2017, leading causes of age-standardized death rates were cardiovascular disease, cancer and diabetes/chronic kidney disease.


title: Suriname

text: Education in Suriname is compulsory until the age of 12, and the nation had a net primary enrollment rate of 94% in 2004. Literacy is very common, particularly among men. The main university in the country is the Anton de Kom University of Suriname.


title: Suriname

text: From elementary school to high school there are 13 grades. The elementary school has six grades, middle school four grades and high school three grades. Students take a test in the end of elementary school to determine whether they will go to the MULO (secondary modern school) or a middle school of lower standards like LBO.


title: Suriname

text: Students going from the second grade of middle school to the third grade have to choose between the business or science courses. This will determine what their major subjects will be. In order to go on to study math and physics, the student must have a total of 12 points. If the student has fewer points, he/she will go into the business courses or fail the grade.


title: Suriname

text: Traditionally, "De Ware Tijd" was the major newspaper of the country, but since the '90s "Times of Suriname, De West" and "Dagblad Suriname" have also been well-read newspapers; all publish primarily in Dutch.


title: Suriname

text: Suriname has twenty-four radio stations, most of them also broadcast through the Internet. There are twelve television sources:


title: Suriname

text: ABC (Ch. 4–1, 2), RBN (Ch. 5–1, 2), Rasonic TV (Ch. 7), STVS (Ch. 8–1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6), Apintie (Ch. 10–1), ATV (Ch. 12–1, 2, 3, 4), Radika (Ch. 14), SCCN (Ch. 17–1, 2, 3), Pipel TV (Ch. 18–1, 2), Trishul (Ch. 20–1, 2, 3, 4), Garuda (Ch. 23–1, 2, 3), Sangeetmala (Ch. 26), Ch. 30, Ch. 31, Ch.32, Ch.38, SCTV (Ch. 45). Also listened to is mArt, a broadcaster from Amsterdam founded by people from Suriname. Kondreman is one of the popular cartoons in Suriname.


title: Suriname

text: In 2012, Suriname was ranked joint 22nd with Japan in the worldwide Press Freedom Index by the organization Reporters Without Borders. This was ahead of the US (47th), the UK (28th), and France (38th).


title: Suriname

text: Most tourists visit Suriname for the biodiversity of the Amazonian rain forests in the south of the country, which are noted for their flora and fauna. The Central Suriname Nature Reserve is the biggest and one of the most popular reserves, along with the Brownsberg Nature Park which overlooks the Brokopondo Reservoir, one of the largest man-made lakes in the world. In 2008, the Berg en Dal Eco & Cultural Resort opened in Brokopondo. Tonka Island in the reservoir is home to a rustic eco-tourism project run by the Saramaccaner Maroons. Pangi wraps and bowls made of calabashes are the two main products manufactured for tourists. The Maroons have learned that colorful and ornate pangis are popular with tourists. Other popular decorative souvenirs are hand-carved purple-hardwood made into bowls, plates, canes, wooden boxes, and wall decors.


title: Suriname

text: There are also many waterfalls throughout the country. Raleighvallen, or Raleigh Falls, is a nature reserve on the Coppename River, rich in bird life. Also are the Blanche Marie Falls on the Nickerie River and the Wonotobo Falls. Tafelberg Mountain in the centre of the country is surrounded by its own reserve – the Tafelberg Nature Reserve – around the source of the Saramacca River, as is the Voltzberg Nature Reserve further north on the Coppename River at Raleighvallen. In the interior are many Maroon and Amerindian villages, many of which have their own reserves that are generally open to visitors.


title: Suriname

text: Suriname is one of the few countries in the world where at least one of each biome that the state possesses has been declared a wildlife reserve. Around 30% of the total land area of Suriname is protected by law as reserves.


title: Suriname

text: Other attractions include plantations such as Laarwijk, which is situated along the Suriname River. This plantation can be reached only by boat via Domburg, in the north central Wanica District of Suriname.


title: Suriname

text: Crime rates continue to rise in Paramaribo and armed robberies are not uncommon. According to the current U.S. Department of State Travel Advisory at the date of the 2018 report's publication, Suriname has been assessed as Level 1: exercise normal precautions.


title: Suriname

text: The Jules Wijdenbosch Bridge is a bridge over the river Suriname between Paramaribo and Meerzorg in the Commewijne district. The bridge was built during the tenure of President Jules Albert Wijdenbosch (1996–2000) and was completed in 2000. The bridge is high, and long. It connects Paramaribo with Commewijne, a connection which previously could only be made by ferry. The purpose of the bridge was to facilitate and promote the development of the eastern part of Suriname. The bridge consists of two lanes (one lane each way) and is not accessible to pedestrians.


title: Suriname

text: The construction of the Sts. Peter and Paul Cathedral started on 13 January 1883. Before it became a cathedral it was a theatre. The theatre was built in 1809 and burned down in 1820.


title: Suriname

text: The two buildings are located next to each other in the centre of Paramaribo and have been known to share a parking facility during their respective religious rites, should they happen to coincide with one another.


title: Suriname

text: A relatively new landmark is the Hindu Arya Dewaker temple in the Johan Adolf Pengelstraat in Wanica, Paramaribo, which was inaugurated in 2001. A special characteristic of the temple is that it does not have images of the Hindu divinities, as they are forbidden in the Arya Samaj, the Hindu movement to which the people who built the temple belong. Instead, the building is covered by many texts derived from the Vedas and other Hindu scriptures. The beautiful architecture makes the temple a tourist attraction.


title: Matthew Perry

text: Matthew Langford Perry (born August 19, 1969) is an American-Canadian actor. He is best known for his role as Chandler Bing on the NBC television sitcom "Friends" (1994–2004).


title: Matthew Perry

text: As well as starring in the short-lived television series "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip", Perry has appeared in several films, including "Fools Rush In", "Almost Heroes", "The Whole Nine Yards", "17 Again" and "The Ron Clark Story". In 2010, he delved into working in both voice-over and video games doing the voice of Benny in the video game "".


title: Matthew Perry

text: Perry was co-creator, co-writer, executive producer, and star of the ABC sitcom "Mr. Sunshine", which ran from February to April 2011. In August 2012, Perry began starring as Ryan King, a sportscaster, on the NBC sitcom "Go On". The series was canceled on May 10, 2013. Perry co-developed and starred in the CBS sitcom "The Odd Couple" portraying Oscar Madison from 2015 to 2017.


title: Matthew Perry

text: Perry was born in Williamstown, Massachusetts, on August 19, 1969. His mother, Suzanne Marie Morrison ("née" Langford), is a Canadian journalist and former press secretary to former Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau. His father, John Bennett Perry (born 1941), is an American actor and former model.


title: Matthew Perry

text: His parents divorced before his first birthday and his mother married Canadian-born broadcast journalist Keith Morrison. He was raised by his mother in Ottawa, Ontario (although he lived briefly in Toronto and Montreal, Quebec), and was educated at both the Rockcliffe Park Public School, alongside Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, and at Ashbury College. While growing up, he took a keen interest in tennis and became a top-ranked junior player.


title: Matthew Perry

text: When he was 15, Perry moved from Ottawa to Los Angeles to pursue acting and attended The Buckley School in Sherman Oaks, graduating in 1987. He pursued improvisational comedy at the LA Connection in Sherman Oaks while still in high school.


title: Matthew Perry

text: He went on to play Chazz Russell in the TV series "Second Chance". After 13 episodes, "Second Chance" became "Boys Will Be Boys", with the plots refocused on the adventures of Chazz and his friends. After the show's single season, Perry stayed in Los Angeles and made his screen debut in the 1988 film "A Night in the Life of Jimmy Reardon". In 1989, Perry had a three-episode arc on the series "Growing Pains", in which he portrayed Carol Seaver's boyfriend Sandy who dies in the hospital after a drunk-driving accident.


title: Matthew Perry

text: In the midst of his many continuing guest roles on TV, Perry was cast as a regular on the 1990 CBS sitcom "Sydney", playing the younger brother of Valerie Bertinelli's title character. In 1991, he made a guest appearance on "Beverly Hills, 90210" as Roger Azarian. Perry landed his next TV starring role on the ABC sitcom "Home Free", which aired only 11 episodes in the spring of 1993, followed by a sitcom pilot titled "LAX 2194".


title: Matthew Perry

text: He attempted to secure an audition for the pilot "Six of One", later to be known as "Friends", by Marta Kauffman and David Crane, both of whom he had worked with on "Dream On". However, due to previous commitments to the pilot "LAX 2194", he was not initially considered for an audition. When he did eventually get a reading, he landed the part of Chandler Bing. He was the youngest of the main cast.


title: Matthew Perry

text: "Friends" was hugely successful, and Perry, along with his co-stars, became international celebrities – something Perry had long hoped for. "There was steam coming out of my ears, I wanted to be famous so badly," he told "The New York Times" in 2002. "You want the attention, you want the bucks, and you want the best seat in the restaurant." Due to the immense popularity of the sitcom, Perry and the rest of the six-member main cast ensemble were each making $1 million per episode by 2002. The program earned him an Emmy nomination in 2002 for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series, along with Matt LeBlanc, but the two lost to Ray Romano. Perry appeared in films such as "Fools Rush In" (alongside father John Bennett Perry and Salma Hayek), "Almost Heroes", "Three to Tango", "The Whole Nine Yards" (alongside Bruce Willis) and its sequel "The Whole Ten Yards", and "Serving Sara".


title: Matthew Perry

text: While known primarily for his comic roles, Perry has carved out a career in drama as well, particularly in his portrayal of Associate White House Counsel Joe Quincy in Aaron Sorkin's "The West Wing". His three appearances in that series (twice in the fourth season and once in the fifth) earned him two Emmy nominations for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series in 2003 and 2004. Perry is referred to in the show prior to his guest appearance – Donna Moss seeks him out (off-screen) in the episode "20 Hours in LA." He also appeared as attorney Todd Merrick in two episodes near the end of "Ally McBeal"'s five-season run, including a two-hour special intended to revive the legal comedy-drama.


title: Matthew Perry

text: After "Friends" wrapped up, Perry made his directorial debut in an episode of the 4th season of the American comedy-drama "Scrubs", in which he also guest starred as "Murray Marks", an operator of a small airport's traffic control team. Murray is asked to donate a kidney to his father Gregory (played by Perry's real father).


title: Matthew Perry

text: He starred in the TNT movie "The Ron Clark Story," also known as "The Triumph," which premiered August 13, 2006. Perry played small-town teacher Ron Clark, who relocates to the toughest class in the country. Perry received a Golden Globe nomination as well as an Emmy nomination for his performance.


title: Matthew Perry

text: From 2006 to 2007, Perry appeared in Aaron Sorkin's drama "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip". Perry played Matt Albie alongside Bradley Whitford's Danny Tripp, a writer-director duo brought in to help save a failing sketch show. Perry's character was considered to be substantially based on Sorkin's own personal experiences, particularly in television.


title: Matthew Perry

text: In 2006, he began filming "Numb", a film based on a man suffering from depersonalization disorder. The film's tentative release date was pushed back several times, but was finally released to DVD on May 13, 2008. He also appeared in David Mamet's "Sexual Perversity in Chicago" in London. In 2009, he starred in the film "17 Again" playing the older Mike O'Donnell.


title: Matthew Perry

text: In 2008, Perry starred in the offbeat film "Birds of America" as Morrie Tanager, an uptight man who has to deal with his siblings. Showtime passed on a pilot called "The End of Steve", a dark comedy starring, written and produced by Perry and Peter Tolan.


title: Matthew Perry

text: Perry's new comedy pilot, "Mr. Sunshine", based on Perry's original idea for the show, was bought by ABC. Perry was set to portray a middle-aged man with an identity crisis. ABC canceled the series after nine episodes.


title: Matthew Perry

text: On March 1, 2012, it was reported that Perry had signed on to star on the NBC comedy pilot "Go On", written and produced by former "Friends" writer/producer Scott Silveri. The project was picked up to series in May 2012. Perry portrayed Ryan King, a sportscaster who tries to move on after the death of his wife through the help of mandatory therapy sessions. The pilot aired on August 8, 2012, as a "sneak preview" after the 2012 Summer Olympics. The series premiered on September 11, 2012. On October 2, 2012, NBC ordered a full season of 22 episodes. NBC canceled "Go On" in May 2013, shortly after the conclusion of its first season.


title: Matthew Perry

text: In 2012, Perry guest-starred on the CBS drama "The Good Wife", as attorney Mike Kresteva. In 2013, he reprised his role in the fourth season.


title: Matthew Perry

text: In 2014, Perry made his British TV debut in the one-off comedy program "The Dog Thrower", which aired on May 1 as part of Sky Arts' "Playhouse Presents". Perry portrayed "a charismatic man" who enchanted onlookers by throwing his dog in the air. From 2015 to 2017, Perry starred in, co-wrote, and served as executive producer of a revival of the sitcom "The Odd Couple" on CBS. Perry played Oscar Madison opposite Thomas Lennon as Felix Unger.


title: Matthew Perry

text: Perry played the lead role in a new production of his play "The End of Longing", which premiered on February 11, 2016, at the Playhouse Theatre in London. The play transferred Off-Broadway to MCC Theater, which opened on June 5, 2017, with Jennifer Morrison.


title: Matthew Perry

text: In March 2017, Perry again reprised his role as attorney Mike Kresteva, in "The Good Fight", a sequel show to the CBS drama "The Good Wife".


title: Matthew Perry

text: In October 2022, Perry published a memoir, "Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing". It became a bestseller on both Amazon and The New York Times charts.


title: Matthew Perry

text: Perry dated Yasmine Bleeth in 1995. He also dated Julia Roberts from 1995 to 1996. He later dated Lizzy Caplan from 2006 to 2012.


title: Matthew Perry

text: Perry is a fan of the "Fallout" video game series. On a 2009 episode of "The Ellen DeGeneres Show", he gave DeGeneres a copy of "Fallout 3". This prompted game studio Obsidian Entertainment to cast him in the next installment of the series, "".


title: Matthew Perry

text: In August 2018, it was reported that Perry had abdominal surgery to repair a gastrointestinal perforation. On September 15, 2018, he revealed in a tweet that he had spent three months recovering in the hospital, suggesting the surgery took place in June 2018.


title: Matthew Perry

text: He became engaged to Molly Hurwitz, a literary manager, in November 2020. In June 2021, Perry announced he had called off the engagement, telling "People" magazine, "Sometimes things just don't work out and this is one of them. I wish Molly the best."


title: Matthew Perry

text: Perry became addicted to Vicodin after a jet-ski accident in 1997, and completed a 28-day rehab program later that year. His weight fluctuated drastically over the next few years and once dropped to . He lost in 2000 due to pancreatitis. He again entered rehab in February 2001 for addiction to Vicodin, methadone, amphetamines, and alcohol. He was filming "Serving Sara" in Texas when he suffered severe stomach pains, and flew to Los Angeles to check into Marina del Rey's Daniel Freeman Hospital. Perry's publicist, Lisa Kasteler, confirmed his rehab stay. He says he has spent around $9 million to get sober. He has revealed that due to his addiction issues, he does not remember three years of the time he was acting on "Friends", "somewhere between season three and six."


title: Matthew Perry

text: In 2011, as a celebrity spokesperson for the National Association of Drug Court Professionals, Perry went to Capitol Hill to lobby members of Congress in support of funding for drug courts. Perry received a Champion of Recovery award in May 2013 from the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy for opening Perry House, a sober living home situated in his former mansion in Malibu, California. Perry later sold the home and shuttered the rehab center in 2015. Perry has been completely sober since 2021.


title: Sam Elliott

text: Samuel Pack Elliott (born August 9, 1944) is an American actor. He is the recipient of several accolades, including a National Board of Review Award, and has been nominated for an Academy Award, two Golden Globe Awards, two Primetime Emmy Awards, and two Screen Actors Guild Awards.


title: Sam Elliott

text: Elliott is known for his distinctive lanky physique, full mustache, and a deep, sonorous voice. He began his film career with minor appearances in "The Way West" (1967), "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" (1969), season five of "" and guest-starred on television in the Western "Gunsmoke" (1972) and the television films "Murder in Texas" (1981) and "The Shadow Riders" (1982). He starred in "Frogs" (1972). His film breakthrough was in the drama "Lifeguard" (1976). He then appeared in several Louis L'Amour adaptations such as "The Quick and the Dead" (1987) and "Conagher" (1991), the latter of which earned him a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actor – Miniseries or Television Film. He received his second Golden Globe and first Primetime Emmy Award nominations for "Buffalo Girls" (1995). Other film credits from the early 1990s include as John Buford in the historical drama "Gettysburg" (1993) and as Virgil Earp in the Western "Tombstone" (also 1993). In 1998 he played the Stranger in "The Big Lebowski".


title: Sam Elliott

text: In the 2000s, Elliott appeared in supporting roles in the drama "We Were Soldiers" (2002), and the superhero films "Hulk" (2003), and "Ghost Rider" (2007). In 2015, he guest-starred on the series "Justified", which earned him a Critics' Choice Television Award, and in 2016 began starring in the Netflix series "The Ranch". He subsequently had a lead role in the comedy-drama "The Hero" (2017). The following year, Elliott was cast in the musical drama "A Star Is Born" (2018), for which he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, Critics' Choice Award for Best Supporting Actor, Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role, and won a National Board of Review Award. Elliott plays Shea Brennan in the American drama "1883".


title: Sam Elliott

text: Samuel Pack Elliott was born August 9, 1944, at the Sutter Memorial Hospital in Sacramento, California, the son of Glynn Mamie (née Sparks), a physical training instructor and high school teacher, and Henry Nelson Elliott (1911–1966), who worked as a predator control specialist for the Department of the Interior. His parents were originally from El Paso, Texas, and Elliott has an ancestor who served as a surgeon at the Battle of San Jacinto. He moved from California to Portland, Oregon, with his family when he was 13 years old.


title: Sam Elliott

text: Elliott spent his teenage years living in northeast Portland, and graduated from David Douglas High School in 1962. After graduating from high school, Elliott attended college at the University of Oregon as an English and psychology major for two terms before dropping out. He returned to Portland and attended Clark College in nearby Vancouver, Washington, where he completed a two-year program and was cast as Big Jule in a stage production of "Guys and Dolls". The Vancouver "Columbian" newspaper suggested that Elliott should be a professional actor. After his graduation from Clark in 1965, Elliott re-enrolled at the University of Oregon and pledged at the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity. He dropped out again after his father died of a heart attack.


title: Sam Elliott

text: In the late 1960s, Elliott relocated to Los Angeles to pursue a career in acting, which his father had dissuaded him from doing, instead urging him to obtain a college degree. "He gave me that proverbial line, 'You've got a snowball's chance in hell of having a career in (Hollywood),'" Elliott recalled. "He was a realist, my dad. He was a hard worker. He had a work ethic that I've fashioned mine after, and I thank him for that every day." Elliott worked in construction while studying acting and served in the California Air National Guard's 146th Airlift Wing (the Hollywood Guard) at Van Nuys Airport before the unit moved to Channel Islands Air National Guard Station.


title: Sam Elliott

text: Elliott began his career as a character actor; his appearance, voice, and bearing were well-suited to Westerns. In 1969, he earned his first television credit as Dan Kenyon in "Judd for the Defense" in the episode "The Crystal Maze".


title: Sam Elliott

text: That same year he appeared in the show "Lancer" in the episode "Death Bait", playing Renslo. He went on to appear in two additional episodes of the series between 1970 and 1971. One of his early film roles was as a card player who watches as the Sundance Kid (Robert Redford) demonstrates his shooting ability in the opening scene of "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" (1969). In the 1970–1971 television season, Elliott starred as Doug Robert for several episodes in the hit series "". Beginning in 1972, Elliott appeared as the cowboy Walker in a series of Falstaff Beer commercials. In 1975, Elliott was cast in a lead role as Charles Wood in the television film "I Will Fight No More Forever", a dramatization of Chief Joseph's resistance to the U.S. government's forcible removal of his Nez Perce Indian tribe to a reservation in Idaho.


title: Sam Elliott

text: From 1976 to 1977, he played the lead character Sam Damon in the miniseries "Once an Eagle", an adaptation of the Anton Myrer novel of the same name, opposite Amy Irving, Kim Hunter, Clu Gulager, and Melanie Griffith. He also had a starring role as Rick Carlson in the summer sleeper hit "Lifeguard" (1976), which marked his feature film breakthrough. He portrayed a lifeguard in Southern California who reevaluates his life choices after being invited to a reunion. "Variety" deemed the film "unsatisfying," adding: "Elliott, who has some beefcake value, projects a character who is mostly a passive reactor rather than a person in sure command of his fate."


title: Sam Elliott

text: Elliott played Tom Keating in the miniseries "Aspen" in 1977. He later played an abusive wife-killer in the miniseries "Murder in Texas" (1981) opposite Farrah Fawcett and his future wife Katharine Ross, and starred with Cheryl Ladd in "A Death in California" (1985). In 1979, he co-starred with Tom Selleck in the popular miniseries adaptation of Louis L'Amour's "The Sacketts". Elliott and Selleck were a team again in 1982 in "The Shadow Riders", another Louis L'Amour adaption.


title: Sam Elliott

text: Elliott had a supporting role in "Mask" (1985) opposite Cher and he played a hard-nosed, rough-around-the-edges but ultimately sympathetic father figure in the Christmas film "Prancer" (1989). He has made guest appearances on shows including "Felony Squad", "Gunsmoke", "Lancer", and "Hawaii Five-O", and has been featured in many TV movies, including "Buffalo Girls" (1995), in which he played Wild Bill Hickok.


title: Sam Elliott

text: In 1986, he starred in TV movie "Gone to Texas", based on a biography of Sam Houston. The role allowed him to play Houston as both fighter and a man who grew into a skillful political leader; the film depicted his disgrace as governor of Tennessee, his return to his Cherokee Nation friends, and his pivotal role in the liberation of Texas from Mexico in 1836. Elliott played Wade Garrett in "Road House" (1989). In 1991, Elliott and his wife Katharine Ross starred in the adaptation of the Louis L'Amour novel "Conagher" (1991).


title: Sam Elliott

text: He portrayed Brigadier General John Buford in the 1993 historical drama "Gettysburg", and the same year played Virgil Earp in the Western "Tombstone" (1993). Elliott played The Stranger, a character narrating the story of "The Big Lebowski" (1998). He co-starred in "We Were Soldiers" (2002), an adaptation of "We Were Soldiers Once… And Young", in which he portrayed Command Sergeant Major Basil L. Plumley. He played General Thaddeus Ross in the 2003 action film "Hulk".


title: Sam Elliott

text: In 2005, he appeared in "Thank You for Smoking" as a former Marlboro Man advertisement cowboy who has developed lung cancer. In 2006 he provided the voice for the character Ben the Cow in the animated film "Barnyard".


title: Sam Elliott

text: In 2007, Elliott joined the comic book adaptation "Ghost Rider". He played the character Carter Slade. The same year, Elliott appeared in "The Golden Compass" as the character Lee Scoresby. The film is based on "Northern Lights" in Philip Pullman's trilogy "His Dark Materials". Also appearing in the film are Nicole Kidman, Christopher Lee, and Daniel Craig.


title: Sam Elliott

text: In 2009, Elliott had a small role in "Up In The Air" in which he portrayed the chief pilot of American Airlines. He appeared three times on "Parks and Recreation" as Ron Dunn, the Eagleton equivalent of Ron Swanson; Dunn is a hippie, compared to Swanson's staunch survivalist and Libertarian personality. He then provided the voice of Buster (a.k.a. Chupadogra) in the animated film "Marmaduke" (2010). He had a supporting role in the thriller film "The Company You Keep" and played a college football coach in 2014's drama film "Draft Day".


title: Sam Elliott

text: In 2015, Elliott appeared opposite Lily Tomlin as a former love interest of a grandmother (Tomlin) attempting to help her pregnant granddaughter in Paul Weitz's comedy "Grandma". In the same year he appeared in the romance "I'll See You in My Dreams", and had a role in the independent film "Digging for Fire". In 2015, he won the Critics' Choice Television Award for best guest performer in a drama for his role in the FX Network's show "Justified".


title: Sam Elliott

text: In 2015, Elliott began appearing as a series regular in the Netflix series "The Ranch", opposite Ashton Kutcher and Danny Masterson. He also had a recurring role as Phil Millstein in the second season of "Grace and Frankie". In film, he supplied the voice of Butch in the animated film "The Good Dinosaur" (2015).


title: Sam Elliott

text: In 2017, Elliott starred in "The Hero", as Lee Hayden, an aging Western icon with a golden voice, whose best performances are decades behind him. His work in the film received much critical acclaim with Joey Magidson, writing for "AwardsCircuit", proclaiming that "Elliott is perfect here. "The Hero" encapsulates everything you love about him into one package." Later that year, Elliott starred in "The Man Who Killed Hitler and Then the Bigfoot".


title: Sam Elliott

text: The following year, Elliott costarred in "A Star Is Born" (2018), in which he plays Bobby Maine, the elder half-brother of Bradley Cooper's lead character. Elliott received critical acclaim for his performance, winning the National Board of Review Award for Best Supporting Actor. He was also nominated for the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role, as well as the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, his career-first nomination. Commenting on his Academy Award nomination, Elliott declared "I think the thing off the top of my head might be, 'It's about fucking time!'"


title: Sam Elliott

text: In 2022, Elliot played Shae Brennon on the Paramount+ miniseries "1883", a prequel to the "Yellowstone" series. The show's story involves Brennon as he leads a group of immigrants from Fort Worth, Texas into the untamed western areas of the plains, and its connection to the Dutton family and its migration to Montana. The show aired its first season from late 2021 until February 2022.


title: Sam Elliott

text: In 1998, Elliott was named the grand marshal of the Calgary Stampede parade and rode in the procession before an estimated 300,000 spectators.


title: Sam Elliott

text: Elliott has performed voice-over narration for various commercials. He has lent his voice to campaigns for Dodge, IBM, Kinney Drugs, Union Pacific, and most notably the American Beef Council, succeeding Robert Mitchum in the latter. Since late 2007 Elliott has done voice-overs for Coors beer, bringing his deep, rich voice and "western" appeal to the brand brewed in Colorado. In 2010, Ram Trucks hired Elliott to do the voice-over for their Ram Heavy Duty truck commercial; he has been voicing their commercials since. Starting in 2008, he has voiced Smokey Bear, and shares the mascot's birth date (August 9, 1944). He also narrated the Pittsburgh Steelers and Green Bay Packers team introductions to Super Bowl XLV, played at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas at the conclusion of the 2010 NFL season for "NFL on Fox". On September 9, 2020, it was announced that Elliott would begin recurring on "Family Guy" as the new mayor of Quahog, the late Mayor Adam West's cousin, Wild Wild West. Also in 2020, he voiced Joe Biden's "Go From There" campaign ad.


title: Sam Elliott

text: Elliott married actress Katharine Ross in 1984, becoming her fifth husband. They have a daughter, Cleo, who is a musician in Malibu, California. Ross and Elliott live on a seaside ranch in Malibu, which they purchased in the 1970s. Elliott also maintains a property in the Willamette Valley in Oregon. Following his mother's death in 2012 at the age of 96, he also took ownership of his childhood home in northeast Portland.


title: Renée Zellweger

text: Renée Kathleen Zellweger (; born April 25, 1969) is an American actress. The recipient of various accolades, including two Academy Awards, two British Academy Film Awards, and four Golden Globe Awards, she was one of the world's highest-paid actresses by 2007.


title: Renée Zellweger

text: Born and raised in Texas, Zellweger studied English literature at the University of Texas at Austin. Initially aspiring for a career in journalism, she was drawn to acting following her brief work on stage while in college. Following minor roles in "Dazed and Confused" (1993) and "Reality Bites" (1994), her first starring role came with the slasher film "" (1994). She rose to prominence with starring roles in the romantic comedy "Jerry Maguire" (1996), the drama "One True Thing" (1998), and the black comedy "Nurse Betty" (2000), winning a Golden Globe Award for the last of these.


title: Renée Zellweger

text: For portraying Bridget Jones in the romantic comedy "Bridget Jones's Diary" (2001) and Roxie Hart in the musical "Chicago" (2002), Zellweger gained consecutive nominations for the Academy Award for Best Actress. She won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for playing a loquacious farmer in the war film "Cold Mountain" (2003). She reprised her role as Jones in the sequel "" (2004), and following a career downturn and hiatus, in "Bridget Jones's Baby" (2016). In 2019, Zellweger starred in her first major television role in the Netflix series "What/If," and portrayed Judy Garland in the biopic "Judy", winning the Academy Award for Best Actress. She has since starred as Pam Hupp in the NBC crime miniseries "The Thing About Pam" (2022).


title: Renée Zellweger

text: Renée Kathleen Zellweger was born on April 25, 1969, in Katy, Texas. Her father, Emil Erich Zellweger, is from the Swiss town of Au, St. Gallen. He was a mechanical and electrical engineer who worked in the oil-refining business. Her mother, Kjellfrid Irene (née Andreassen), is Norwegian of Kven and Sámi descent. Kjellfrid grew up in Ekkerøy near the town Vadsø in the northern part of Norway. She was a nurse and midwife who moved to the United States to work as a governess for a Norwegian family in Texas. Referring to her religious background, Zellweger has described herself as being raised in a family of "lazy Catholics and Episcopalians".


title: Renée Zellweger

text: Zellweger attended Katy High School, where she was a cheerleader, gymnast, and debate team member. She also participated in soccer and powder football (a traditional girls football game). In 1986, her academic paper, "The Karankawas and Their Roots", won third place in the first-ever "Houston Post" High School Natural Science Essay Contest. After high school, she enrolled at the University of Texas at Austin, where she graduated in 1992 with a Bachelor of Arts in English Literature. While at the university, she took a drama course as an elective, which sparked her interest in acting.


title: Renée Zellweger

text: In her junior year, her father lost his job and was unable to support her at college, so she took a job as a cocktail waitress in Austin, Texas. She said of the job, "I learned a lot. As much as I did in my classes that that club paid for... I learned not to judge people, [and] that things are not black and white." She began getting small parts acting, and earned her Screen Actors Guild card for doing a Coors Light commercial. Also while in college, she did "a bit part ... as a local hire" in the Austin-filmed horror-comedy film "My Boyfriend's Back", playing "the girl in the beauty shop, maybe two lines. But the beauty shop [scene] got cut." Her first job after graduation was working in a beef commercial, while simultaneously auditioning for roles around Houston, Texas.


title: Renée Zellweger

text: While still in Texas, Zellweger appeared in several independent and low-budget films. One was "A Taste for Killing" (1992), followed by a role in the ABC miniseries "Murder in the Heartland" (1993). Also in 1993, she had an uncredited role in "Dazed and Confused". In 1994, she appeared in "Reality Bites", the directorial debut of Ben Stiller, and in the biographical film "8 Seconds", directed by John G. Avildsen. Her first main role in a movie came with the 1994 horror film "", alongside Matthew McConaughey, playing a teenager who leaves a prom early with three friends who get into a car accident, which leads to their meeting a murderous family, led by the iconic Leatherface. While the film went unnoticed, Joe Leydon for "Variety" magazine lauded Zellweger, calling her "the most formidable scream queen since Jamie Lee Curtis went legit."


title: Renée Zellweger

text: In her next film, the crime comedy "Love and a .45" (1994), Zellweger played a woman who plans a robbery with her boyfriend. Although the film received a limited release in theaters, Marc Savlov of "Austin Chronicle" applauded the main cast saying they were "all excellent in their roles" and noted that "Zellweger's character – all squeals and caged sexuality – seems a bit too close to Juliette Lewis' Mallory Knox (of "Natural Born Killers") to be as fresh as it should be". The part earned her an Independent Spirit Award for Best Debut Performance. She subsequently relocated to Los Angeles, a move she had postponed several times because she believed she lacked the talent and experience to be a competitive actor in that city. She would next appear in the coming-of-age drama "Empire Records" (1995). Rotten Tomatoes' consensus was: "Despite a terrific soundtrack and a strong early performance from Renee Zellweger, "Empire Records" is mostly a silly and predictable teen dramedy."


title: Renée Zellweger

text: Zellweger came to wider recognition through her role in "Jerry Maguire" (1996), playing a single mother and the romantic interest of a glossy sports agent (Tom Cruise). The film grossed over US$273 million worldwide. It was Cruise who chose her to play his love interest and later credited her with "revealing the core humanity of the movie". Roger Ebert, acknowledging Zellweger's and Cruise's chemistry, wrote: "The film is often a delight, especially when Cruise and Zellweger are together on the screen. He plays Maguire with the earnestness of a man who wants to find greatness and happiness in an occupation where only success really counts. She plays a woman who believes in this guy she loves, and reminds us that true love is about idealism." For her performance, Zellweger was nominated for the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role.


title: Renée Zellweger

text: In the religious drama "A Price Above Rubies" (1998), Zellweger starred as a young woman who finds it difficult to conform to the restrictions imposed on her by the community. The film flopped at the box office, but Zellweger was applauded by some critics such as Ebert, who wrote that she gave a "ferociously strong performance". That same year, she also starred in the drama "One True Thing", opposite William Hurt and Meryl Streep. She played a woman, based on author Anna Quindlen, forced to put her life on hold in order to care for her mother, who is dying of cancer. "One True Thing" took in a modest US$23 million in the US, but had a favorable critical response; "Variety" magazine's Todd McCarthy stated about Zellweger, "Projecting gravity and impatience that she hasn't shown before, Zellweger is outstanding as the smart young woman who resents the interruption to her life's momentum but ends up growing in ways she never would have expected."


title: Renée Zellweger

text: After playing the female lead opposite Chris O'Donnell in the little-seen romantic comedy "The Bachelor" (1999), Zellweger starred in the Farrelly brothers comedy "Me, Myself & Irene" (2000), with Jim Carrey, as a woman on the run for what she believes is a false accusation set up by her mob-connected ex-boyfriend. It was a commercial success, grossing US$149 million worldwide.


title: Renée Zellweger

text: In the black comedy "Nurse Betty" (2000), directed by Neil LaBute and starring Morgan Freeman, Zellweger played a Kansas waitress who suffers a nervous breakdown after witnessing her husband's murder. "San Francisco Chronicle" found the actress to be "a performer who emanates kindness and a pure heart", and "Variety" remarked: "Few actresses can convey the kind of honesty and humanity that Zellweger does here — it's hard to imagine the film without her dominant, thoroughly credible performance". She won her first Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy, but she was in the bathroom when future co-star Hugh Grant announced her name. She later protested: "I had lipstick on my teeth!"


title: Renée Zellweger

text: In 2001, Zellweger gained the prized lead role of Bridget Jones, opposite Hugh Grant and Colin Firth, in the British romantic comedy "Bridget Jones's Diary", based on the 1996 novel of the same name by Helen Fielding. The casting of Zellweger came amid much controversy since she was neither British nor overweight and did not smoke. During casting, Zellweger was told she was too thin to play the chubby, chain-smoking Bridget, so she quickly embarked on gaining the required weight (20 pounds) and learning to speak in an English accent while she smoked herbal cigarettes. In addition to receiving dialect coaching to fine-tune her accent, part of Zellweger's preparations involved spending three weeks working undercover in a "work experience placement" for British publishing firm Picador in Victoria, London. Her portrayal of Jones led Stephen Holden of "The New York Times" to comment, "Ms. Zellweger accomplishes the small miracle of making Bridget both entirely endearing and utterly real." The role earned her a second Golden Globe Award nomination for Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy, and her first Academy Award and BAFTA Award nominations for Best Leading Actress. "Bridget Jones's Diary" was a major commercial success, earning US$281 million worldwide.


title: Renée Zellweger

text: Zellweger took on the role of a former actress serving as a foster mother, alongside Michelle Pfeiffer, in the drama "White Oleander" (2002), for which she received a Satellite Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress – Drama. She also portrayed Roxie Hart in the 2002 musical film "Chicago", directed by Rob Marshall and co-starring Catherine Zeta-Jones, Richard Gere, Queen Latifah, and John C. Reilly. The film won Best Picture at the 75th Academy Awards. Writing for "The Daily Telegraph", Tim Robey labeled "Chicago" the "best screen musical [since 1972's "Cabaret"]", and the "San Francisco Chronicle" commented, "Zellweger is a joy to watch, with marvelous comic timing and, in her stage numbers, a commanding presence". She earned her second Academy Award and BAFTA Award nominations for Best Leading Actress, winning her second Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy and the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role.


title: Renée Zellweger

text: In 2003, following the success of "Chicago", Zellweger starred with Ewan McGregor in the little-seen romantic comedy "Down with Love", as a woman advocating female independence in the 1950s and early 1960s, and appeared in Anthony Minghella's war drama "Cold Mountain", opposite Nicole Kidman and Jude Law, playing a woman who helps a farmer following her father's death. The film garnered several award nominations and wins for its actors; Zellweger won the award for Best Supporting Actress at the 76th Academy Awards, the 61st Golden Globe Awards, the 10th Screen Actors Guild Awards, and the 57th British Academy Film Awards.


title: Renée Zellweger

text: In 2004, Zellweger provided her voice for the DreamWorks Animation film "Shark Tale", and reprised her title role in "", which made US$262 million around the globe and earned her a fourth Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy nomination. In 2005, she played the wife of world heavyweight boxing champion James J. Braddock in Ron Howard's drama "Cinderella Man", opposite Russell Crowe and Paul Giamatti. In his review for the film, David Ansen of "Newsweek", wrote that the actress "has an uncanny ability to make us swallow even the most movie-ish moments". On May 24, 2005, Zellweger received a landmark star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for her contributions to the motion picture industry.


title: Renée Zellweger

text: Zellweger portrayed author Beatrix Potter in the biographical comedy "Miss Potter", with Emily Watson and Ewan McGregor. She also served as an executive producer as she wanted to get more involved in the production. William Arnold of "Seattle Post-Intelligencer" concluded that Zellweger "strikes just the right chord of inspiration, eccentricity and uncompromising artistic drive." For her portrayal, she earned her sixth nomination for the Golden Globe Award (and her fifth one in the category of Best Actress – Musical or Comedy). In 2007, Zellweger lent her voice to the animated family comedy "Bee Movie" and was awarded the Women in Film Crystal award.


title: Renée Zellweger

text: With George Clooney in his directorial venture, the period comedy "Leatherheads" (2008), about the early years of professional American football, Zellweger portrayed a "Chicago Tribune" newspaper reporter. The film received largely mixed reviews and made US$13.5 million in its opening weekend, described as "disappointing" by website Box Office Mojo. "MTV.com" praised the actress for "displaying an unexpected gift for drawling sarcasm", but Kevin Williamson for website "Jam!" criticized her role, remarking that she, "as the kind of lippy heroine epitomized by Rosalind Russell, is miscast in a role that demands snark, not sleepy-eyed sweetness". In the western "Appaloosa" (2008), Zellweger played a beguiling widow opposite Ed Harris and Viggo Mortensen. The film grossed US$20 million at the North American box office. Zellweger produced the made-for-television feature "Living Proof", starring Harry Connick Jr., about the true story of Denny Slamon. It was co-produced by Craig Zadan and Neil Meron, and premiered in October 2008 on Lifetime Television.


title: Renée Zellweger

text: Her next film was the 2009 comedy "New in Town", in which she played a Miami high-powered consultant adjusting to her new life in a small Minnesota town. The movie rated poorly with reviewers and made a lackluster US$16 million in its domestic theatrical run. Peter Bradshaw of "The Guardian" stated that her "rabbity, dimply pout – surely the strangest facial expression in Hollywood – simpers and twitches out of the screen in this moderate girly flick that adheres with almost religious fanaticism to the feelgood romcom handbook". In 2009, she also provided her voice for a supporting character in DreamWorks' computer-animated 3D feature film "Monsters vs. Aliens", and starred as the mother of actor George Hamilton in the comedy "My One and Only", which despite being distributed for a limited release to certain parts of the United States only. Bill Gray, of "Entertainment Weekly" felt that she played her part "to her strengths", and reviewer Mick LaSalle found her performance to be a "standout".


title: Renée Zellweger

text: Zellweger took on the role of a social worker assigned to a mysterious girl in "Case 39", a supernatural thriller she had filmed in 2006. The title had a lengthy post-production and was not released in theaters in the United States until 2010. It was universally panned by critics and only earned US$5.3 million in its opening weekend, leading "Indiewire" to write that Zellweger "faces an [u]ncertain [f]uture" as she was in "an unforgiving industry that doles out few juicy roles for women over 40." The road drama "My Own Love Song", in which she played a former singer suffering from paralysis, was screened at the 2010 Tribeca Film Festival, and released for DVD.


title: Renée Zellweger

text: After "My Own Love Song" was released, Zellweger took a six-year hiatus from screen acting, as she found the time to "go away and grow up a bit". Reflecting on this period of time in a July 2016 interview with British "Vogue", she explained: "I was fatigued and wasn't taking the time I needed to recover between projects, and it caught up with me [...] I got sick of the sound of my own voice". In 2013, Zellweger co-created and executive produced "Cinnamon Girl", an original drama series set in the Hollywood movie and music scenes of the late 1960s and early 1970s, but the Lifetime network passed on the pilot. That same year, she was considered for a supporting role in the film "" alongside Andrea Riseborough but the role ultimately went to Juliette Lewis.


title: Renée Zellweger

text: Following a six-year hiatus from acting, Zellweger made her career comeback opposite Colin Firth and Patrick Dempsey in the romantic comedy "Bridget Jones's Baby" (2016), the third part in the "Bridget Jones" franchise, portraying Jones in her forties and single as she discovers that she is pregnant and must work out who the father is. It was met with a positive response by critics and grossed US$211.9 million worldwide. "Village Voice" found the movie to be "the warmest and most satisfying of the series" and concluded that Zellweger's "wise, light-hearted performance anchors this happy reunion, a surprising and refreshing gift from a creative well that seemed to have run dry". In the crime drama "The Whole Truth", directed by Courtney Hunt and opposite Keanu Reeves, Zellweger took the role of Loretta Lassiter, the mother of a teenager suspected of murdering his wealthy father. Filmed in New Orleans in July 2014, "The Whole Truth" was released on October 21, 2016, for selected theaters and video-on-demand, receiving average reviews. "Variety" remarked: "Truth be told, [Reeves and Zellweger] deserve better than this predictable courtroom drama".


title: Renée Zellweger

text: In "Same Kind of Different as Me" (2017), a film adaptation of the autobiographical book by the same name, Zellweger starred with Djimon Hounsou, Olivia Holt and Jon Voight, as the wife of an art dealer whose struggling relationship is changed for the better by a homeless man. The film received mixed reviews from critics and was a moderate commercial success. "The Wrap", nevertheless, remarked: "Zellweger, in fact, delivers a gentle, thoughtful, yet headstrong performance as the wife who digs in her heels to get human decency out of the people she cares for the most". She played the friend of a New York City singer who gets a life-changing medical diagnosis in the independent drama "Here and Now" (2018), opposite Sarah Jessica Parker.


title: Renée Zellweger

text: Zellweger obtained her first major television role when she was cast as Anne Montgomery, a mysterious venture capitalist, in the Netflix thriller miniseries "What/If" (2019). Although the show received mixed reviews from critics, Zellweger's performance was praised, with Haider Rifaat of "The Express Tribune" writing, "Not to forgo the incredible acting prowess of Zellweger, who impeccably embraces the character of Anne. Subtle gestures, symbolic interaction and character development are some commendable aspects that intensify the actors' performances."