Nicole Mary Kidman (born June 20, 1967) is an Academy Award-winning American-Australian actress, producer and singer. She was born in Honolulu, Hawaii to Dr. Anthony David Kidman and Janelle Ann (nee MacNeille), who were of Scottish and Irish descent. At the time, her father was a cancer research specialist in Washington, D.C. The family returned to Australia when Nicole was four years old, when Tony Kidman took on a lectureship at the University of Technology, Sydney.
Biography
Early life and career
Kidman started taking ballet lessons when she was four, and this led to studies at St. Martin's Youth Theatre in Melbourne, the Australian Theatre for Young People in Sydney, and then at the Philip Street Theatre, where she majored in voice production and theatre history. She studied at North Sydney Girls High School, but dropped out when her mother was diagnosed with breast cancer; Kidman concentrated on her family responsibilities until her mother's recovery.
Her first appearance on film came in 1983 when, as a 15 year-old, she appeared in the Pat Wilson music video for the song "Bop Girl". By the end of the year she had secured a supporting role in the

sion series Five Mile Creek, and four film roles, including BMX Bandits and Bush Christmas. During the 1980s she appeared in several Australian movies and TV series, notably including the soap opera A Country Practice, the mini-series Vietnam (1986), Emerald City (1988), and Bangkok Hilton (1989). In 1989 she appeared in the successful thriller Dead Calm as Rae, the wife of naval officer John Ingram (Sam Neill), held captive on a Pacific yacht trip by the psychotic Hughie Warriner (Billy Zane). The role gained her considerable notice in the United States.
Marriage to Tom Cruise
Her American debut was in Days of Thunder (1990), a stock-car racing movie, in which she played opposite Tom Cruise. Although Cruise was married to actress Mimi Rogers at the time, he and Kidman began an affair. Cruise divorced Rogers and the couple married on Christmas Eve of 1990 in Telluride, Colorado. They adopted two children, Isabella and Connor, and lived in Los Angeles, California, Australia, Colorado, and New York.
After ten years, the marriage was dissolved in 2001: there was much media speculation about the reasons for this, but both celebrities maintained their privacy and were guarded in their public comments. One persistent rumour claims however that Kidman's desire to bring up their children Catholic, and her critical views on Scientology caused problems in her marriage with Tom Cruise, who is an outspoken follower of the teachings of L. Ron Hubbard.
Hollywood career
After Days of Thunder, Kidman starred with Cruise in Ron Howard's Far and Away (1992).
1995 was to bring much success. Kidman featured in the all-star cast of Batman Forever and later that same year starred in To Die For, a satirical comedy that earned her high praise from critics, and talk of an Academy Award nomination for her performance, although this did not materialize. She did, however, win a Golden Globe award, and five other best actress awards for her comic portrayal of the murderous newscaster Suzanne Stone Maretto.
Kidman and Cruise portrayed a married couple in Eyes Wide Shut in 1999, Stanley Kubrick's final film. It was the third time she had co-starred with Tom Cruise.
Kidman's most professionally successful year thus far is 2001, with her Oscar-nominated performance in Moulin Rouge! and a well-received starring role in the horror film The Others. While in

r public comments. One persistent rumour claims however that Kidman's desire to bring up their children Catholic, and her critical views on Scientology caused problems in her marriage with Tom Cruise, who is an outspoken follower of the teachings of L. Ron Hubbard.
Hollywood career
After Days of Thunder, Kidman starred with Cruise in Ron Howard's Far and Away (1992).
1995 was to bring much success. Kidman featured in the all-star cast of Batman Forever and later that same year starred in To Die For, a satirical comedy that earned her high praise from critics, and talk of an Academy Award nomination for her performance, although this did not materialize. She did, however, win a Golden Globe award, and five other best actress awards for her comic portrayal of the murderous newscaster Suzanne Stone Maretto.
Kidman and Cruise portrayed a married couple in Eyes Wide Shut in 1999, Stanley Kubrick's final film. It was the third time she had co-starred with Tom Cruise.
Kidman's most professionally successful year thus far is 2001, with her Oscar-nominated performance in Moulin Rouge! and a well-received starring role in the horror film The Others. While in Australia filming Moulin Rouge!, Kidman injured her knee, so that Jodie Foster had to replace her in the Panic Room. The following year Kidman came back to win the same praise from critics for her portrayal of Virginia Woolf in The Hours. She won the Academy Award for Best Actress for this role. In the same year she took a hand at production for the film In the Cut.
In 2004, Kidman appeared in the remake of The Stepford Wives alongside Glenn Close, Faith Hill and Bette Midler. In September of the same year, Birth, in which the 37-year-old actress' character falls in love with a 10-year-old boy (played by Cameron Bright) who attempts to convince her that he is a reincarnation of her dead husband, met with a mixed reception. Despite this, the film was nominated for the prestigious Golden Lion Award at the Venice Film Festival.
Kidman is author Philip Pullman's number-one choice to play Mrs. Coulter in the proposed film version of the first volume of the His Dark Materials trilogy.
Awards
Film awards
Kidman won the 2003 Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance as Virginia Woolf in The Hours: for the same film she won a BAFTA award. Kidman was nominated in 2002 for the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in the Academy Award winning musical, Moulin Rouge!.
She has also been nominated seven times for a Golden Globe, the first time being in 1992 for Best Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture. Kidman won her first of three Golden Globes in 1996 for Best Actress in a Comedy/Musical Motion Picture for the film To Die For, her second win was in 2002 again for Best Actress in a Comedy/Musical Motion Picture for Moulin Rouge!, her third win was in 2003 in the Best Actress in a Drama Motion Picture for the film The Hours. She was nominated four consecutive times in the Best Actress in a Drama Motion Picture Golden Globe, in the years 2002-2005, for the following films in chronological order: The Others, The Hours, Cold Mountain, and most recently Birth.
Kidman has won one British Academy Award (BAFTA), it was for her performance in The Hours. She was nominated for the BAFTA two other times, in 2002 and 1996. In 2003, Kidman was given the American Cinematheque Award. She won two MTV Movie Awards in 2002 for Moulin Rouge!. She has been nominated for three Screen Actors Guild Awards. In 2003, Kidman received her Star on the Walk of Fame