Young girls the world over both idolized and identified with Winslet, swooning over all that face time opposite heartthrob Leonardo DiCaprio and noting her refreshingly healthy, unemaciated physique.

The role that transformed Winslet from art house attraction to international star was Rose DeWitt Bukater, the passionate, rosy-cheeked aristocrat in James Cameron's Titanic (1997). Winslet followed up with two more period pieces, playing the rebellious heroine in Jude (1996) and Ophelia in Kenneth Branagh's Hamlet (1996). Her efforts were rewarded with both a British Academy Award and an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress. She made an immediate impression on the film's star, Emma Thompson, and beat out more than a hundred other hopefuls for the part of plucky Marianne Dashwood. Still a relative unknown, Winslet attended a cattle call audition the next year for Ang Lee's Sense and Sensibility (1995). The film, based on the true story of two fantasy-gripped girls who commit a brutal murder, received modest distribution but was roundly praised by critics. Her first big break came at age 17, when she was cast as an obsessive adolescent in Heavenly Creatures (1994). Over the next few years, she appeared on stage regularly and landed a few bit parts in sitcoms. She started acting lessons around the same time, which led to formal training at a performing arts high school. She scored her first professional gig at eleven, dancing opposite the Honey Monster in a commercial for a kids' cereal.

Kate came into her talent at an early age. Kate Elizabeth Winslet was born in Reading, Berkshire, into a family of thespians - parents Roger Winslet and Sally Anne Bridges-Winslet were both stage actors, maternal grandparents Oliver and Linda Bridges ran the Reading Repertory Theatre, and uncle Robert Bridges was a fixture in London's West End theatre district. The British actress has made a point of eschewing straightforward pretty-girl parts in favor of more devilish damsels as a result, she's built an eclectic resume that runs the gamut from Shakespearean tragedy to modern-day mysticism and erotica. Ask Kate Winslet what she likes about any of her characters, and the word 'ballsy' is bound to pop up at least once.

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