Catherine Elise Blanchett was born on May 14th, 1969, in Melbourne, Australia. With a Texan father and an Aussie mother, she was exposed to a wide range of cultures. When Cate was only ten years old, her father passed away, leaving her mother to take care of not only Cate, but also a younger sister and older brother. Her first taste of acting came when she joined a drama group at her Methodist College, playing small roles in small-time plays.

Tempest graduated from Australia's National Institute of Dramatic Art in 1992 and in a little over a year had won both critical and popular acclaim. On graduating from NIDA, she joined the Sydney Theatre Company's production of Caryl Churchill's Top Girls, then played Felice Bauer, the bride, in Timothy Daly's Kafka Dances, winning the 1993 Newcomer Award from the Sydney Theatre Critics Circle for her performance.

From there Blanchett moved to the role of Carol in David Mamet's searing polemic Oleanna, also for the Sydney Theatre Company, and won the Rosemont Best Actress Award, her second award that year. She then co-starred in the ABC Television's prime time drama Heartland (1994), again winning critical acclaim. In 1995, she was nominated for Best Female Performance for her role as Ophelia in the Belvoir Street Theatre Company's production of Hamlet. Other theatre credits include Helen in the Sydney Theatre Company's Sweet Phoebe, Miranda in The Tempest and Rose in The Blind Giant is Dancing, both for the Belvoir Street Theatre Company. In other television roles, Blanchett starred as Bianca in ABC's Bordertown (1995), as Janie Morris in G.P. (1994) and in ABC's popular series Police Rescue (1994).

She made her feature film debut in Paradise Road (1997), and, in 1998, she played the title character in Elizabeth (1998), winning numerous awards for her performance, including the Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Drama. Cate was also nominated for an Academy Award for the role but lost out to Gwyneth Paltrow

2001 was a particularly busy year, with starring roles in Bandits (2001), _Shipping News, The (2001) (qv), Charlotte Gray (2001) and playing Elf Queen Galadriel in the much-anticipated Lord Of The Rings (2001) trilogy.