Biography
Helena Bonham Carter was born in London, descending from a British political family. While she never studied acting anywhere, she had a knack for performance and made her debut as a professional actress as a teenager in commercials and bit parts. Her first main roles were "A Room with a View" (1985) and "Lady Jane" (1986). She also appeared in a few episodes of "Miami Vice" (NBC 1984-1990). She played Ophelia in the Mel Gibson-starring "Hamlet" (1990) and then followed that up with roles in "Howards End" (1992) and "Mary Shelley's Frankenstein" (1994). The latter of which is where she met Kenneth Branagh, who she would date for the rest of the decade. She earned her first major award nominations with her performance in "The Wings of the Dove" (1997), which was the start of her gaining more notoriety internationally. Bonham Carter also had a notable turn in David Fincher's "Fight Club" (1999). In 2001, she began to date Tim Burton after working with him in "Planet of the Apes" (2001). That led to a wealth of projects that the two worked on together, including "Big Fish" (2003), "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" (2005), "Corpse Bride" (2005), and "Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street" (2007). Starting with "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" (2007), Bonham Carter portrayed noted Potter villain Bellatrix Lestrange for the final four films of the series. In the midst of her wizarding time, she also co-starred in the Best Picture winner "The King's Speech" (2010), earning another Oscar nomination in the process. A few years later, she portrayed Elizabeth Taylor in the acclaimed "Burton & Tayler" (BBC 2013). Bonham Carter in the 2010s involved her beginning to not work with Burton as often, as the pair split in 2014. She played the Fairy Godmother in the live-action Disney remake "Cinderella" (2015) and starred in the female-centric heist caper "Ocean's 8" (2018). 2019 was the start of Bonham Carter being a regular on Netflix shows, including a voiceover role in "The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance" (Netflix 2019) and taking over the role of Princess Margaret in "The Crown" (Netflix 2016- ).
