Miranda Otto

Birth Date: December 16, 1967.

Place of Birth: Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.

Debut Performance: "Emma's War" in 1986.

Breakout Performance: Eowyn in "Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers."

U.S. Television Premiere: Miranda Otto stars in the ABC Primetime television series Cashmere, about a quartet of powerful women.

Trivia Fact #1: Otto was named after the character Miranda in Shakespeare's "The Tempest."

Trivia Fact #2: Otto filmed an Italian advertisement for diamonds with Brad Pitt in 2000. The commercial was shot in Los Angeles but the set was made to look like the couple was in Italy.

Trivia #3: Her father is Barry Otto, one of Australia's leading actors.

Australian actress Miranda Otto has gained international fame for her performance as Eowyn, the niece of the King, who lost her Rohan parents to marauding Orcs.

Miranda Otto has recently completed work on both sides of the Atlantic. She will be seen starring as the title character in "Julie Walking Home" for acclaimed Polish director Agnieszka Holland. The film premiered at the 2002 Venice and Toronto Film Festivals. Otto will also star in the forthcoming "The Three Legged Fox", directed by Sandro Dionisio, as well as "Doctor Sleep," a thriller that also stars ER's Goran Visnjic.

Otto completed the Australian romantic comedy "Danny and the Deckchair", in which she is re-teamed with Rhys Ifans. She was also seen with Ifans alongside Tim Robbins and Patricia Arquette in Charlie Kaufman's first feature since Being John Malkovich, "Human Nature."

Otto garnered rave reviews this Spring for her portrayal of Nora Helmer in the Sydney Theatre Company's production of the Henrik Ibsen classic "A Doll's House."

A graduate of the prestigious Australian theatrical school NIDA, which also boasts such alumnae as Mel Gibson, Judy Davis and Cate Blanchett, Otto has been honored with Australian Film Institute award nominations for her work in "In The Winter Dark," "The Well," "Daydream Believer," and "The Last Days of Chez Nous." She also earned an Australian Film Critics Circle Award nomination for her performance in "Last Days of Chez Nous," as well as for "Love Serenade," which won the Camera d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival.