Who is Jennifer Anne Garner?

Who is Jennifer Anne Garner? She is an American actress. She is best known for her role as CIA agent Sydney Bristow on TV's Alias, as well as for her roles in the films Juno, Pearl Harbor, Dude, Where's My Car?, 13 Going on 30, Catch Me if You Can, Daredevil, Elektra, Catch and Release, and The Kingdom.

Garner was born April 17, 1972 in Houston, Texas, the daughter of Patricia Ann, an English teacher from Oklahoma, and William John Garner, a chemical engineer who worked for Union Carbide in Texas. She is the middle child between two sisters, Melissa Garner Wylie (born 1969, resides in Boston, Massachusetts) and Susannah Kay Garner Carpenter (born January 24, 1975 in Texas, resides in Charleston, West Virginia). Her family is Methodist. At three years old, Garner began taking ballet lessons which she continued throughout her youth. Although she admitted that she loved dancing, she never had ambitions to become a classical ballerina. When she was four years old, her father's job with Union Carbide relocated her family to Princeton, West Virginia, then to Charleston, West Virginia, where Garner resided until her college years.

In 1990, Garner graduated from George Washington High School in Charleston, where she played the saxophone. She then enrolled at Denison University to study chemistry. Upon realizing that she enjoyed stage acting more than science, Garner changed her major to drama. While at Denison, Garner was initiated into the sorority Pi Beta Phi. Garner graduated from Denison in 1994 and continued her drama education at the National Theater Institute in Waterford, Connecticut where she was trained by fight choreographer David Chandler, and told she was a natural in stage combat. Keen for immediate experience, she visited her friend, Clayton Kirlew, in New York City in 1995 and decided to take her chances in New York theatre.

In New York City, Garner earned $150 a week as an understudy in the play A Month in the Country for Roundabout Theatre Company in 1995. She was then cast in her first television role, a part in the made-for-television movie Zoya, based on the Danielle Steel novel. In 1996 she appeared in an episode of Spin City as the character James' high school sweetheart. Her next acting jobs were in two short-lived television series, Significant Others and Time of Your Life, and a recurring role in the series Felicity. Garner appeared in the comedy Dude, Where's My Car?, playing Ashton Kutcher's girlfriend. In 2001, she appeared as a nurse in the big-budget epic Pearl Harbor, co-starring with Kate Beckinsale and future husband Ben Affleck.

Garner enjoys cooking, gardening, hiking and kickboxing (a hobby picked up during training for her Alias character). She is close friends with Reese Witherspoon and also close to actress Jean Louisa Kelly, who interviewed Garner for the June 2005 issue of Self magazine.
In December 2007, Garner was named The Charleston Sunday Gazette-Mail's 2007 West Virginian of the Year "for her dedication, work ethic and unique role as role model and ambassador for West Virginia."
Jennifer Garner and husband Ben Affleck are trying for the first celebrity baby of 2009 title.

On October 19, 2000, Garner married actor Scott Foley, whom she met on the set of Felicity in 1998. After separating from Foley in March 2003, Garner filed for divorce in May 2003, citing irreconcilable differences. Dismissing rumors of infidelity, Foley stated that the reason behind their separation was Garner's increasing fame after the success of Alias. Similarly, Garner claimed that their Hollywood lifestyle led to their failed marriage and they "really were victims of Hollywood." The two were officially divorced on March 30, 2004.

Garner is known for being private about her personal life. This is reflected in her relationships with Michael Vartan and Ben Affleck. Over the course of her relationship with her Alias co-star Michael Vartan, she never made any public appearances with him and was late to confirm their relationship in August 2003. Garner began dating Vartan in mid-2003, and though rumors of their break-up began in March 2004, Garner only confirmed the end of their relationship in August 2004.


Garner's relationship with her Daredevil co-star Ben Affleck, which started in July 2004, was also very low-key. It was months into their relationship before a paparazzo managed to take a shot of the two as a couple. Both stars' publicists denied their relationship until a public appearance at a Boston Red Sox game. When there were rumours of Garner being pregnant, there were repeated denials of the pregnancy. On Garner's 33rd birthday, Affleck proposed to her with a 4.5 carat (900 mg) diamond ring from Harry Winston and the couple married on June 29, 2005 in a surprise ceremony at the Parrot Cay resort on the Turks and Caicos Islands. Finally, their publicists confirmed the marriage and pregnancy. Officiating at the ceremony was her Alias co-star Victor Garber. Despite many claims to the contrary, she has not officially changed her name to 'Jennifer Affleck', although she did receive a "Special Thanks" courtesy credit under that name on Affleck's 2007 directorial debut movie, Gone Baby Gone. Her pregnancy was incorporated into the plot of Alias, with the season's episode order reduced from the initial 22 to 17 in order to let Garner go on maternity leave. On December 1, 2005, she gave birth to their daughter, Violet Anne Affleck, in Los Angeles, California. She has a golden Labrador Retriever named "Martha Stewart" (after the television personality of the same name), which appeared with her on the television show Martha on January 24, 2007. On July 17, 2008, her Alias co-star Victor Garber confirmed on that Garner and Affleck were expecting their second child and that she was 5 months pregnant (which gives her a due date in the winter). more