Jennifer Garner
Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild Award winner. Four-time Emmy nominee. Actor, producer, and co-founder of Once Upon a Farm.
Charleston, West Virginia
ennifer Anne Garner was born in Houston, Texas on 17 April 1972, and moved with her family to Charleston, West Virginia at the age of three. Her father was a chemical engineer with Union Carbide; her mother, who had begun as a homemaker, went on to teach English.
She was the middle of three daughters, raised in a household she has since described as strict — no makeup, no pierced ears, no dyed hair — and has joked that the family was “practically Amish.” She attended George Washington High School in Charleston and was active in her local United Methodist church.
Training
She enrolled at Denison University in Ohio in 1990, following her father into chemistry before switching to theatre. In the autumn of 1993 she studied at the National Theater Institute at the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center in Connecticut, and spent her college summers working in stock companies — the Timber Lake Playhouse in Illinois, the Barn Theatre in Michigan, the Georgia Shakespeare Festival in Atlanta. She graduated in 1994 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in theatre performance.
She moved to New York in 1995 and understudied for the Roundabout Theatre Company at $150 a week, taking what television work she could find. In 1997 she moved to Los Angeles.
Sydney Bristow
In 2001, J.J. Abrams cast her as Sydney Bristow in the ABC thriller Alias — a role he wrote with her in mind. Across five seasons she carried a network drama built almost entirely on one performance, running, fighting and grieving through a series that asked her to be a different person in nearly every episode.
Her salary rose from $40,000 an episode to $150,000 by the time the series ended in 2006. The role brought her a Golden Globe, a Screen Actors Guild Award and four consecutive Primetime Emmy nominations, and made her one of the few actors of her generation to carry a network drama and a studio action franchise at the same time.
Leading Lady
She played Elektra Natchios opposite Ben Affleck in Daredevil in 2003, and the following year took the lead in 13 Going on 30 — a romantic comedy that took $96 million worldwide and has outlasted almost everything released alongside it. A spin-off, Elektra, followed in 2005.
She proved durable in mainstream comedy through the decade that followed: Ghosts of Girlfriends Past took $102.2 million worldwide, Valentine’s Day $216.4 million, and Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day $101 million. In 2007 she returned to the stage, playing Roxane in Cyrano de Bergerac on Broadway.
The Character Work
Between the studio pictures she built a second, quieter body of work. She played Vanessa Loring, the adoptive mother in Juno, in 2007 — a performance that turned what could have been an antagonist into the film’s most sympathetic adult. The same year she appeared in The Kingdom.
In 2013 she played Dr. Eve Saks opposite Matthew McConaughey in Dallas Buyers Club. She appeared in Miracles from Heaven in 2016, and in 2018 played Emily Spier in Love, Simon and the lead in the action thriller Peppermint.
Nearly three decades after a $150-a-week understudy job in New York, that remains the through-line of the work.
Behind the Camera
She has produced as well as performed since Butter, and went on to produce and star in the Netflix family film Yes Day and in Family Switch. In 2023 she executive produced and starred in the Apple TV+ limited series The Last Thing He Told Me, playing Hannah Hall.
In 2024 she returned as Elektra Natchios in Deadpool & Wolverine, nineteen years after the character’s last outing.
Once Upon a Farm
In 2018 she co-founded Once Upon a Farm, an organic baby food company, where she serves as chief brand officer. In 2019 it became the first refrigerated baby food made available to families eligible for WIC, and it partners with Save the Children on A Million Meals, bringing food to communities across the United States facing food insecurity.
Save the Children
She became an artist ambassador for Save the Children USA in 2009, working on literacy, nutrition and early childhood education, and has served on the organisation’s board of trustees since 2014. She visits families in its Early Steps to School Success programme, much of that work in rural America, including her home state.
In August 2013 she testified before the California Assembly Judiciary Committee in support of legislation protecting the children of public figures from photographers. The bill passed the following month and is now California law. A mother of three, she has spoken consistently since about the cost of that attention on children who did not choose public life.
The Audience
Something unusual happened to her public life in the 2010s: she became genuinely, uncomplicatedly liked. Pretend Cooking Show, the deliberately unpolished series she began posting to Instagram, grew into one of the most affectionately followed things any film actor has made outside a film, and eventually into a channel of its own.
When she received her star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in August 2018, Variety described her “radiant likability,” placing her second only to Tom Hanks. Nearly three decades after a $150-a-week understudy job in New York, that remains the through-line of the work.
Honours & Recognition
2002
At the 59th Golden Globe Awards, Garner won Best Actress in a Television Series, Drama for Sydney Bristow in Alias — the role that took her from working actor to leading lady in a single season, at just 30 years old.
2002–2005
Garner was nominated for the Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series every year from 2002 to 2005 — a rare four-year run recognizing an actor who was simultaneously anchoring a network spy drama and an action-movie franchise built around the same character.
2003
At the 2003 MTV Movie Awards, Garner won Best Breakthrough Female Performance for playing Elektra Natchios in Daredevil — her first major studio film lead, and the role that would eventually earn her a spin-off of her own.
2003
The Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films gave Garner the Saturn Award for Best Actress on Television for Alias, recognizing her work in one of the genre’s defining series of the early 2000s.
2004
The film industry’s own exhibitors — the theater owners who decide what gets booked — singled Garner out as a rising box-office draw, a vote of confidence from the business side of Hollywood rather than critics or fans.
2004
Garner won the Teen Choice Award for Choice TV Actress: Action for Alias, cementing her crossover appeal with a younger audience alongside her critical recognition.
2005
Garner won Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Drama Series at the 11th SAG Awards — the industry’s own peer-voted honor, distinct from the Globes and Emmys, and her only competitive SAG win.
2006
At the 32nd People’s Choice Awards, Garner won both Favorite Female Action Star (for Elektra) and Favorite Female Television Star (for Alias) in the same ceremony — a rare double win reflecting her dual identity as both a TV lead and an action star.
2008
The 13th Critics’ Choice Awards nominated the cast of Juno, including Garner’s performance as Vanessa Loring, for Best Acting Ensemble — recognition for a film that became a defining indie hit of the decade.
2014
Garner shared in the Screen Actors Guild’s Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture nomination for Dallas Buyers Club, a film that went on to win two Academy Awards for Matthew McConaughey and Jared Leto.
2025
The Critics’ Choice Super Awards nominated Garner for Best Actress in a Superhero Movie for Deadpool & Wolverine — a full 21 years after she first originated Elektra Natchios in Daredevil, closing a loop few actors get the chance to close.
2017
Garner joined organic baby-food startup Once Upon a Farm as a cofounder and Chief Brand Officer alongside CEO John Foraker and founder Cassandra Curtis, taking an equity stake rather than a paycheck — a bet on a company that had almost no revenue at the time.
2021
Under Garner’s brand leadership, Once Upon a Farm became the first cold-pressed, refrigerated baby food accepted by WIC, the federal nutrition assistance program — extending organic, fresh baby food to lower-income families for the first time.
Feb 2026
On February 6, 2026, Garner stood on the trading floor as Once Upon a Farm listed on the New York Stock Exchange under ticker OFRM, pricing its IPO at $18 a share for a $724 million valuation and raising $197.9 million. The stock jumped as much as 20% in its public debut, and the company reported $225 million in annual revenue — up from near-zero when she joined nine years earlier.
Aug 2026
Forbes placed Garner in the Impact category of its 2026 "50 Over 50" list, released August 11, 2026, specifically citing the Once Upon a Farm IPO — recognition of her as a genuine operator and equity holder, not a celebrity face licensing her name to a brand.
2008
Garner began her long-running relationship with Save the Children as an Artist Ambassador, using her public platform to draw attention to child poverty, hunger and early education — a role that has continued for close to two decades.
2010
Variety recognized Garner at its Power of Women event on September 30, 2010, specifically for her advocacy work with Save the Children, ahead of many of the industry honors that would follow.
2014
Garner moved from ambassador to governance, joining Save the Children’s Board of Trustees and taking on a formal role shaping the organization’s strategy rather than simply lending it her name.
Mar 2017
Garner testified before a House Labor-HHS-Education appropriations subcommittee, urging lawmakers to fund early-childhood programs like Head Start. Drawing on children she’d met on home visits in poverty — including an 11-month-old who didn’t react to a stranger entering the room — she told Congress: "A child who is not touched, who is not spoken to, who is not read to or sung to in the first five years of his or her life will not fully recover."
May 2019
Twenty-five years after graduating, Garner delivered the keynote address at Denison University’s 178th commencement and received an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree — a homecoming that closed the loop on the drama degree she left New York with in 1994.
2020
As COVID-19 school closures hit in March 2020, Garner and Amy Adams launched #SaveWithStories, recruiting more than 275 actors, authors and musicians — including Chris Pratt, Reese Witherspoon and Kerry Washington — to read children’s books aloud on social media. The campaign raised close to $2 million from more than 25,000 donors for Save the Children and No Kid Hungry.
2021
Once Upon a Farm and Save the Children launched A Million Meals, pledging one million nutritious meals to food-insecure kids in the U.S. by 2024. The program beat its own target — logistics partner TQL alone has since moved more than a million meals for the initiative, and Garner has shown up in person for distributions, including packing food for 300 families in her home state of West Virginia in November 2025.
Jan 2025
As the Palisades and Eaton fires tore through her own Los Angeles community — where she’d lived for more than 25 years, and lost a friend who didn’t get out in time — Garner worked with Save the Children and Project:Camp to open trauma-informed pop-up camps for displaced children, and volunteered directly with World Central Kitchen serving meals to fire victims in Altadena.
Jun 2025
To mark the $67 it costs to provide a full six-week course of therapeutic food that can save a severely malnourished child’s life, Garner ran one mile every day for 67 consecutive days. The campaign closed with a public run in Santa Monica on June 22, 2025, joined by elite runner Becs Gentry and Brooks Running, and raised more than $500,000 for Save the Children’s malnutrition programs.
Sep 2025
The teacher-advocacy nonprofit Honored named Garner the first-ever recipient of its annual Advocate for Teachers Award, citing "her ongoing dedication to celebrating the educators who shaped her and her tireless advocacy on behalf of children, families, and teachers nationwide."
Aug 2018
On August 20, 2018, Garner was honored with a star in the Motion Pictures category at 6920 Hollywood Boulevard — a permanent marker of a career that, by then, spanned twenty years and moved between blockbuster franchises, prestige drama and comedy.
2022
Harvard University's Hasty Pudding Theatricals — the oldest theatrical organization in the United States — named Garner its Woman of the Year, an honor given annually to an entertainer judged to have made a lasting contribution to American culture.