Background:

“I've always had the perspective that roles come into my life when I need them most and sort of teach me lessons. The same can be true of films, films are released into society to aid in a lesson, inspire people, comfort people.” Bryce Dallas Howard

An American actress who got her start as an extra in her father's films before catching the eye of filmmaker M. Night Shyamalan on the NYC stage, Bryce Dallas Howard, the daughter of Academy Award winning director Ron Howard, burst to fame in 2004 with her portrayal of blind woman Ivy Walker in Shyamalan's hit supernatural movie, “The Village,” where she amassed several nominations for her bright performance. Following a failed reunion with Shyamalan in “Lady in the Water” (2006), the recipient of the 2005 Palm Springs International Film Festival Rising Star Award netted a Golden Globe nomination for her role in “As You Like It” (2006) and scored her first blockbuster with Sam Raimi's “Spider-Man 3” (2007), in which she played Gwen Stacy. She gained further audience recognition thanks to her performance as the villainous vampire Victoria in the hit “Twilight Saga: Eclipse” (2010). The talented Bryce played Hilly Holbrook on the critically and commercially successful film “The Help” (2011), from which she jointly won a number of the Best Ensemble Awards.

Bryce currently lives in Los Angeles, California with her actor husband Seth Gabe and two children. She suffered from post-partum depression after her first child' birth, a fact she admitted later in 2010. She needed about 18 months to overcome her depression thanks to the combination of homeopathic treatments and sessions with a physician and a therapist. Bryce is close friends with Natalie Portman and Jake Gyllenhaal and good friends with Jason Ritter and Marianna Palka. She was a vegan between 2003 and 2006.     


Howard Clan

Childhood and Family:

Bryce Dallas Howard was born on March 2, 1981, in Los Angeles, California, to celebrity parents Ron Howard, a former child actor turned Academy Award winning director, and Cheryl Howard, an actress and writer. Her grandparents are actors Rance Howard and the late Jean Speegle Howard, while her uncle, Clint Howard, is a character actor who is known for many brief appearances on television and films. Bryce, whose nickname is Bry, is the eldest of four children, with two sisters Jocelyn Carlyle Howard and Paige Carlyle Howard. (twins, born February. 5, 1985) and one brother, Reed Cross Howard (born 1987).  

“I feel like I almost didn't grow up in the business, because my parents worked so hard at sheltering us from that. I was raised in Connecticut. And I honestly wasn't aware that my dad was a celebrity until I moved to Los Angeles a year ago.” Bryce Dallas Howard

Young Bry was raised away from the showbiz in Westchester, New York and on a farm in Greenwich, Connecticut. She and her siblings were not allowed to watch television but given an unlimited access to hobbies and outdoors activities. When she was around 7 or 8, Bry had the opportunity to appear as an extra in her father's movie, “Parenthood.”

Bry graduated from the Greenwich County Day School in 1996 and then attended New York University's prestigious Tisch School of the Arts, from which she earned a BFA in Drama in 2003. During her time at NYU, she also trained at the famous Stella Adler Conservatory. She has also attended the esteemed Steppenwolf School in Chicago, The Actors Center in New York City, and Stagedoor Manor Performing Arts camp at Catskills with her friend Natalie Portman.   

Bryce met the Hollywood, Florida native actor Seth Gabe (born October 3, 1981) at NYU. The couple dated for five years before eventually married on June 17, 2006. She gave birth to her first child, son Theodore “Theo” Norman Howard Gabel, on February 16, 2007, when she was 26 years old. Bry and her husband welcomed the new addition of their family on January 19, 2012 with the birth of their lovely daughter, Beatrice Jean Howard-Gabel.
          

The Help

Career:

Bryce Dallas Howard began as an extra in her father's films like “Parenthood” (1989), a well received comedy/drama with an ensemble cast that includes Steve Martin, Dianne Wiest, Mary Steenburgen, Jason Robards, Rick Moranis, Tom Hulce, Martha Plimpton, Keanu Reeves, Harley Kozak, Eileen Ryan, Joaquin Phoenix (credited as Leaf Phoenix) and Dennis Dugan, the Academy Award winning drama “Apollo 13” (1995), starring Tom Hanks and Kevin Bacon, and the box office hit holiday live action “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” (2000), starring Jim Carrey. Bryce, who initially preferred to drop her illustrious last name to avoid earning special treatment but later reconsidered her idea after finding the combination of her first and middle name made her sound like a porn star, spent the next several years performing in New York plays. She was cast as a disdainful, coquettish teenager named Sally Platt on her debut play, “House and Garden,” a 2002 Alan Ayckbourn production held at the Manhattan Theatre Club. Though the production was met with a mixed reception, Bryce was praised for her worthy performance. The promising young talent continued to hone her craft with appearances in various plays, such as Thornton Wilder's “Our Town,” French dramatist Molière's masterpiece “Tartuffe,” “The Marriage of Bette and Boo,” “Cloud 9,” “HamletMachine,” “Four Saints in Mexico, “No Exit,” “This is Our Youth” and “A Tale of Two Cities.”

While performing Rosalind in the critically acclaimed Off-Broadway production of Shakespeare's “As You Like It” (2003), Bryce attracted the attention of the Indian-born American director M. Night Shyamalan. She ended up being cast in her breakthrough role of young blind woman Ivy Elizabeth Walker in Shyamalan's supernatural period drama “The Village” (2004) after the departure of the original star Kirsten Dunst. Despite mixed reviews, the film was a commercial success, grossing $114 million in the U.S. and $142 million in international markets for a total of $256 million worldwide. Bryce was nominated for the Empire Awards for Best Newcomer and Best Actress, the MTV Movie Award for Breakthrough Female, the Online Film Critics Society Award for Best Breakthrough Performance and the Teen Choice Award for Choice Movie Scary Scene for her performance. Prior to the critically lauded performance, she had her first major film role as Heather on the Sundance screened “Book of Love” (2004), an Alan Brown written and directed comedy/drama that was largely neglected by audiences and critics alike.

Next up for Bryce, the Los Angeles born actress replaced Nicole Kidman in the role of Grace Margaret Mulligan for “Manderlay” (2005), the sequel to the Lars von Trier 2004 drama film “Dogville.”  Premiered at the Cannes Film Festival on May 16, 2005, the film received mixed reviews from critics and was a box office turkey. She received a Best Actress nomination at the Robert Festival for her performance. Bryce reunited with Shyamalan for the 2006 mystery/fantasy film “Lady in the Water,” where she co-starred with Paul Giamatti. The film received mostly unfavorable reviews from film critics, and brought Shyamalan two Razzie Awards for Worst Director and Worst Supporting Actor, plus an additional nomination for Worst Screenplay.

Bryce bounced back when she reprised her stage role of Rosalind in Kenneth Branagh's movie  adaptation of “As You Like It,” opposite Kevin Kline as Jaques, Alfred Molina as Touchstone and Romola Garai as Celia. The film was released theatrically in Italy on September 1, 2006 before received a wide theatrical release in the UK on September 21, 2007, exactly one month after its US cable TV debut on HBO. Bryce picked up a 2008 Golden Globe nomination in the category of Best Performance by an Actress in a Mini-Series or a Motion Picture Made for Television for her performance. Bryce made her debut as director and writer with the short film “Orchids” (2006), produced as part of Glamour magazine's “Reel Moments” series funded by Cartier and FilmAid International. The film starred Alfred Molina, Katherine Waterston and Kendra Smith.   

In 2007, Bryce joined the cast of Sam Raimi's “Spider-Man 3” as the love interest of Peter Parker, Gwen Stacy. Starring Tobey Maguire as the titular role, the film was a huge box office success with over $890 million worldwide against a budget of 258 million, making it Bryce's first blockbuster. In the following year, she made a cameo in Marianna Palka's “Good Dick,” which competed among others in the Dramatic Competition at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival, and starred in the leading role of f heiress Fisher Willow in the mostly negative reviewed “The Loss of a Teardrop Diamond,” based on Tennessee Williams's long-lost 1957 screenplay.       

2009 saw Bryce play John Connor's wife, Katherine on the science fiction/action movie “Terminator Salvation” (2009), the the fourth installment in the “Terminator” film series, starring Christian Bale. Helmed by McG, the film generally received negative reviews from critics, but grossed a total of over $371 million worldwide. The role brought her a Teen Choice nomination in the category of Choice Movie Actress: Action/Adventure. The same year, her voice could be heard in an episode of “Family Guy” called “We Love You Conrad.”   

Following appearance in Alex Prager's short, “Despair” (2010), Bryce was returned back on the spotlight when she was cast as the villainous vampire Victoria (replaced Rachelle Lefevre) on the third “Twilight” movie, “The Twilight Saga: Eclipse” (2010), opposite Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson. The David Slade helmed grossed over $30 million in its midnight opening, creating a new record for the biggest midnight opening in the United States and Canada in box office history.  It went on to collect a total of over $698 million worldwide. Despite its huge commercial  success, the film received a mixed reception from critics. Bryce took home the MTV Movie Award for Best Fight, which she shared with Robert Pattinson and Xavier Samuel, and a  Teen Choice nomination for Choice Movie Villain. Later that same year, she worked with Matt Damon and Cécile de France in “Hereafter,” a supernatural drama and fantasy film directed by Clint Eastwood, written by Peter Morgan and produced by Steven Spielberg. The film earned mixed reviews from critics.

“What I find so remarkable about this story is that it holistically depicts the time period. It's not necessarily vilifying anyone, but rather, vilifying certain mentalities and belief systems that were evil at their core. Playing Hilly [Holbrok] had been a journey for me to understand her ignorance. I feel really comfortable in assuming that people will think this is a performance and that it isn't me.” Bryce Dallas Howard (on “The Help”)    

Bryce gained further attention when she was cast in the big screen adaptation of Kathryn Stockett's novel, “The Help,” as Hilly Holbrook, the town's big-headed ringleader. Directed and scripted by Tate Taylor, the drama opened to rave reviews and became a large box office success with a gross of over $206 million against its budget of $25 million. In 2012, the film was nominated for four Oscars, including Best Picture and acting nods for Viola Davis and Jessica Chastain, and a win for supporting Actress for Octavia Spencer. For her acting, Bryce was nominated for a Phoenix Film Critics Society Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role and an Image Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture. She also shared a Screen Actors Guild for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture, a Black Reel for Best Ensemble, Broadcast Film Critics Association's Critics Choice Award for Best Acting Ensemble, the Hollywood Film Festival Award for Ensemble of the Year, a National Board of Review for Best Acting by an Ensemble, the Satellite Special Achievement Award for Best Ensemble, Motion Picture, a Southeastern Film Critics Association for Best Ensemble as well as a Central Ohio Film Critics nomination for Best Ensemble, a San Diego Film Critics Society nomination for Best Ensemble Performance and a Washington DC Area Film Critics Association nomination for Best Acting Ensemble.

Also in 2011, Bryce co-starred with Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Seth Rogen, Anna Kendrick and Anjelica Huston in “50/50,” a comedy/drama film directed by Jonathan Levine. The film earned much acclaim from critics and grossed over $40 million at the box office against its budget of $8 million. 2011 also found her producing a short, “Restless,” and directing another one called “When You Find Me.”
    

Awards:

Black Reel: Best Ensemble, “The Help,” 2012
Broadcast Film Critics Association: Critics Choice Award, Best Acting Ensemble, “The Help,” 2012
Screen Actors Guild: Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture, “The Help,” 2012
Hollywood Film Festival: Hollywood Film Award, Ensemble of the Year, “The Help,” 2011
MTV Movie: Best Fight, “The Twilight Saga: Eclipse,” 2011
National Board of Review (NBR): Best Acting by an Ensemble, “The Help,” 2011
Satellite: Special Achievement Award, Best Ensemble, Motion Picture, “The Help,” 2011
Southeastern Film Critics Association (SEFCA): Best Ensemble, “The Help,” 2011
Palm Springs International Film Festival: Rising Star Award, 2005 Show Less