After graduating from high school in 2000, Hathaway began to pursue film work. Her big-screen debut came with The Princess Diaries, in which she played Mia Thermopolis, a klutzy teenager who discovers that she is heir to a royal throne. In 2004 Hathaway starred in that movie’s sequel, The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement, and played another fairy-tale role in Ella Enchanted. Afraid of being typecast, Hathaway sought out more adult fare, and her next major part was in Ang Lee’s critically acclaimed Brokeback Mountain.
In 2006 Hathaway starred alongside Meryl Streep in the critically and commercially successful The Devil Wears Prada. Other notable performances included the lead role in Becoming Jane, a fictionalized account of the life of author Jane Austen, and her portrayal of Kym, a recovering drug addict, in Rachel Getting Married —for which she earned her first Academy Award nomination.
Hathaway further expanded her range with the romantic comedies Bride Wars and Valentine’s Day. In 2010 she returned to her fairy-tale roots as the White Queen in Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland and portrayed a free-spirited woman afflicted with Parkinson disease in the romance Love and Other Drugs. She starred in the romantic drama One Day the following year.