Jessica Chastain is an American theater, film, and television actress. She is known for her roles in the films The Help, The Debt, Take Shelter, and The Tree of Life. She broke out in 2011 with seven films premiering. She won over 35 critics awards and was widely named as breakout star. For her role in the film The Help she received Golden Globe, Screen Actors Guild, BAFTA and Academy Award nominations for Best Supporting Actress. In 2012, she was named to the list of Time 100 most influential people of the world. Chastain was born and raised in Northern California. She is one of five... children. Her mother is a vegan chef, and her father is a firefighter. Chastain is also vegan herself. She grew up as Jessica Howard, and later took her mother's maiden name as her stage name. Chastain had a "blue collar" upbringing around San Francisco. She attended El Camino High School in Sacramento in 1995 and attended Sacramento City College, where she was a member of the debate team . In 1998, she appeared as Juliet in a production of Romeo and Juliet staged by TheatreWorks, a professional theater company in the San Francisco Bay Area.
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