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Born in Houston, Texas
April 17, 1972
Garner was born in Houston, Texas, the daughter of Patricia Ann (née English), an English teacher from Oklahoma, and Billy Jack 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.
George Washington High School
June 1, 1990
In 1990, Garner graduated from George Washington High School in Charleston, where she played the saxophone.
Denison University
September 1, 1990 - May 1, 1994
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 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.
Zoya
September 17, 1995
Garner was cast in her first television role, a part in the made-for-television movie, Zoya, based on the Danielle Steel novel.
Scott Foley
October 19, 2000 - March 30, 2004
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.
Dude, Where's My Car?
December 15, 2000
Garner appeared in the comedy Dude, Where's My Car?, playing Ashton Kutcher's girlfriend. Jesse (Ashton Kutcher) and Chester (Seann William Scott) awaken with hangovers and no memory of how they got there. Their house is filled with containers of pudding, and there's an angry message from their twin girlfriends Wilma (Marla Sokoloff) and Wanda (Jennifer Garner) on the answering machine. They emerge from their home to find Jesse's car missing, and with it their girlfriends' one year anniversary presents. This prompts Jesse to ask the film's title question: "Dude, where's my car?"
Pearl Harbor
May 25, 2001
Played the role of Nurse Sandra in Pearl Harbor. Pearl Harbor is an Academy Award-winning war film released in summer 2001 by Touchstone Pictures. It stars Ben Affleck, Alec Baldwin, Jon Voight, Josh Hartnett, Kate Beckinsale, Cuba Gooding Jr., Dan Aykroyd, Jaime King, and Jennifer Garner. It was a dramatic re-imagining of the attack on Pearl Harbor
Alias
September 30, 2001
Alias starred Jennifer Garner as Sydney Bristow, a CIA agent, who was usually seen wearing a colorful new disguise while undercover in some part of the world.
While exploring the "cult of intelligence" as its central theme, a major plotline of the series was the search for and recovery of artifacts created by Milo Rambaldi, a fictional Leonardo da Vinci-like inventor and Nostradamus-like prophet from the Renaissance period. This plot and some technologies used in the series pushed Alias into the genre of Sci-Fi. A theme through the series was the concept of Sydney not only having an alias during her varied missions, but also having to live under an alias when with her friends or family. These themes are most prevalent in the first two seasons of the show.
Daredevil
Feburary 14, 2003
Garner starred alongside Ben Affleck as Elektra Natchios in the action movie Daredevil, an adaptation of the comic book.
Michael Vartan
June 1, 2003 - August 1, 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. However, they continue to be close friends.
13 Going on 30
April 23, 2004
Garner plays Jenna Rink, a girl celebrating her 13th birthday in 1987, who wishes to be 30 in hopes that it would help her overcome her unpopularity at school. Jenna especially wants to join the "Six Chicks," a school clique led by Lucy "Tom-Tom" Wyman, who takes advantage of Jenna's desire to fit in by manipulating her. Jenna's best friend, Matt Flamhaff, gives her a doll dream house he built for her and a packet of "magic wishing dust" for her birthday.
Tom-Tom dashes Jenna's hopes of joining the Six Chicks by pulling a cruel practical joke on her during a game of "Seven Minutes in Heaven." Jenna, mistakenly thinking Matt was responsible, gets angry with him and, unknowingly sprinkled with her doll house's magic wishing dust, wishes to be "thirty, flirty and thriving." Seconds later, Jenna awakens as a 30-year-old woman living in a Fifth Avenue apartment, without her friends or family. It is now 2004, but Jenna has no memory of the 17 years that have passed since her 13th birthday.
Engaged
April 17, 2005
Jennifer and Ben Affleck got engaged on Jennifer's birthday (April 17, 2005).
Married Ben Affleck
June 29, 2005 - Now
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 paparazzi managed to take a shot of these 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. 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.
Gave birth to daughter, Violet Anne Affleck
December 1, 2005
On December 1, 2005, she gave birth to their daughter, Violet Anne Affleck, in Los Angeles, California.
Jennifer Trips at Acadamy Awards
March 5, 2006
During the 2006 Academy Awards ceremony, Garner stumbled on her flowing dress (designed by Michael Kors) as she came onto the stage to present the award for Sound Editing. She did not fall, but lost her balance, and jokingly commented, "I do my own stunts!"
Catch and Release
January 26, 2007
It stars Jennifer Garner as a woman mourning her fiance's death who finds a more than welcoming shoulder to cry on in his best friend.
100 Most Beautiful People
May 1, 2007
Jennifer was chosen as one of People Magazine's annual 100 Most Beautiful People in May 2007.
The 36-year-old actress says Violet, now 2, her daughter with husband Ben Affleck, has changed the way the couple looks at themselves. "Ben and I like more things in ourselves that we now see reflected in Violet. To see my dimples in her makes me like my dimples because I share them with her."
Juno
September 1, 2007
Garner appeared in the Jason Reitman-directed comedy/drama feature Juno. After that film's premiere at the Toronto Film Festival, Entertainment Weekly declared Garner's role the best female supporting performance of the festival, saying "The star of Alias and The Kingdom does no butt-kicking in this sweet comedy. Instead, as a young wife desperately hoping to adopt, she's funny, a bit tough, and unbelievably touching."
Broadway Debut - Cyrano de Bergerac
November 1, 2007 - January 6, 2008
Garner appeared as Roxane in Cyrano de Bergerac at the Richard Rodgers Theatre on Broadway from November 1, 2007 alongside Kevin Kline who was in the title role. This was her Broadway debut. Cyrano de Bergerac, originally set to run until December 23, 2007, was extended through January 6, 2008 due to the Broadway stagehand strike in late 2007.
2007 West Virginian of the Year
December 1, 2007
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." The final Sunday issue of the year picks a "West Virginian of the Year" on a similar basis to the Time Magazine "Man (or Woman) of the Year."
