Katherine Langford is a popular Australian actress who has worked in American television and films. She is famous for her portrayal of ‘Hannah Baker’ and ‘Nimue’ in the Netflix series ’13 Reasons Why’ (2017) and ‘Cursed’ (2020), respectively.
Wiki/Biography
Katherine Langford was born on Monday, April 29, 1996 (age 24 years; as in 2020), in Perth, Western Australia; she was raised in Applecross, Australia. In 2005, she began taking vocal lessons from Heidi Lake and trained in classical, jazz, and contemporary vocals. She studied music and drama at Perth Modern School. She was a nationally ranked swimmer and a sports captain in her high school. In the final year of her high school, she decided to make her career in acting. She faced many rejections as acting schools did not accept her. She began taking acting classes and workshops at Perth, juggling between three part-time jobs, and in the process, she managed to find an agent. In 2015-16, she attended Principal Academy of Dance & Theatre Arts, Leederville, and majored in Musical Theater. She was selected for the National Institute of Dramatic Arts (NIDA) Advanced Actors Residency in 2016; the same year, she studied at Nicholson’s Academy of Screen Acting. She was offered a position in the Bachelor of Arts program at Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts and was supposed to join in 2016; instead, she chose to become a professional actor than enroll at the college.
Physical Appearance
Hair Color: Brown
Eye Color: Blue
Family & Ethnicity
Katherine was born to Dr. Stephen Langford, a Royal Flying Doctor Service’s director of medical services (who was named WA’s Local Hero for 2016), and Dr. Elizabeth Langford (née Green), a pediatrician.
She has a sister, Josephine Langford who is also an actress.
Career
Katherine Langford started her acting career by appearing in independent short films like Story of Miss Oxygen (2015), Daughter (2016), and Imperfect Quardrant (2016).
She made her television debut with the role of ‘Hannah Baker’ in the Television series ’13 Reasons Why’ (2017-20). She was selected through the Skype audition that she gave from Australia. For her performance in “13 Reasons Why,” she was nominated as Breakthrough Performer of the Year at the 2017 Gold Derby Award, Best Actress (Television Drama Awards) at the 2018 Golden Globe Awards, Best Actor in a Show at the 2018 MTV Movie and TV Awards, The Drama TV Star of 2017 Award at the 2018 People’s Choice Awards, and Best Actress – Television Series Drama at the 2018 Satellite Awards.
Katherine has also acted in the TV series- Robot Chicken (2018) and Cursed (2020). She made her film debut with Australian film, The Misguided (2018) in the role of ‘Vesna.’
She has acted in the American films, Love, Simon (2018), Knives Out (2019), and Spontaneous.
Signature
Favorite Things
- Actor: Orlando Bloom
- Directors: Quentin Tarantino, Ryan Johnson, John East
- Singer: Lady Gaga
- Film: Titanic (1997), Romeo + Juliet (1997)
- Fashion Designer: Alexander McQueen
- Book(s): Lights Out in Wonderland Book by DBC Pierre, Her Again: Becoming Meryl Streep by Michael Schulman
Facts/Trivia
- In her spare time, she likes to write songs, read books, play the piano, and sing.
- In her high school days, she wanted to make her career in medicine and politics; the musical theatre was her third choice. Her focus shifted to performing arts in 2012 when she attended Born This Way Ball, the concert tour of Lady Gaga that inspired her to learn piano. In 2013, she wrote three songs- I’ve Got a Crush on Zoe Bosch, Young and Stupid, and Three Words, and uploaded the videos of her singing on YouTube. The song ‘Young and Stupid’ was an anti-suicide song, dedicated to the three teens who had taken their lives.
- In the final year of her high school, she stopped swimming and directed her focus to music and drama. She even contested in many music and drama competitions and was successful in most of them. Katherine also acted in her school’s production of the Australian play ‘Hotel Sorrento.’
- When she was studying at the Principal Academy of Dance & Theatre Arts, she acted in the musical ‘Godspell.’ In the same year, she portrayed ‘Juan Perón’s mistress’ in the production of ‘Evita.’
- Before auditioning for 13 Reasons Why, Katherine had auditioned for a role in the television series ‘Will ’ (2017) in 2016. Unfortunately, she couldn’t get the role, and the role went to Olivia DeJonge.
- She won the Australians in Film Awards in the category – Screen Australia Breakthrough Award in 2017.
- In May 2017, Katherine and other alumni of the Perth Modern School protested against the State Government’s plan to strip the school of its academically selective status and relocate lessons for gifted pupils to a high-rise building in the city.
- In 2018, she was inducted into the Forbes 30 Under 30 Entertainment & Sports list.
- In October 2018, she was cast in ‘Avengers: Endgame’ as a teenage version of Tony Stark’s daughter, Morgan. However, she failed to make it in the final product as the change in actors confused the test audience, and the filmmakers did not feel any emotional connection with the adult version of Morgan.
- Katherine decided to open her social media account after Selena Gomez, the executive producer of ’13 Reasons Why’ asked her to do so. Talking about it, she said,
Selena pointed out that the show is targeting young adults like me and that [social media] is a good medium to talk directly with those who relate to my character, Hannah.”
- Katherine Langford has often been vocal about the LGBTQ+ community on various social media and public platforms.