Elizabeth Banks

Elizabeth Banks (born Elizabeth Irene Mitchell; February 10, 1974) is an American actress, director and producer who does the voice of Wyldstyle in The LEGO Movie, The LEGO Movie 4D A New Adventure, LEGO Dimensions and The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part.

Banks made her film debut in the low-budget independent film Surrender Dorothy (1998). She starred in the films Wet Hot American Summer (2001), Best in Show (2002), Sam Raimi's Spider-Man trilogy (2002–2007), Seabiscuit (2003), The 40-Year-Old Virgin (2005), Slither (2006), Fred Claus (2007), Zack and Miri Make a Porno (2008), Role Models (2008), The Next Three Days (2010), Man on a Ledge (2012), What to Expect When You're Expecting (2012), The Lego Movie (2014), Love & Mercy (2014), Magic Mike XXL (2015), Power Rangers (2017), The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part (2019), and Brightburn (2019).

On television, Banks had a recurring role as Avery Jessup on the NBC sitcom 30 Rock, which earned her two Primetime Emmy Award nominations. She also had recurring roles on the comedy series Scrubs and Modern Family, the latter of which earned her a Primetime Emmy Award nomination. Banks starred in the Netflix miniseries Wet Hot American Summer: First Day of Camp (2015) and Wet Hot American Summer: Ten Years Later (2017). As of 2019, she hosts a revival of the 1980s game show Press Your Luck on ABC.

Early life
Banks was born in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, and grew up on Brown Street, the eldest of four children of Ann (née Wallace) and Mark P. Mitchell. Her father, a Vietnam veteran, was a factory worker for General Electric and her mother worked in a bank. She has said that she grew up "Irish + WASP + Catholic."

In an interview promoting the ABC revival of Press Your Luck, Banks talked about being a latchkey kid and watching a lot of game shows after school, among them the original CBS version of Press Your Luck. This would later influence her decision to serve as hostess and executive producer of the ABC revival.

Growing up, Banks played baseball and rode horses. She was in Little League when she broke her leg sliding into third base. She then tried out for the school play, which was her start in acting. She graduated from Pittsfield High School in 1992, and is a member of the Massachusetts Junior Classical League. She attended the University of Pennsylvania, where she was a member of the Delta Delta Delta Sorority and was elected to the Friars Senior Society. She graduated magna cum laude in 1996 with a major in communications and a minor in theater arts. In 1998, she completed schooling at the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco, California, where she earned an MFA degree.