Laura Jeanne Reese Witherspoon (born March 22, 1976) is an American actress and producer. She is the recipient of various accolades, including an Academy Award, a Primetime Emmy Award, and two Golden Globe Awards. In 2021, Forbes named her the world's highest-paid actress, and in 2023, she was named one of the wealthiest celebrities in the U.S. with an estimated net worth of $440 million. Witherspoon began her career as a teenager, making her screen debut in The Man in the Moon (1991). After starring in the 1996 films Freeway and Fear, her breakthrough came in 1999 with a supporting role in Cruel Intentions and the lead role of Tracy Flick in the black comedy Election. She gained wider recognition for playing Elle Woods in the comedy Legally Blonde (2001) and its 2003 sequel, and for starring in the romantic comedy Sweet Home Alabama (2002). She won the Academy Award for Best Actress for portraying June Carter Cash in the musical biopic Walk the Line (2005). She had a downturn in her career and during that era, her sole box-office success was the romantic drama Water for Elephants (2011), She made a comeback, producing and starring as Cheryl Strayed in the drama Wild (2014), which earned her a second Academy Award nomination. Since then she has primarily worked in television, producing and starring in several female-led literary adaptations under her company Hello Sunshine. They include the HBO drama series Big Little Lies (2017–2019), the Apple TV+ drama series The Morning Show (2019–present), and the Hulu miniseries Little Fires Everywhere (2020). For the first of these, she won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Limited Series. She has produced the film adaptations Gone Girl (2014) and Where the Crawdads Sing (2022), and the miniseries adaptation Daisy Jones & the Six (2023). Witherspoon owns Reese's Book Club and a clothing company, Draper James. She is involved in children's and women's advocacy organizations. She serves on the board of the Children's Defense Fund (CDF) and was named Global Ambassador of Avon Products in 2007, serving as honorary chair of the charitable Avon Foundation dedicated to women's causes.