Catherine Elise Blanchett, born May 14, 1969, is an Australian actress and theater director. She has received international acclaim and many accolades for her work, including two Academy Awards, three Golden Globe Awards, three BAFTA Awards, six AACTA Awards, and three Screen Actors Guilds Awards. Take a look below for 30 more interesting and awesome facts about Cate Blanchett.

1. Blanchett came to international attention for her role as Elizabeth I of England in Elizabeth, for which she won the BAFTA Award for Best Actress, the Golden Globe Award, and earned her first Academy Award for Best Actress nomination.

2. Her portrayal of Katherine Hepburn in The Aviator brought her critical acclaim and many accolades, including the Academy Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role, making her the only actor to win an Oscar for portraying another Oscar-winning actor.

3. In 2013, she starred in Blue Jasmine, for which she won numerous accolades, including the Academy Award for Best Actress.

4. She’s one of only six actors, and the only female actor, to receive Academy Award nominations for portraying the same role in two movies, which she accomplished with her performance as Queen Elizabeth I.

5. She’s the only Australian actor to win two acting Oscars.

6. A seven time Oscar nominee, she has received nominations for Notes on a Scandal, Elizabeth: The Golden Age, I’m Not There, and Carol.

7. She is a four time Helpmann Award winner for Best Female Actor in a Play.

8. She has been awarded the Centenary Medal for Service to the Australian Society by the Australian government.

9. She was appointed Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters by the French government in 2012.

10. Blanchett has been presented with a Doctor of Letter from the University of New South Wales, the University of Sydney, and the Macquarie University, in recognition of her extraordinary contribution to the arts, philanthropy and the community.

11. In 2015, she was honored by the Museum of Modern Art and received the British Film Institute Fellowship in recognition of her outstanding contribution to the industry.

12. In 2017, Blanchett was made a Companion in the Order of Australia for, “eminent service to the performing arts as an international stage and screen actor, through seminal contributions as director of artistic organisations, as a role model for women and young performers, and as a supporter of humanitarian and environmental causes.”

13. She was born in the Melbourne suburb of Ivanhoe.

14. Blanchett is the middle of three children. Her older brother is a computer systems engineer, and her younger sister is a theatrical designer.

15. Her Australian mother, June, worked as a property developer and teacher, and her American father, Robert DeWitt Blanchett, Jr., a Texas native, was a United States Navy petty officer who later worked as an advertising executive.

16. When Blanchett was 10 years old, her father died of a heart attack, leaving her mother to raise the family on her own.

17. Blanchett’s ancestry includes English, some Scottish and remote French roots.

18. During her childhood, Blanchett had a penchant for dressing in traditionally masculine clothing, and went through goth and punk phases during her teenage years, and shaved her head at one point.

19. She attended primary school in Melbourne at Ivanhoe East Primary School. For her secondary education, she attended Ivanhoe Girls’ Grammar School and then the Methodist Ladies’ College, where she explored her passion for the performing arts.

20. In her late teens and early twenties, she worked at a nursing home in Victoria.

21. She studied economics and fine arts at the University of Melbourne, but dropped out after one year to travel overseas.

22. While in Egypt, Blanchett was asked to play an American cheerleader, as an extra in the Egyptian boxing movie, Kaboria; in need of money, she accepted.

23. She was the first person to win the Sydney Theater Critics’s Circle Theater award for Best Newcomer, for her role in Kafka Dances, and Best Lead Actress, for her role in David Mamet’s Oleanna.

24. After completing work on the Lord of the Rings trilogy in the role of Galadriel, she kept and bronzed her elf ear prosethtics.

25. In an interview she gave to Fox Television Network, she admitted blushingly that she had accepted the role of Galadriel, the Elf Queen, in the Lord of the Rings trilogy because she always wanted to appear in a movie wearing pointed ears.

26. She and her The Shipping News and Notes on a Scandal co-star, Judi Dench, both received Oscar nominations for playing Queen Elizabeth I in 1999.

27. She got the role in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button after Rachel Weisz backed out, because of scheduling problems.

28. Blanchett didn’t return to work until six months after giving birth to her son Ignatius in order to take to the stage for a Broadway revival of A Streetcar Named Desire, where she portrayed Blanche DuBois.

29. Her portrayal of Irina Spalko in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skill is director Steven Spielberg’s favorite villain in the Indiana Jones series.

30. She was on set for only 8 days to shoot her scenes for The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey and the two follow-ups.