Vera Ann Farmiga

Vera Ann Farmiga

Vera Ann Farmiga was born on August 6, 1973. Farmiga, the second of seven children, was born in Clifton, New Jersey. She is the daughter of Ukrainian immigrants Mykhailo, a computer-systems analyst, and Luba Farmiga, a schoolteacher. Farmiga was raised in an "insular" Ukrainian American community, with Ukrainian as her native language. She attended a Ukrainian Catholic school in Newark and toured with a Ukrainian folk-dancing ensemble, Suyovika. As a girl, she converted with her family from the Ukrainian Orthodox Church to Pentecostalism. In 1991, Farmiga graduated from Hunterdon Central Regional High School. She is an American actress and film director. Farmiga made her film debut in the 1998 drama thriller Return to Paradise. This was followed by supporting roles in the 2000 romantic film Autumn in New York and the 2001 television series UC: Undercover. She was also cast in the 2001 thriller 15 Minutes. Her other film appearances and roles include the 2003 comedy Dummy, the 2004 drama Down to the Bone, the 2006 crime thriller The Departed, the 2007 horror Joshua, and the 2008 historical drama The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas. She made her directorial debut in the 2011 drama film Higher Ground.

Farmiga gained critical acclaim following her work in the 2009 comedy-drama Up in the Air, for which she was nominated for an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, a Golden Globe Award, and a Screen Actors Guild Award. She also starred as Kate Coleman in Orphan in 2009, Capt. Colleen Goodwin in the 2011 thriller/action movie Source Code, and famous paranormal investigatorLorraine Warren in the 2013 horror film The Conjuring. As of 2013, she stars as Norma Louise Bates in the A&E TV series, Bates Motel, for which she was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series.