Rachel Weisz

Weisz was born on 7 March 1970 in Westminster, London, and grew up in Hampstead Garden Suburb. Her father, George Weisz, was a Hungarian Jewish mechanical engineer. Her mother, Edith Ruth (née Teich), was a teacher-turned-psychotherapist originally from Vienna, Austria. Her maternal grandfather's ancestry was Austrian Jewish; her maternal grandmother was Catholic and of Italian ancestry. The scholar and social activist James Parkes helped her mother's family to leave Austria for England. Weisz's mother was raised in the Catholic church and formally converted to Judaism upon marrying Weisz's father. Weisz's maternal grandfather was Alexander Teich, a Jewish activist who had been a secretary of the World Union of Jewish Students.

Her parents emigrated to the United Kingdom as children around 1938, prior to the outbreak of World War II, in order to escape the Nazis. Her younger sister Minnie Weisz is a visual artist. Weisz's parents valued the arts; they encouraged their children to form opinions of their own by engaging their participation in family debates. Weisz left North London Collegiate School and attended Benenden School for one year, completing A-levels at St Paul's Girls School.

Known for being an "English rose", Weisz began modelling at the age of 14. In 1984, she gained public attention when she turned down an offer to star in King David with Richard Gere.

Weisz went to Trinity Hall, Cambridge, where she read English, matriculating in 1988. She graduated with upper second-class honours. During her university years she was a contemporary of Sacha Baron Cohen, Alexander Armstrong, Emily Maitlis, Sue Perkins, Mel Giedroyc, Richard Osman and Ben Miller (whom she briefly dated), and appeared in various student dramatic productions, co-founding a student drama group called Cambridge Talking Tongues. The group won a Guardian Student Drama Award at the 1991 Edinburgh Festival Fringe for an improvised piece written by Weisz herself called Slight Possession, directed by David Farr.