Rachel Weisz - Early Life

Early Life

Weisz was born in Westminster, London, and grew up in Hampstead Garden Suburb. Her father, George Weisz, was an inventor from Hungary. Her mother, Edith Ruth (née Teich), is a teacher turned psychotherapist from Vienna, Austria. Her parents fled to England before the outbreak of the Second World War, to escape the Nazis. Weisz' father is Jewish; Weisz' maternal grandfather, Alexander Teich, was also Jewish, and had been a secretary of the World Union of Jewish Students. Her mother's other ancestry includes "Catholic Viennese" and Italian. Weisz' mother was "raised Catholic", and, according to Vogue, later converted to Judaism. Weisz has a younger sister, Minnie, who is a photographer and curator. Her parents sometimes spoke German at home.

Weisz's parents valued the arts, and encouraged her and her sister to form opinions of their own by introducing them to family debates. Her parents later divorced. Weisz left North London Collegiate School and attended Benenden School for one year completing A-levels at St Paul's Girls School. Weisz claimed that she was a bad student until an English Literature teacher inspired her at the age of sixteen.

Known for being an "English rose" due to her appearance, Weisz started modelling when she was fourteen. In 1984, she gained public attention when she turned down an offer to star in King David, along with Richard Gere.

After school, she entered Trinity Hall, Cambridge, where she graduated with a 2:1 in English. During her university years, she appeared in various student productions, co-founding a student drama group called Cambridge Talking Tongues. It won a Guardian Student Drama Award at the 1991 Edinburgh Fringe Festival for an improvised piece called Slight Possession, directed by David Farr. The group existed until 1993.