Jessica Chastain

Theatre Credits, Bio and Tickets

Jessica Chastain stars in A Doll's House on Broadway in spring 2023.

Academy Award winner Jessica Chastain is known for her film roles in The Eyes of Tammy Faye, The Help, Interstellar, Zero Dark Thirty, and The Martian, and has also appeared on Broadway.

Born in Sacramento, California, Chastain was inspired to pursue acting when her grandmother took her to see a production of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat at age seven. She studied at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts and made her professional stage debut in the title role of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet at TheatreWorks in San Francisco. Upon graduating, Chastain landed roles in TV shows including ER, Veronica Mars, Law & Order, and Close to Home.

Chastain made her movie debut in a short film titled Jolene, based on the hit Dolly Parton song. Around the same time, she appeared as Desdemona in a Shakespeare in the Park production of Othello opposite Philip Seymour Hoffman as Iago.

Her breakthrough came in 2011, when she appeared in six major movies, including Jeff Nichols’s Take Shelter, Ralph Fiennes' Coriolanus, The Tree of Life opposite Brad Pitt, and The Help. Based on the book by Kathryn Stockett, Chastain played housewife Celia Foote in the film that exposed racism Black maids were exposed to in 1960s America. Chastain was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress; her castmate Octavia Spencer won the award.

The following year, made her Broadway debut, appearing in a revival of Ruth Goetz’s play The Heiress at the Walter Kerr Theatre. The same year, she returned to the screen in Zero Dark Thirty, Kathryn Bigelow’s drama about the decade-long manhunt for Osama in Laden. Chastain was once again nominated for an Oscar, this time for Best Actress, while she won a Golden Globe for the same performance.

Chastain finally took home the Oscar in 2022, for her performance as televangelist Tammy Faye Bakker in The Eyes of Tammy Faye. She starred in that film opposite Andrew Garfield.

Chastain was supposed to make her debut in London's West End with Henrik Ibsen's A Doll's House in 2020, adapted by Amy Herzog and directed by Jamie Lloyd. The production was shuttered by the pandemic and now premieres on Broadway instead.