Elizabeth Hurley

Biography of Elizabeth Hurley

Elizabeth Jane Hurley was born on June 10, 1965 in Basingstoke. She is a British actress, producer and model.

Hurley was born the second of three siblings in Basingstoke, England, to Angela and Roy Hurley. Her Irish father was a major in the British Army. Hurley's Anglican mother worked as a teacher at Kempshott Infant School, where Elizabeth spent part of her primary school years. She then attended Kempshott Junior School and Harriet Costello School.

At the age of 12, she tried to realize her dream of becoming a dancer by taking ballet lessons, and she took dance and theater classes at the London Studio Centre. At sixteen she dyed her hair pink and wore a nose piercing.

Global media exposure garnered her the safety pin dress, a creation by fashion designer Gianni Versace, that the actress wore to the 1994 film premiere of Four Weddings and a Funeral, which Hurley attended with then-boyfriend Hugh Grant, the film's lead actor.

Hurley made her screen debut in 1987 with the British anthology film Aria, which premiered in competition at the 1987 Cannes Film Festival. She made her first film in Hollywood in 1992 alongside Wesley Snipes (Passenger 57). In the same year followed a leading role in The Long Winter shown at the Berlin Film Festival, alongside Vittorio Gassman and Jean Rochefort.

In 1996 she founded the production company Simian Films with her longtime friend Hugh Grant. Elizabeth Hurley made her debut as a film producer in 1996 with the thriller Extreme Meausures starring Hugh Grant, Gene Hackman, Sarah Jessica Parker and David Morse. It was followed by Mickey Blue Eyes (1999), Method (2004), as a producer and female main cast and the television show Project Catwalk (2006), the first season of which was hosted by Hurley.

From 2011 to 2012 she played Diana Payne on Gossip Girl. From 2015 to 2018, Hurley played the lead role of Queen Helena on the television series The Royals.

Hurley was involved in Estée Lauder's breast cancer prevention campaign with the Elizabeth Pink lipstick, proceeds from which benefit the Breast Cancer Research Foundation.

She was the face of Estée Lauder from 1994 to 2001. She publishes her own swimwear collection under the name Elizabeth Hurley Beach.

From 2003 she was in a relationship with the German-Indian textile heirArun Nayar, whom shemarriedon March 1, 2007. On December 13, 2010, she announced her separation from her husband. Hurley and Nayar's marriage ended in divorce on June 15, 2011. Elizabeth Hurley has a son with billionaireSteve Bing. On September 30, 2011, Hurley and Shane Warne becameengagedin St Andrews, Scotland. In December 2013, it was announced that Hurley and Warne had split by mutual agreement.