Anna Helene Paquin (/ˈpækwɪn/; born 24 July 1982) is a Canadian-born New Zealand actress. Her first film was The Piano, for which she won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in March 1994 at the age of 11, making her the second youngest winner in Oscar history. She later appeared in a number of successful films, including Fly Away Home, She's All That, Almost Famous, The Squid and the Whale, 25th Hour and the X-Men franchise as Rogue from Marvel Comics. Paquin is also known for her role as Sookie Stackhouse in the HBO series True Blood, for which she won a Golden Globe Award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series – Drama in 2009.

Biography

On 5 August 2009, Paquin announced her engagement to her True Blood co-star Stephen Moyer, whom she had been dating since filming the series pilot in 2007. They married on 21 August 2010 at a private residence in Malibu, California. Paquin and Moyer have a son, Charlie, and a daughter, Poppy, who are fraternal twins born in September 2012. Through her marriage to Moyer, Paquin also has a stepson, Billy (born in 2000), and a stepdaughter, Lilac (born in 2002). The family resides in Venice, Los Angeles, California.

On 1 April 2010, Paquin came out as bisexual in a public service announcement for the Give a Damn campaign as part of the True Colours Fund, an advocacy group organized by Cyndi Lauper dedicated to LGBT equality.
The True Colours Fund was created to "inspire and engage everyone, especially straight people, to become active participants in the advancement of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender equality". The video features Anna Paquin stating, "I'm Anna Paquin. I'm bisexual, and I give a damn". When asked about her participation in the video, Paquin responded by saying, "It wasn't like it was a big secret, it was just a cause I cared about and privately supported, but not one that I had ever had an opportunity to speak out about in a way that would be useful. Obviously I know that one person's voice doesn't necessarily do that much, but I just wanted to do my bit." In May 2012, in an Us Weekly interview Paquin rejected the notion that bisexuality is a choice. "My sexuality is not made up, for a bisexual, it's not about gender. That's not the deciding factor to who they're attracted to," stated Paquin.

Paquin also supports other charities and foundations such as the Children's Hospital Los Angeles and the Make-A-Wish Foundation.

Best films