Vera Ann Farmiga was born on the 6th August 1973 in Passaic County, New Jersey, USA. She is an actress, probably best recognized for starring in the role of businesswoman Alex Goran in “Up In The Air” (2009), playing Kate in “Orphan” (2009), portraying paranormal investigator Lorraine Warren in “The Conjuring” film series, and as Norma Louise Bates in the A&E TV series “Bates Motel” (2013-2016). Her professional career in the film industry has been active since 1996.
So, have you ever wondered how rich Vera Farmiga is? It has been estimated from sources that Vera’s net worth is over $30 million, as of mid-2016. Obviously, most of her income is the result of her successful involvement in the film industry as a professional actress.
Vera Farmiga Net Worth $10 Million
Vera Farmiga was raised with six siblings in a Ukrainian-American community in New Jersey, by her Ukrainian-born parents Michael Farmiga, a systems analyst, and Lubomyra, a schoolteacher. Thus, her native language was Ukrainian, and she learnt English in kindergarten when she was six years old. She converted with her family from the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church to Pentecostalism. Vera went to St. John the Baptist Ukrainian Catholic School, and parallel with her education, she was a folk dancer, and joined the Ukrainian Girl Scouts organization named Plast. Vera attended Hunterdon Central Regional High School, and after matriculation in 1991, she enrolled at Syracuse University to study Performing Arts, graduating in 1995.
Subsequently, Vera started her professional career as a stage actress in the production of “The Tempest” in 1996 by the American Conservatory Theatre. The same year she appeared in other theatre productions, including “The Seagull” (1996), “Good” (1996), and she also starred on Broadway in “Taking Sides” (1996), alongside Daniel Massey, and Ed Harris. With all of these appearances, her net worth was established.
After her initial success on stage, Vera ventured into film industry, and in 1997 made her debut screen appearance as Caitlin in the TV series “Roar”. The same year she also made her film debut in “Rose Hill”, alongside Jenifer Garner, and Jeffrey D. Sams in lead roles. Until the end of the 1990s, she featured also in such films and TV series as “Law & Order” (1998), “Return To Paradise” (1998), and “Trinity” (1998), among others, all of which added to her net worth.
With the beginning of the 2000s, her career reached a whole new level, securing roles in such films as “The Opportunists” (2000), and “Autumn In New York” the same year. In 2002, she featured in the lead role of the film “Love In The Time Of Money”, alongside Domenick Lombardozzi, and Jill Hennessy, and she also appeared in the film “Dummy”. Vera’s next role came in 2004, a particularly successful year for her, as she featured in several films, including “Down to the Bone”, “Mind the Gap”, and “Touching Evil”, which was later made into TV series, increasing further the overall size of her net worth.
Little by little Vera’s name became more and more popular in Hollywood area, and she began to feature in more popular film titles, which included “The Departed” (2006) with Leonardo DiCaprio and Mat Damon, “Breaking And Entering” in the same year with actors such as Jude Law, and Robin Wright, “Nothing But The Truth” (2007), “Orphan” (2009), and “Up In The Air” (2009) with George Clooney and Anna Kendrick. Her net worth was certainly rising.
To speak further of her accomplishments in the entertainment industry, Vera has also appeared in such titles as “Source Code” (2011) with Jake Gyllenhall, and Michelle Monaghan, “The Conjuring” (2013), and “The Judge” (2014) with Robert Downey Jr. and Robert Duval. Most recently, she has been featured in TV series and films “Bates Motel” (2013-2016), “Burn Your Maps” (2016), and “Conjuring 2” (2016), among others, all of which have contributed to her net worth.
Thanks to her talents, Vera has received several prestigious nominations and awards, including an Oscar nomination in the category Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role for her work on the film “Up In The Air”, and she also won the Saturn Award in the category Best Actress in a Television Series for her work on “Bates Motel”.
Regarding her personal life, Vera Farmiga has been married to musician Renn Hawkey since September of 2008; the couple has two children and they spend their time divided between their homes in Vancouver and New York. Previously, she was married toactor Sebastian Roche (1997-2005).
The British Independent Film Award for Best Performance by an Actress in a British Independent Film, Satellite Award for Best Ensemble – Motion Picture, National Board of Review Award for Best Cast, People's Choice Award for Favorite Cable TV Actress, Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award for...
Nominations
Academy Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role, Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series, Critics' Choice Television Award for Best Actress in a Drama Series, Critics' Choice Movie Award for Best Acting Ensemble, Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Moti...
Movies
“Source Code” (2011), “The Conjuring” (2013), “The Judge” (2014), “Up In The Air” (2009), “Orphan” (2009), “The Conjuring”
I'm really serious about boxing these days. Boxing is a great way for me to get out of my head and get out of my heart and just like sweat it out, honestly. I'm very serious about it. If I didn't have the insurance, I would honestly start sparring and start competing in boxing, because I'm that serious and love it. It's a huge passion of mine.
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My parents are very sensible and grounded, they take it with a pinch of salt. You know, I'm one of seven and they want success for all their children. They're proud but they're even more proud now that I've given them grandchildren.
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I've gravitated towards independent cinema because you have to work harder in studio scripts to flesh out characters, particularly female ones. They are not as sharply edged, they tend to be quite watery. They are not renderings of women as I know them.
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I'm not an attention seeker; I wasn't looking for fame and fortune. I wasn't sure while I was at college. But I found I was really comfortable taking on a different personality. It saved me from myself, in a way.
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[on giving up music and dancing] I don't regret it. I'm a jack-of-that-trade. There's not enough time, genuinely, not enough time in the day. So you choose your weapons. And the piano...I will not have time for the next decade until my children are grown! It's not about me anymore. It's not about myself. It's about them and the very little time I have left for me.
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I keep finding the most compelling characters in independent films. A lot of the roles in the other kinds of films were peripheral princesses or just boring, boring women - female characters that were utterly ordinary and devoid of any personality or spirituality. Is that a reflection of what we've become as women? That's something that we sometimes don't think about. You see all these stupid, materialist, horny, nympho characters that people put up there in movies, and you have to think: Is that what feminine dignity has come to?
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[on directing] My big formative experience was Debra Granik. That was school for me. It was the first time anyone had given me the responsibility of a protagonist, and to work so closely with her ethics and her tenets about her filmmaking, and her honesty. I was persuaded through the Deborah Granik School.
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My culture is very rich in the art; singing and dance were so much a part of my childhood. I was in a traveling professional dance troupe called Syzokryli, and I was very serious about the piano. So I was always performing.
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[on Up in the Air (2009)] Jason Reitman sketches these characters and shines a real stark spotlight on them that illuminates all their foibles, all of their deficiencies, quirks, eccentricities and yet you still manage to root for them because their so human and complex. And I saw that in Alex.
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[on any difficulties she encountered in casting Higher Ground (2011)] It should have been a lot harder. I'd say, "It's about a woman enmeshed in this very particular spiritual community who's trying to conceptualize and define God for herself". And you use the word "God" and people quake with fear. That's when I started to realize what a touchy, bizarre, sensitive, combative subject matter it is.
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Doubt is the middle position between knowledge and ignorance. It encompasses cynicism but also genuine questioning.
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My dad is someone who feels the breath of God on his face. He's tapping into something that I have yet to tap into - and yearn to.
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[on her film, Higher Ground (2011)] You've got fundamentalism, and you've got relativism. I wanted to push both ways and try to come at it from a middle ground.
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What happened is that I ended up getting benched in soccer in high school so I tried out for the school play and I got the lead role. Then I just stuck with it.
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I just can't feel lukewarm about a character. I either despise her, admire her, or don't understand her and want to understand her.
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As an actor, you're sort of the court-appointed lawyer of the character. And that's what used to draw me to scripts -- something in a woman that I wanted to defend, something that I recognized or wanted to understand, something that turned my head. Now that I'm a mother, I think it's more the message of a film, or the questions that they pose about life -- that's the magnifying glass through which I look at them now. But at first it was all about the character.
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I'm not in this for the achievement. I'm in it for the illumination. That's how I choose my roles, that's how I attract roles -- it's a very spiritual process for me. And it's the only way I can continue, and stay interested. The acting ... it's really a vocation.
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There are some times when I think acting can be a noble profession.
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I really don't feel a need to be famous. But I do feel a need to make a difference, to shed light on human emotion through acting.
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It's terrifying to be the lead. There's a moment of excitement, and then pure terror.
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I can't do Los Angeles. I've always been the anti-Barbie. I don't want to be in a place where almost every woman walks around with puffy lips, little noses and breasts large enough to nourish a small country. As a kid I wanted attention, so I started praying for glasses because everyone had ace vision in my family. Then one day my eyes started going bad and never stopped.
Returned to work 3 months after giving birth to her daughter Gytta in order to begin filming Goats (2012).
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Was 5 months pregnant with her daughter Gytta when she completed filming on Higher Ground (2011).
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Gave birth to her 2nd child at age 37, daughter Gytta Lubov Hawkey on November 4, 2010. Child's father is her 2nd husband, Renn Hawkey.
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Was originally cast as Wallis Simpson in W.E. (2011), but was forced to drop out due to her second pregnancy. Andrea Riseborough was then cast instead.
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A body double was used during her nude scene in Up in the Air (2009) as she had just recently given birth to her son Fynn.
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Auditioned for the role of Vesper Lynd in Casino Royale (2006), but Eva Green was cast instead.
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Returned to work 2 months after giving birth to her son Fynn in order to begin filming Up in the Air (2009).
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Gave birth to her 1st child at age 35, son Fynn Hawkey on January 15, 2009. Child's father is her 2nd husband, Renn Hawkey.
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Was member of the dramatic jury at the Sundance Film Festival in 2005.
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Graduated from Hunterdon Central Regional High School Class of 1991.