Biography
With the arrival of her first full-length album, Everything I've Got in My Pocket, in 2004, Minnie Driver joined the ranks of screen actors attempting a parallel path in pop music. Born Amelia Driver in London on January 31, 1970, she spent her early childhood in Barbados before her parents separated when she was seven, prompting her move to a boarding school in Hampshire, England. Her mother, the former model Gaynor Churchward, urged her toward acting, and Driver later completed drama studies at the Webber-Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art. Her first professional screen credit came in 1990 with the telefilm God on the Rocks, after which she appeared in episodes of The House of Eliott and Lovejoy. During those same years she performed with the jazz ensemble Puff, Rocks and Brown and secured a development deal from Island Records, though she set music aside once cast in 1995 as Benny Hogan, the Irish schoolgirl at the center of Circle of Friends, a role that required her to gain twenty-five pounds.
Determined to avoid being pigeonholed, she quickly lost the added weight and closed out the year as a seductive lounge singer in GoldenEye, the James Bond installment. Driver then concentrated on American independent films, building an impressive résumé that included Big Night and Grosse Pointe Blank. Her performance in 1997’s Good Will Hunting brought an Academy Award nomination, while her widely publicized relationship with co-star Matt Damon ended suddenly and acrimoniously. In subsequent years, tabloid coverage of her romantic life often overshadowed her film work; although An Ideal Husband in 1999 and Return to Me in 2000 underperformed commercially, she again drew notice in 2001 when her six-month engagement to Josh Brolin dissolved amid reports of interference by Brolin’s mother-in-law, Barbra Streisand. Two years later she took a recurring guest part on the NBC sitcom Will and Grace, and in 2004 she landed the role of Carlotta in the long-gestating screen version of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s The Phantom of the Opera.
Even as her acting career ascended, Driver kept composing songs and gradually shifted from jazz toward a roots-oriented folk-pop sound shaped by Bruce Springsteen and Neil Young. During a pause in acting commitments she restarted live performances, signed with the Zoe/Rounder label, and issued Everything I've Got in My Pocket to surprisingly strong notices at the end of 2004. She followed with her second album, Seastories, in 2007; recorded in Los Angeles and New York, the project featured contributions from Ryan Adams and the Cardinals plus guest backing vocals from Liz Phair on one track. Driver devoted the next several years primarily to acting and to raising her son Henry, born in 2008, yet she portrayed a glam-rock-obsessed teacher in the 2011 film Hunky Dory and supplied backing vocals for albums by Tired Pony and the Latebirds. In 2014 she released her third album, Ask Me to Dance, a collection of covers that reinterpreted material by Neil Young, Elliott Smith, Paul Weller, John Prine, the Cure, the Killers, and others.
Determined to avoid being pigeonholed, she quickly lost the added weight and closed out the year as a seductive lounge singer in GoldenEye, the James Bond installment. Driver then concentrated on American independent films, building an impressive résumé that included Big Night and Grosse Pointe Blank. Her performance in 1997’s Good Will Hunting brought an Academy Award nomination, while her widely publicized relationship with co-star Matt Damon ended suddenly and acrimoniously. In subsequent years, tabloid coverage of her romantic life often overshadowed her film work; although An Ideal Husband in 1999 and Return to Me in 2000 underperformed commercially, she again drew notice in 2001 when her six-month engagement to Josh Brolin dissolved amid reports of interference by Brolin’s mother-in-law, Barbra Streisand. Two years later she took a recurring guest part on the NBC sitcom Will and Grace, and in 2004 she landed the role of Carlotta in the long-gestating screen version of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s The Phantom of the Opera.
Even as her acting career ascended, Driver kept composing songs and gradually shifted from jazz toward a roots-oriented folk-pop sound shaped by Bruce Springsteen and Neil Young. During a pause in acting commitments she restarted live performances, signed with the Zoe/Rounder label, and issued Everything I've Got in My Pocket to surprisingly strong notices at the end of 2004. She followed with her second album, Seastories, in 2007; recorded in Los Angeles and New York, the project featured contributions from Ryan Adams and the Cardinals plus guest backing vocals from Liz Phair on one track. Driver devoted the next several years primarily to acting and to raising her son Henry, born in 2008, yet she portrayed a glam-rock-obsessed teacher in the 2011 film Hunky Dory and supplied backing vocals for albums by Tired Pony and the Latebirds. In 2014 she released her third album, Ask Me to Dance, a collection of covers that reinterpreted material by Neil Young, Elliott Smith, Paul Weller, John Prine, the Cure, the Killers, and others.
Albums
