The Winner: Rachel Weisz

(CBS)  After making 20 films in 10 years, British actress Rachel Weisz has stepped into the glare of movie award season for her performance in "The Constant Gardener."

The Academy Award nomination as best supporting actress for the 2005 thriller "The Constant Gardener" is the first Oscar nod for Weisz.

In January, she picked up the Golden Globe award from the Hollywood Foreign Press Association as best supporting actress in a movie for the role.

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More from CBSNews.com on Rachel Weisz and on the Oscars ...

See the Rachel Weisz photo essay for more pictures.

Watch The Early Show interview.

Find out about all the nominees in the Academy Awards special report.

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In this thriller based on the novel by John le Carre, Weisz plays Tessa Quayle, a human-rights activist in Kenya whose brutal murder sends her diplomat husband, played by Ralph Fiennes, into an international investigation of crime and corruption.

Weisz was born in London on March 7, 1971, and studied at Cambridge University. Moviegoers will remember her appearing with Ralph Fiennes' brother, Joseph Fiennes, in "Enemy at the Gates" in 2001. She also appeared in the blockbuster "The Mummy Returns" in 1999, and she co-starred with Hugh Grant in the comedy "About a Boy," in 2002.

Weisz is also the "face of Revlon" in print advertising.

She now divides her time between London and New York, where she lives with director Darren Aronofsky. Her next major role reportedly will be in a film directed and written by Aronofsky called "The Fountain."