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Kate Elizabeth Winslet (born 5 October 1975) is a five-time Academy Award-nominated, Golden Globe-nominated, Emmy Award-nominated, BAFTA, Grammy and Screen Actors Guild Award-winning English actress.

Kate Winslet was born in Reading, Berkshire, England, the daughter of Sally Ann, a barmaid, and Roger John Winslet, a swimming-pool contractor. Both of her parents were also actors. Her maternal grandparents, Linda and Archibald Oliver Bridges, founded and operated the Reading Repertory, and her uncle, Robert Bridges, appeared in the original West End production of Oliver! Her sisters, Beth Winslet and Anna Winslet, are also actresses.

Winslet, raised as an Anglican, began studying drama at the age of eleven at the Redroofs Theatre School, a co-educational independent school in Maidenhead, Berkshire, where she was head girl and appeared in a television commercial for Sugar Puffs cereal, directed by Tim Pope. Throughout her adolescence, she was severely bullied for being overweight and having exceptionally large feet.

Winslet's career began on television, with a co-starring role in the BBC children's science fiction serial Dark Season in 1991.

Her film career took off with praise and recognition in 1994 when she starred in a joint leading role, as Juliet Hulme in director Peter Jackson's critically acclaimed Heavenly Creatures. This role was followed by the successful film Sense and Sensibility, which made her well-known, especially in the UK. Winslet became famous worldwide after the 1997 release of Titanic, a massive hit which holds the record as highest-grossing film in history (not accounting for inflation) at more than US$1 billion in box-office worldwide. It went on to win 11 Academy Awards. She was also originally cast as Nola Rice in Woody Allen's movie, Match Point, but declined. She stated she had just finished two movies and wanted to spend time with her kids. The part went to Scarlett Johansson. Winslet has been regarded as something of a critics' darling, generally receiving positive reviews for every one of her films.

Winslet has also enjoyed a brief taste of success as a singer, with her single "What If" from the soundtrack of Christmas Carol: The Movie, which reached #1 in Ireland and #6 in the UK (she filmed a music video for the song). She has participated in a duet with "Weird Al" Yankovic on the Sandra Boynton CD Dog Train, and sang in the 2006 film Romance and Cigarettes. She sang an aria from La Boheme, called "Sono andati", in her film Heavenly Creatures, which is featured on the film's soundtrack. She was considered for the lead in Moulin Rouge! (which eventually went to Nicole Kidman); had she taken the part, she would have sung the full soundtrack.

While on the set of Dark Season, Winslet shared a five-year romance with actor and writer Stephen Tredre. They moved to London during their relationship.

After their romance, she began a relationship with Rufus Sewell. After filming Titanic, Tredre died of bone cancer. Winslet was not at the premier of Titanic because she was attending his funeral in London.

She is best friends with Titanic co-star Leonardo DiCaprio.

On 22 November 1998, Winslet married director Jim Threapleton. The two have a daughter, Mia Honey, who was born on 12 October 2000.

After a divorce in 2001, Winslet began a relationship with Sam Mendes, whom she married on 24 May 2003 on the island of Anguilla in the Caribbean. Their son, Joe Alfie Mendes, was born on 22 December 2003.

The media, particularly in England, have enthusiastically documented her weight fluctuations over the years. Winslet has been outspoken about her refusal to lose weight in order to conform to the Hollywood ideal. In February 2003, the British edition of Gentlemen's Quarterly magazine published photographs of Winslet which had been digitally enhanced to make her look dramatically thinner than she really was; Winslet issued a statement saying that the alterations were made without her consent. GQ issued an apology in the subsequent issue.

Winslet and her husband Mendes currently reside in New York City. They also own a manor house in the tiny village of Church Westcote in Gloucestershire, England. Winslet and Mendes spent £3 million on the secluded Westcote Manor, a rambling Grade II-listed house with eight bedrooms, set in 22 acres. They have reportedly spent more than £1 million on interior renovations, as well as restoring the original water garden, mulberry garden and orchard, all of which fell into disrepair when the former owner, equestrian artist Raoul Millais, died in 1999.