Audiences first noticed a Canadian-born New Zealand actress in the film, The Piano, where she earned an Academy Award for best supporting actress. At the time, she was age eleven.

That was in 1991. In 2008, she's best known for her role as a telepathic waitress at Merlot's Bar in a sleepy Louisiana town beset by vampires. In her role as Sookie Stackhouse, Anna Paquin falls in love with Bill Compton, a 150-year-old vampire who returns to Bon Temps to settle in an ancestor's home. In real life, it appears that Anna has fallen for the man who plays Bill Compton, Stephen Moyer, and they've become the seasonal "hot couple" along with the sizzling popularity of the HBO show, True Blood.

Paquin began her career when she read for The Piano after she tagged along after her sister who was bent on getting the part. Paquin's previous experience was a role as a skunk in a school play. During her childhood, she had little interest in acting, although she did have a well-rounded cultural life as she played the viola, cello and piano and she participated in gymnastics, ballet, swimming and downhill skiing.

Paquin completed her high school education in Los Angeles, where she moved with her mother following her mother's divorce in 1995. Five years later, Paquin again achieved notariety in her role as Rogue in the blockbuster X-Men movie, its sequel in 2003 and the third installment in 2006. That summer, she completed filming Blue State. She also was the executive-producer of the film through her company Paquin Films, a production company co-owned by her brother, Andrew.

After several more movie gigs, Paquin landed the role of Sookie Stackhouse in the HBO series, True Blood. This role was her first television appearance and won a Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Television Drama Series for her role in the show.

In 2009, Paquin played Irena Sendler, a Polish woman hailed as a heroine of the Holocaust, in The Courageous Heart of Irena Sendler, a CBS TV film biopic based on the book, Mother of the Children of the Holocaust: The Irena Sendler Story, by Anna Mieszkowska. The film was made in Latvia, and was a Hallmark Hall of Fame presentation for the network.

Paquin already is deep into the second season of True Blood, and she lives in Venice, Los Angeles, California. Representatives for Paquin and Moyer confirmed on 6 August that the couple was engaged.

Image: Anna Paquin in 2009.