Born on November 12, 1982, in Brooklyn, New York, and moved to Millburn, New Jersey, when she was six years old. She is the daughter of Gerald Hathaway, a lawyer, and Kate McCauley, an actress who inspired Hathaway to follow in her footsteps. She was named after the wife of playwright William Shakespeare. She has an older brother, Michael, and a younger brother, Thomas. Hathaway has mainly Irish and French ancestry, with more distant German and Native American roots.
Hathaway was raised a Catholic with what she considered "really strong values," and has stated she wanted to be a nun during her childhood. However, at the age of fifteen she decided not to become a nun after learning that her brother Michael was gay. Despite her Catholic upbringing, she felt that she could not be part of a religion that disapproved of her brother's sexual orientation. She has stated that she is a non-denominational Christian. As a teenager, she actually spent many of her summers going to a Christian camp called Camp Johnsonburg, also known as the Johnsonburg Presbyterian Center.
Hathaway was raised in Millburn, New Jersey. A very intelligent child, she was involved in a Montessori program as a preschooler and was then able to enter first grade when she was technically still a kindergartener. Hathaway graduated from Millburn High School where she participated in many school plays. Hathaway's high school performance as Winifred in "Once Upon a Mattress" garnered her the New Jersey Rising Star Award nomination for best performance by a high school actress. She spent several semesters studying at Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, New York before transferring to New York University's Gallatin School of Individualized Study. Hathaway was an English major with a minor in Women's Studies, and while attending Vassar participated in the school's all-female a capella singing group Measure 4 Measure. She referred to her college enrollment as one of her best decisions because she enjoyed being with others who were trying to "grow up." Hathaway was a member of the Barrow Group Theater Company's acting program and was the first teenager ever admitted into the program. She is a trained stage actress and has stated that she prefers appearing on stage to film roles.
A soprano, Hathaway performed twice in 1998 with the All Eastern U.S. High School Honors Chorus at Carnegie Hall and has performed in plays at Seton Hall Prep in West Orange. Three days after performing at Carnegie Hall, she was cast in the short-lived 1999 television series Get Real.
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