Nicole Mary Kidman is an Australian actress and producer. She began her acting career in Australia with the 1983 films Bush Christmas and BMX Bandits. Her breakthrough came in 1989 with the thriller Dead Calm and the television miniseries Bangkok Hilton. In 1990, she made her Hollywood debut in the racing film Days of Thunder, opposite Tom Cruise. She went on to achieve wider recognition with leading roles in Far and Away (1992), Batman Forever (1995), To Die For (1995), and Eyes Wide Shut (1999). She received two consecutive nominations for the Academy Award for Best Actress for playing a courtesan in the musical Moulin Rouge! (2001) and the writer Virginia Woolf in the drama film The Hours (2002); she won the award for the latter and received Golden Globes for both films.