Helena Bonham Carter (born on May 26, 1966) is an English actress.

Initially renowned for her portrayal of pre- and early 20th century characters, particularly in Merchant Ivory films, Bonham Carter now has a high profile for more recent films such as Fight Club, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Tim Burton's Corpse Bride and Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit.

She was born in Golders Green, in London, and educated at South Hampstead High School and Westminster School. Her father came from a famous British political and theatrical family; she is the great-granddaughter of the former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Herbert Henry Asquith, and members of her family are Life Peers. Her maternal grandfather was a Spanish ambassador and a Roman Catholic; her maternal grandmother came from a rich Austrian-based Jewish family, and had converted to Catholicism upon marrying her ambassador husband. She is a great-niece of the late Baroness Liliane de Rothschild (1916-2003) of the Rothschild banking family, as her maternal grandmother's sister married a member of the Rothschild family.

Her launch into the world of acting came when she won a writing competition in her early teens while at South Hampstead High School and decided to spend the prize money on employing a theatrical agent. It is a matter of interpretation what her film debut was. Strictly speaking, her first role was in a small part in an obscure film A Pattern of Roses, but this is little remembered. Her first starring role to be filmed was in Lady Jane, which was eventually released to somewhat mixed reviews. Her breakthrough was A Room with a View, which was filmed later but released earlier. These films led to her being typecast as a "corset queen", an "English rose" in costume dramas, but eventually she expanded her range.

For a few years she was in a relationship with Kenneth Branagh (costing Branagh his own marriage to Emma Thompson) and they appeared in a number of films together, but they split up. Since 2001 she has been engaged to Tim Burton whom she met while filming Planet of the Apes. They have one son, Billy-Ray Burton, born on October 4, 2003.

At one point she had to take out a court order against a man who had been stalking her, banning him from entering a large area around her home.

Selected filmography

• Netty in A Pattern of Roses (1983)
• Lady Jane Grey in Lady Jane (1986)
• Lucy Honeychurch in A Room with a View (1986) (novel by E. M. Forster)
• Ophelia in Hamlet (1990) (film by Franco Zeffirelli)
• Caroline Abbott in Where Angels Fear to Tread (1991) (novel by E. M. Forster)
• Helen Schlegel in Howards End (1992) (novel by E. M. Forster)
• Elizabeth in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (1994)
• Margaret MacNeil in Margaret's Museum (1995)
• Armanda Weinrib in Mighty Aphrodite (1995) (film by Woody Allen)
• Kate Croy in The Wings of the Dove (1997) (novel by Henry James) for which she was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress
• Rosemary in Keep the Aspidistra Flying (1997) (novel by George Orwell)
• Morgan le Fay in Merlin (1998)
• Marla Singer in Fight Club (1999) (novel by Chuck Palahniuk)
• Ari in Planet of the Apes (2001)
• Susan Ivey in Novocaine (2001)
• Ingrid Formanek in Live From Baghdad (2002) (HBO Films)
• Anne Boleyn in Henry VIII (2003)
• Jenny/The Witch in Big Fish (2003)
• Mrs. Bucket in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005) directed by her fiancé Tim Burton
• The Corpse Bride in Tim Burton's Corpse Bride (voice, 2005)
• Lady Campanula Tottington in Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (voice, 2005)
• Maggi in Magnificent 7 (2005).