Elizabeth Banks was born Elizabeth Maresal Mitchell in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, on February 10, 1974. Growing up in her small Berkshires town near the New York State border, Elizabeth rode horses, was nominated to be the local Harvest Queen and generally stayed out of trouble. After graduating from Pittsfield High School in 1992, she moved away from home for the first time to attend college at the University of Pennsylvania. In 1996, she graduated magna cum laude.


Elizabeth Banks chose to pursue a career as an actress, and next relocated to San Francisco, where she studied at the American Conservatory Theater. Two years later, Elizabeth moved to New York and began taking bit parts in movies like Surrender Dorothy (1998), Shaft (2000), Wet Hot American Summer (2001), and Ordinary Sinner (2001), as well as on TV shows, including Third Watch, Sex and the City and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. During this time, Elizabeth began to be credited as Elizabeth Banks, taking a stage name because there was already an established actress named Elizabeth Mitchell.