Sandra Bullock (born July 26, 1964) is an acclaimed American actress and producer who was named the world's highest-paid actress in 2010 and 2014, and has won an Academy Award, a Golden Globe, and two Screen Actors Guild Awards. After her breakthrough in the action thriller Speed (1994), she became a versatile star, leading major hits like Miss Congeniality (2000), The Proposal (2009), and Bird Box (2018). She won the Best Actress Oscar for her role in The Blind Side (2009) and earned another nomination for the sci-fi thriller Gravity (2013), her highest-grossing live-action film. Raised partly in Germany, she grew up speaking German and studied ballet and opera before earning a BFA in Drama from East Carolina University; she later founded the production company Fortis Films and was dubbed "America's sweetheart" by the media. She applied for German citizenship in 2009 while maintaining her American citizenship, and was named one of Time's 100 most influential people in 2010.