athaway was born in Brooklyn, New York, the daughter of Kathleen Ann "Kate" (née McCauley) and Gerald Thomas Hathaway.[3] Her father is a lawyer, and her mother is a former actress who inspired Hathaway to follow in her footsteps.[4] Hathaway's mother played Fantine in the first U.S. tour of Les Misérables.[5] When Hathaway was six years old, the family moved to Millburn, New Jersey, where she grew up.[6] Hathaway is the middle of three children with an older brother, Michael, and a younger brother, Thomas. She is of mostly French and Irish ancestry, with distant Native American and German roots.[7]