Catherine Zeta Jones (pronounced /ˈziːtə/ "zeeta"; born 25 September 1969 in Swansea, South Wales) is a Welsh actress, currently based in the United States. She began her career on stage at an early age. After starring in a number of UK and US television films and small roles in films, she came to prominence with roles in Hollywood movies such as The Phantom, The Mask of Zorro, and Entrapment in the late 1990s. She won an Academy Award, BAFTA Award and a Screen Actors Guild Award and was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for portraying Velma Kelly in the 2002 film adaptation of Chicago.

Zeta-Jones' mother, Patricia (née Fair), was an Irish seamstress, and her father, David "Dai" Jones (b. 1946), was a Welsh sweet factory owner. Her name stems from those of her grandmothers — her maternal grandmother, Catherine Fair, and her paternal grandmother, Zeta Jones (1917 – 14 August 2008).

Zeta-Jones was raised Catholic. After her parents won £100,000 at bingo in the 1980s, they moved to St. Andrews Drive in Mayals, an upper-class area of Swansea. Zeta-Jones left school early to further her acting ambitions without obtaining O levels and went on to attend The Arts Educational Schools in Chiswick, West London, for a full-time three-year course in musical theatre.