Sandra Annette Bullock (pronounced /ˈbʊlək/; born July 26, 1964) is an American actress who came to fame in the 1990s, after roles in successful films such as Speed and While You Were Sleeping. She has since established her career as a well-known leading Hollywood actress, with films such as Miss Congeniality and Crash, which received critical acclaim. In 2007 she was ranked as the 14th richest female celebrity with an estimated fortune of $98 million.

Sandra Annette Bullock was born in Arlington County, Virginia, the daughter of Helga D. Meyer, a German opera singer and part-time vocal coach, and John W. Bullock, a voice coach and executive from Alabama. Bullock's maternal grandfather was a rocket scientist from Nuremberg, Germany. Bullock lived in Nuremberg until age twelve, where she sang in the opera's children's choir at the Staatstheater Nürnberg. She frequently traveled with her mother on her opera tours, and lived in Germany and other parts of Europe for much of her childhood. She is fluent in German. Bullock studied ballet and vocal arts as a child, taking small parts in her mother's opera productions.

Bullock attended Washington-Lee High School where she was a cheerleader, participated in high school theater productions and dated a football player. She graduated in 1982 and enrolled in East Carolina University in Greenville, North Carolina. She left East Carolina during her senior year (Spring 1986), only three credits short of graduating, to pursue an acting career. She moved to Manhattan to pursue auditions and supported herself with a variety of odd jobs (bartender, cocktail waitress, coat checker).