Winstead was born on Nov. 28, 1984 in Rocky Mount, NC, the youngest of five siblings after three older sisters and an older brother. At age five, the Winsteads packed up and moved to the Salt Lake City county of Sandy, UT. At Peruvian Park Elementary, Winstead shone academically, eventually reaching the upper echelon of the school’s advanced classes, but her performance skills also began to emerge with interests in ballet and acting. She put her acting talent to use in the fourth grade, starring as Juliet in a school production of “Romeo and Juliet” – around the same time her parents revealed she was a distant cousin of screen legend Ava Gardner.

During her youth, Winstead appeared locally in the Mountain West Ballet’s version of “The Nutcracker.” Expecting to become a ballerina, at the age of 11, she received the opportunity to study dance in a summer program of the prestigious Joffrey Ballet School in New York. There, she studied ballet and jazz, but decided to also segue into acting lessons as well. Winstead ended up appearing on Broadway during Donny Osmond’s six-year run of “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat,” in which she would also appear along with her choirmates back home at Kingsbury Hall.

Back home, Winstead went on to Midvale Middle School in the seventh grade, but into her second year there, began landing parts on local Hollywood productions, putting in a guest appearance on some of CBS’ family friendly shows like “Touched by an Angel” (1994-2003) in 1997 and two appearances on “Promised Land” (1996-99) in 1998. Following eighth grade, Winstead made the leap toward Hollywood, heading to Los Angeles after being drafted into the soap world of NBC’s “Passions” (1999- ). In 1999, she originated the role of dutiful daughter Jessica Bennett, which she filled until 2000, while being home schooled. The role netted Winstead a Young Artist Award nomination in 2001.

Winstead soon began a long flirtation with darker material on another CBS’ drama, starring as the sheriff’s daughter Sophia Donner on the short-lived werewolf series, “Wolf Lake” (2001-02). After the demise of that series, she found herself trapped with different beasts on “Monster Island” (2004) for MTV. In 2005, Winstead officially made herself known to mainstream moviegoers in a slew of mainstream genre films, kicking off with the long-awaited “The Ring Two” (2005), in which she briefly appeared in flashback as the mother of the murdered, evil Samara. Trying her hand at comedy, she went the independent route as the Jewish daughter of a large zany family in the indie feature “Checking Out” (2005), but her screen time fared better in the more mainstream Disney confection, “Sky High” (2005) – in which she memorably starred as Gwen Grayson, the in-disguise alter ego of the superhero Royal Pain.

With some strong exposure, 2006 saw Winstead forge a working relationship with the director-writer team of James Wong and Glen Morgan – formerly best known for their memorable work on “The X-Files” (Fox, 1993-2002) – Winstead and her “Sky High” co-star, Ryan Merriman, landed in the path of the grim reaper’s master plan in “Final Destination 3” (2006). She had failed to land a part in “Final Destination 2” (2003), but found her place in the third installment – which many deemed the best of the franchise. Morgan and Wong wanted to work with her again and got her to reluctantly do a turn in their sorority slasher remake of “Black Christmas” (2006). One day, Winstead inadvertently got a chance to poke fun at horror scream queens when “The Tonight Show” host Jay Leno, unaware of who she was, knocked on her front door one day and included her in a “Jaywalking” segment on horror movies.