Beautiful Zone

Banks was born Elizabeth Maresal Mitchell in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, as the oldest of four children of Ann and Mark Mitchell. Her father was a factory worker for General Electric and her mother, until recently, worked in a bank. As a young child, she was a contestant on the Nickelodeon game show Finders Keepers. She graduated from Pittsfield High School in 1992 and is a magna cum laude graduate of the University of Pennsylvania in 1996, where she was a member of Delta Delta Delta Sorority. She was the first in her family to graduate from college. In 1998, she completed schooling at the American Conservatory Theater.