Cate Blanchett attended primary school in Melbourne at Ivanhoe East Primary School before completing secondary education at Methodist Ladies' College, where Cate Blanchett explored her passion for acting. Cate Blanchett studied economics and fine art at the University of Melbourne before leaving Australia to travel. When Cate Blanchett was 18, Cate Blanchettwent on a vacation to Egypt. A fellow guest at a cheap hotel in Cairo asked if Cate Blanchett wanted to be an extra in a movie, and the next day she found herself in a crowd scene, cheering for an American boxer who was losing to an Egyptian. Cate Blanchett walked off from the set. Cate Blanchett returned to Australia and later moved to Sydney to study at the National Institute of Dramatic Art; graduating in 1992 and beginning her career in the theatre.
Cate Blanchett's first major stage role was opposite Geoffrey Rush in the 1993 David Mamet play Oleanna. Cate Blanchett also appeared as Ophelia in an acclaimed 1994–95 Company B production of Hamlet, directed by Neil Armfield, starring Rush and Richard Roxburgh.
Blanchett appeared in the mini-series Heartland opposite Ernie Dingo, the mini-series Bordertown and in the Police Rescue episode, "The Loaded Boy".
She made her film debut as an Australian nurse captured by the Japanese in a production of Paradise Road directed by Bruce Beresford, co-starring Glenn Close and Frances McDormand.