Her father, Emil Erich Zellweger, is from Au, a small town in the canton of St. Gallen, Switzerland, and is a mechanical and electrical engineer who worked in the oil refining business.
V svoji karieri je bila Renée Zellweger nagrajena s tremi zlatimi globusi in tremi nagradami Screen Actors Guild Awards, organizacija Hasty Pudding jo je imenovala za »žensko leta« v letu 2009, prepoznali pa so jo tudi za eno izmed najbolje plačanih igralk v Hollywoodu preteklih let.