Renee Zellweger was born in Katy, Texas, a western suburb of Houston. Her father, Emil Erich Zellweger, is a Swiss-born mechanical and electrical engineer who worked in the oil refining business. Zellweger's mother, Kjellfried Irene (née Andreassen), is Norwegian-born and of Sami origin, and is a nurse and midwife who moved to the United States in order to work as a governess for a Norwegian family in Texas. Zellweger described herself as being raised in a family of "lazy Catholics and Episcopalians". She has an older brother, Andrew.