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Early life and background. Natalie Hershlag [4] was born on June 9, 1981, in Jerusalem, to Jewish parents with roots in Poland, Russia, Austria, and Romania. [7] [5] [8] [9] [10] She is the only child of Shelley ( née Stevens), [11] an American homemaker who works as Portman's agent, and Avner Hershlag, an Israeli-born gynecologist. [12] .
Natalie Portman is an Oscar-winning actress born in Jerusalem, Israel, to an Israeli-born doctor and an American-born artist. Her parents are both of Ashkenazi Jewish descent and she has two children with her ex-husband Benjamin Millepied.
- June 9, 1981
- The Professional and Heat
- Beautiful Girls, Everyone Says I Love You, and Mars Attacks!
- Playing Queen Amidala in Star Wars
- Garden State, Closer, V For Vendetta, and The Other Boleyn Girl
- Oscar Win For Black Swan
- No Strings Attached and Thor
- Award Nominations For Jackie
- Annihilation Controversy
- Vox Lux and Lucy in The Sky
- GeneratedCaptionsTabForHeroSec
Portman made her movie debut in Luc Besson’s memorable 1994 feature The Professional. The demanding role, which featured her as a hitman’s apprentice, caught the attention of critics and audiences. The following year, her fame grew with a brief but captivating performance as Al Pacino’s troubled daughter in Heat(1995).
In her subsequent film projects, Portman held her own alongside Hollywood’s A-list actors and directors. Ted Demme’s heartwarming film Beautiful Girls (1996) featured Portman in a pivotal role as a coming-of-age pre-teen. She was noted for her charming performance, opposite an impressive cast, including Matt Dillon, Timothy Hutton, Uma Thurman, and...
Portman returned to film in 1999, gaining international recognition for playing Queen Amidala in George Lucas’ eagerly anticipated prequel Star Wars I: The Phantom Menace. Portman reprised the role in Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones (2002) and Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith(2005). Meanwhile, she was cast opposite Susan Sa...
In 2004, Portman starred in the romantic comedy Garden State and delivered a Golden Globe-winning performance in Closer, directed by Mike Nichols and co-starring Clive Owen, Julia Roberts, and Jude Law. Portman also won critical praise for her role in 2006’s dystopian fantasy V for Vendetta. In 2008, she starred in historical drama The Other Boleyn...
Portman’s next big role came in 2010, when she portrayed a ballerina who is obsessed with her art in Darren Aronofsky’s Black Swan. Portman reportedly lost 20 pounds and went through rigorous dance training for the film, which was a critical success. She won both the Golden Globe and Academy Award for Best Actress for the role.
After her Oscar win, Portman appeared in the drama Hesher (2010), the romantic comedy No Strings Attached (2011), and the period comedy Your Highness (2011). The acclaimed actor also threw herself into superhero fare as the female lead in Thor (2011) and the sequel Thor: The Dark World (2013). In 2019, it was announced that Portman would replace er...
After starring in Terrence Malick’s Knight of Cups (2015) and the western Jane Got a Gun (2016), Portman dug into a highly publicized role with the biopic Jackie (2016), in which she portrayed former First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy following the assassination of her husband President John F. Kennedy. Portman received Golden Globe and Oscar nomination...
The actor was thrust into a “whitewashing” controversy after signing on for an adaptation of the sci-fi horror novel Annihilation(2018). In the book, Portman’s character is of Asian descent, though that information isn’t revealed until the sequel. Insisting she wasn’t aware of her character’s lineage, Portman noted that the casting issue sounded “p...
Later in 2018, Portman took on another attention-grabbing role in Vox Lux, as a school shooting survivor who becomes an unstable pop diva. The following year, she co-starred with Jon Hamm in Lucy in the Sky, based loosely on the real-life story of astronaut Lisa Nowak’s personal problems after returning from space. Portman started dating ballet dan...
Natalie Portman is an Oscar-winning actor born in Jerusalem, Israel, who immigrated to the U.S. with her parents. She has two children with her husband, dancer Benjamin Millepied, and starred in films such as Black Swan, Thor, and Jackie.
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May 3, 2024 · Natalie Hershlag was born in Jerusalem; her mother was American and her father, who later became a fertility doctor, was Israeli. In 1984 the family moved to the United States, eventually settling in Syosset, Long Island, New York.
- Richard Pallardy
Portman entered the demanding industry as a child, and her parents made sure it didn't crush her.
Learn about Natalie Portman's parents, her Israeli father and American mother, and how they influenced her life and career. Find out about her childhood moves, her vegetarianism, her acting ambitions and more.
Natalie Portman is an Oscar-winning actress, producer and director, born in Jerusalem, Israel, to an Israeli-born doctor and an American-born artist. Her parents are both of Ashkenazi Jewish descent and she has one sibling, a sister named Amalia.
