Natalie Portman

Biography:

Natalie Hershlag, later known professionally as Natalie Portman, was born on June 9, 1981, at Hadassah Medical Center in Mount Scopus, West Jerusalem, to Jewish parents. She is the only child of Shelley Stevens, an artist from Ohio, and Avner Hershlag, an Israeli gynecologist. Her maternal grandparents were Jewish immigrants from Russia and Austria who settled in the U.S., while her paternal grandparents came from Poland to Israel in the late 1930s. Her grandfather, once a leader in a Jewish youth movement in Poland, had intended to bring his family to Israel, but they were killed at Auschwitz. Her paternal grandmother, originally from Romania, worked as a British spy during World War II. Portman holds dual citizenship in Israel and the United States.

At age three, Portman and her family moved to the U.S., first living in Washington, D.C., then in Connecticut by 1988, and eventually settling in Syosset, Long Island. While in Washington, she attended Charles E. Smith Jewish Day School. Her first language was Hebrew. On Long Island, she studied at Solomon Schechter Day School and also trained in ballet and modern dance, attending both the American Theater Dance Workshop and the Usdan Center for the Creative and Performing Arts. Reflecting on her childhood, she described herself as unusually serious and ambitious compared to other children.

At ten years old, a Revlon scout approached her about child modeling, but she declined and instead sought an acting agent. She auditioned for the 1992 off-Broadway musical Ruthless!, becoming an understudy alongside Britney Spears. Six months later, she landed her breakthrough role in Luc Besson’s Léon: The Professional (1994), playing Mathilda, a young girl who befriends a hitman. Adopting “Portman,” her paternal grandmother’s maiden name, as her stage name, she won praise for her performance, though some critics noted the film’s troubling sexual undertones.

Afterward, she continued acting while balancing her schooling. She appeared in the short film Developing (1994), played small but notable parts in Heat (1995), Beautiful Girls (1996), Woody Allen’s Everyone Says I Love You (1996), and Tim Burton’s Mars Attacks! (1996). Initially cast in Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo + Juliet opposite Leonardo DiCaprio, she dropped out when studio executives deemed her too young. She also turned down Lolita due to its sexual nature, wary of being typecast after early roles.

Portman’s stage debut came in 1997–98 as Anne Frank in the Broadway revival of The Diary of Anne Frank, an emotionally demanding role that connected her to her own family’s Holocaust history. Soon after, she was cast as Padmé Amidala in George Lucas’s Star Wars prequels, beginning with Episode I – The Phantom Menace (1999). Though the film received mixed reviews, its global success established her as an international star.

Alongside her acting career, Portman excelled academically. She graduated from Syosset High School in 1999, co-authored a research paper on hydrogen production, and studied psychology at Harvard University from 1999 to 2003, where she also researched with Alan Dershowitz and contributed to scientific studies. Despite cutting back on acting, she appeared in films such as Anywhere but Here (1999), Where the Heart Is (2000), and Cold Mountain (2003).

Her roles grew more varied in the 2000s. She starred in Garden State (2004) and Mike Nichols’ Closer (2004), winning a Golden Globe and an Oscar nomination for the latter. She reprised her role in Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith (2005), appeared in V for Vendetta (2005), and acted in international projects like Amos Gitai’s Free Zone (2005).

Portman went on to host Saturday Night Live, star in Goya’s Ghosts (2006), My Blueberry Nights (2007), The Other Boleyn Girl (2008), and several other projects. She also directed short films and launched a production company. Her most acclaimed performance came in Darren Aronofsky’s Black Swan (2010), for which she trained rigorously in ballet and won the Academy Award for Best Actress.

Later work included Thor (2011) and its sequels, Knight of Cups (2015), and her directorial debut A Tale of Love and Darkness (2015). She portrayed Jacqueline Kennedy in Jackie (2016), earning widespread praise and award nominations, and took on diverse roles in Annihilation (2018), Vox Lux (2018), and returned to the Marvel franchise in Thor: Love and Thunder (2022).

Beyond acting, Portman has produced films and series, including May December (2023). She is multilingual, speaking English, Hebrew, French, German, Japanese, and some Arabic. Portman identifies strongly with her Jewish heritage, married French dancer Benjamin Millepied in 2012, and they have two children together.