Natalie Portman

Natalie Portman is an award-winning actress and director whose career has spanned decades and taken her from the heights of Hollywood stardom to the international stage. Born Neta-Lee Hershlag in Jerusalem on June 9, 1981, to an Israeli father and American mother, Natalie began her career in the 1994 action thriller Léon: The Professional, opposite Jean Reno. In 1999, she was cast as Padmé Amidala in the Star Wars prequel trilogy, and while still in high school on Long Island, Natalie starred in Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace. Natalie's talent was quickly recognized, and it wasn't long before she was gracing the red carpet with her presence. In 2004, she won a Golden Globe and was nominated for an Academy Award for her role in the drama Closer. She went on to star in Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith, the historical dramas Goya's Ghosts and The Other Boleyn Girl, and the psychological thriller film Black Swan, for which she won an Academy Award for Best Actress. Natalie also starred in the political thriller V for Vendetta, the Marvel films Thor and Thor: The Dark World, and the biographical drama Jackie, for which she was nominated for an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, a Golden Globe Award, and a Screen Actors Guild Award. Natalie is also a renowned director. In 2010, she directed a segment of the collective film New York, I Love You, and her first feature film as a director, A Tale of Love and Darkness, was released in 2015. In May 2008, Natalie served as the youngest member of the 61st Annual Cannes Film Festival jury, and her work as a director has been hailed as groundbreaking. Offscreen, Natalie is an accomplished scholar. She studied both dancing and acting in New York, and eventually earned a bachelor's degree in psychology from Harvard University in 2003. On a lighter note, in 2019 she famously quipped, "I don't know what I would do without acting. Maybe I'd just be a crazy cat lady."