Natalie Portman was born on June 9, 1981 in Jerusalem, Israel. She has won numerous awards including the Golden Globe Award in 2005 for Best Supporting Actress in a motion picture, the NBR Award for Best Cast in 2004 and the Saturn Award for the Best Actress in a film in 2007. Portman, which is her grandmother's maiden name, is the stage name that she adopted soon after landing her role in Leon. This was done because of privacy issues. However, if you look at the Director's Cut of the film Leon, found on DVD, you will see that she is credited as Natalie Hershlag.

Portman began taking dancing lessons when she was just 4-years-old. With dancing came her dream of performing on Broadway. However, in 1994 Portman began her acting career when she landed her first role in the independent film Leon: The Professional. This occurred after she had originally been found by a Revlon agent in a local pizzeria who offered her an opportunity to model. She turned down this opportunity to become a child model. While she favored acting even then, her breakout role did not come until she was cast as Padmé Amidala in the Star Wars trilogy. It was at this point that her mother, Shelley Stevens, also began to work as her agent. With this in mind, it should come as no surprise that she is actually quite close to her parents. In fact, they can often be found in attendance at her film premieres. At the age of ten, she was chosen as Britney Spear's understudy in the movie Ruthless!.

In interviews Portman has said that she was an ambitious child who knew what she wanted and worked very hard to get it. This can be seen as she spent her school holidays attending theater camps. Of course, this has paid off for her.

Return to > Celebrities > > Natalie Portman Profile (Natalie Portman Biography) (Natalie Portman News)