Background

Portman was born on June 9, 1981, in Jerusalem. Her parents gave her the traditional Hebrew name of "Neta-Lee Hershlag" at birth. She is the only child of Shelley (née Stevens), an American homemaker who works as Portman's agent, and Avner Hershlag, an Israeli fertility specialist and gynecologist. Her maternal grandparents, Bernice (née Hurwitz; 1925–2014) and Arthur Stevens (whose family surname was originally Edelstein), were from Jewish families who moved to the United States from Austria and Russia. Natalie's paternal grandparents, Mania (née Portman) and Zvi Yehuda Hershlag, were Jewish immigrants to Israel. Zvi, born in Poland in 1914, moved to what was then Mandatory Palestine in 1938 and eventually became an economics professor; his parents died at the Auschwitz Concentration Camp. One of Natalie's paternal great-grandmothers was born in Romania and was a spy for British Intelligence during World War II.

Portman's parents met at a Jewish student center at Ohio State University, where her mother was selling tickets. They corresponded after her father returned to Israel and were married when her mother visited a few years later. In 1984, when Portman was three years old, the family moved to the United States, where her father received his medical training. Portman, a dual citizen of the United States and Israel, has said that although she "really love(s) the States... my heart's in Jerusalem. That's where I feel at home." Portman and her family first lived in Washington, D.C., but relocated to Connecticut in 1988 and then moved to Jericho, New York, on Long Island, in 1990.

Education

While living in the Washington, D.C. area, Portman attended Charles E. Smith Jewish Day School in Rockville, Maryland. Portman learned to speak Hebrew while living on Long Island and attended a Jewish elementary school, the Solomon Schechter Day School of Nassau County in Jericho, New York. She graduated from Syosset High School in Syosset, Long Island in 1999. She studied ballet and modern dance at the American Theater Dance Workshop in New Hyde Park, New York, and attended the Usdan Center for the Creative and Performing Arts in Wheatley Heights, both on Long Island. Portman skipped the premiere of her film Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace, so she could study for her high school final exams.

As a student, Portman co-authored two research papers that were published in scientific journals. Her 1998 high school paper, "A Simple Method to Demonstrate the Enzymatic Production of Hydrogen from Sugar", co-authored with scientists Ian Hurley and Jonathan Woodward, was entered in the Intel Science Talent Search. In 2002, she contributed to a study on memory called "Frontal lobe activation during object permanence: data from near-infrared spectroscopy" during her psychology studies at Harvard.

In 2003, Portman graduated from Harvard University with a Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) degree in psychology. "I don't care if (college) ruins my career," she said in 2002. "I'd rather be smart than a movie star." At Harvard, Portman was Alan Dershowitz's research assistant. While attending Harvard, she was a resident of Lowell House and wrote a letter to the Harvard Crimson in response to an essay critical of Israeli actions toward Palestinians.

Portman returned to Israel and took graduate courses at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in the spring of 2004. In March 2006, she was a guest lecturer at a Columbia University course in terrorism and counterterrorism, where she spoke about her 2006 film, V for Vendetta. Portman has professed an interest in foreign languages since childhood and has studied French, Japanese, German, and Arabic.

Career

While at a local pizza parlor, Portman was discovered by a representative of Revlon cosmetics, who encouraged the 11-year-old to pursue a modeling career. However, Portman found modeling mundane, and decided to direct her efforts toward acting. Shortly after, she began working with the Usdan Theatre Arts Camp, where she appeared in a number of local productions. Portman made her film debut in Luc Besson's memorable 1994 feature, The Professional. The demanding role, which featured her as 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).

Portman worked steadily, accepting supporting roles in the relationship drama Beautiful Girls (1996), Woody Allen’s musical Everyone Says I Love You (1996), and Tim Burton’s alien-invasion comedy Mars Attacks! (1996) before appearing as the elaborately costumed Queen Amidala in the Star Wars prequel Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999). Portman reprised the role in the film’s two sequels (2002, 2005). The trilogy, though spurned by critics and excoriated by many aficionados of the earlier films, was nonetheless highly lucrative and established Portman as a recognizable face.

During that time Portman also starred as the resentful daughter to Susan Sarandon’s flamboyant single mother in Anywhere but Here (1999) and as a homeless and pregnant teen who gives birth in a Wal-Mart store in Where the Heart Is (2000). In 2004 she won acclaim for the humanity she brought to both the romantic comedy Garden State and the Mike Nichols relationship drama Closer. The latter role earned her a Golden Globe for best supporting actress and an Academy Award nomination in the same category.

Portman again demonstrated the facility with which she alternated between genres as a shaven-headed revolutionary in the dystopian fantasy V for Vendetta (2005), a brassy gambler in Wong Kar-Wai’s moody romance My Blueberry Nights (2007), and the doomed queen Anne Boleyn in The Other Boleyn Girl (2008). She played a grieving military spouse in Brothers (2009) and both directed and appeared in segments of New York, I Love You (2009), a compilation of short films. Her role as the disturbed ballerina Nina Sayers in the thriller Black Swan (2010) won her an Academy Award for best actress. During the filming of that movie, she met Benjamin Millepied, a dancer and choreographer.

Later roles for Portman include a dowdy supermarket cashier in Hesher (2010) and a scientist in the action fantasies Thor (2011) and Thor: The Dark World (2013). She also took on lighter fare, appearing opposite Ashton Kutcher in the romantic comedy No Strings Attached (2011) and portraying a warrior princess in the bawdy period comedy Your Highness (2011). Portman then appeared as an unfaithful wife in Terrence Malick’s Hollywood parable Knight of Cups (2015) and as a hard-bitten pioneer in the vengeance tale Jane Got a Gun (2016).

Portman earned an Oscar nomination for her performance in Jackie (2016), about Jacqueline Kennedy in the days after her husband’s assassination. She next portrayed a waitress seduced by a music producer in Malick’s Song to Song (2017), a romantic drama set against the Austin, Texas, music scene, and then led a largely female cast in Annihilation (2018), a sci-fi thriller in which she played a biologist who goes on a dangerous secret mission.

Achievements

• 

  Natalie Portman has proved to be one of the most versatile and talented actresses in the entertainment industry. This Israeli born, American actress has appeared in some of the most successful and critically acclaimed films. Some of her well known films include, ‘Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace’, ‘Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones’, ‘Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith’, ‘V for Vendetta’, ‘Black Swan’ and ‘No Strings Attached’.
  
  Portman has been honored with many awards and nominations for her work in acting, including three Academy Award nominations, winning for Black Swan (2010). She has also won two Golden Globe Awards, a BAFTA Award, and a SAG Award. On November 7, 2017, the Genesis Prize Foundation announced that actress Natalie Portman was the 2018 Genesis Prize Laureate. The $1 million Genesis Prize was granted to philanthropic programs focused on advancing women’s equality.
  
  She was named one of the ‘50 Most Beautiful People’ by People’s Magazine.

Works

More photos

• movie

  • Léon: The Professional 1994
  • Heat 1995
  • Beautiful Girls 1996
  • Everyone Says I Love You (1996) 1997
  • Mars Attacks! 1996
  • Star Wars: The Phantom Menace 1999
  • Anywhere But Here 1999
  • Where The Heart Is 2000
  • Zoolander 2001
  • Star Wars: Attack of the Clones 2002
  • Cold Mountain 2003
  • Closer 2004
  • Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith 2005
  • V for Vendetta 2006
  • Paris Je Taime 2006
  • Goya's Ghosts 2006
  • My Blueberry Nights 2007
  • Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium 2007
  • The Other Boleyn Girl 2008
  • The Other Woman 2009
  • New York, I Love You 2009
  • Brothers 2009
  • Hesher 2010
  • Black Swan 2010
  • No Strings Attached 2011
  • Your Highness 2011
  • Thor 2011
  • Thor 2013
  • Knight of Cups 2015
  • The Heyday of the Insensitive Bastards 2015
  • A Tale of Love and Darkness 2015
  • Pride And Prejudice And Zombies 2016
  • Jackie 2016
  • Planetarium 2016
  • Song to Song 2017
  • Annihilation 2018

Religion

Judaism is very important to Portman. She speaks Hebrew and she once expressed her desire to pass along her Jewish heritage, saying:

"A priority for me is definitely that I’d like to raise my kids Jewish."

And though she holds dual citizenship in both the United States and Israel, she has said that she feels more at home in Israel.

Judaism is really more of a cultural feature of Portman and less of an issue of faith. Her own theology seems to border on atheism. When asked if she believes in an afterlife, she said:

"I don’t believe in that. I believe this is it."

Politics

Portman is a supporter of the Democratic Party, and for the 2004 presidential election she campaigned for the Democratic nominee, Senator John Kerry. Prior to the 2008 presidential election, Portman supported Senator Hillary Clinton of New York in the Democratic primaries. She later campaigned for the eventual Democratic nominee, Senator Barack Obama of Illinois. In a 2008 interview, she also stated: "I even like John McCain. I disagree with his war stance — which is a really big deal — but I think he's a very moral person."

She signed an open letter to President Obama, asking him to support gay marriage. Portman is often spoken highly of, even by politicians and the intellectual elite. She seems to care about society and politics and manages to raise awareness in her incredibly adorable way without regularly annoying the public as just another celebrity activist.

Views

Portman is Jewish, from both sides of her family. Some of her ancestors were holocaust victims. Even with this kind of connection, Portman refuses to do Jewish films. She once said:

"I’ve always tried to stay away from playing Jews. I get like 20 Holocaust scripts a month, but I hate the genre."

Portman is an animal rights activist. She has been involved with movements to reduce poverty and particularly active in an organization called the Foundation for International Community Assistance, which encourages and provides micro-loans to third-world entrepreneurs.

Portman has also been a champion of gay rights and the rights for gays to marry.

Quotations: "I don't love studying. I hate studying. I like learning. Learning is beautiful."

"Smart women love smart men more than smart men love smart women."

"When a guy tells me I'm cute, it's not something desirable. Cute is more like what you want your pet to be."

"I'm a Gemini, so I change my mind every day."

"Going to a party, for me, is as much a learning experience as, you know, sitting in a lecture."

"They tell me: 'OK, this is where we're going to push up your cleavage,' and I'm like, 'What cleavage?"

"There are movies where we are interested in seeing people's lives without agreeing with what they're doing."

"I'm always on the phone because I'm usually not with the people I want to be with."

"You know, I get much more Jewish in Israel because I like the way that religion is done there."

Membership

She is a member of the One Voice movement.

• 

  One Voice movement

Personality

She was a vegetarian from 1989 until 2009 when after reading the book Eating Animals she opted to become a vegan. However she resumed vegetarianism after falling pregnant with her son Aleph to give him the necessary supplements and also due to her insatiable craving for eggs and cheese. Following her son's birth she resumed veganism once again.

She takes pride in the fact that she is a role model for girls and chooses roles that are positive so that they will have a positive role model to look up to.

Her best friend is Rashida Jones. Also close friends with Jake Gyllenhaal, Bryce Dallas Howard, Britney Spears, Mila Kunis, Robert Pattinson, and Julia Roberts.

Physical Characteristics: Portman is known for her trademark brown eyes, sweet voice and petite figure. She has classic beauty and petite, pear shape body structure. Natalie has moles on her cheeks adding to the charm to her beauty and keeping her different.

She has a slight indentation on her head, that was visible during the time she had her head shaved. The indentation was the result of being delivered by vacuum extraction.

Height - 5 ft 3 in (160 cm)

Weight - 50 kg (110 pounds)

Body Measurements - 34-25-34 in (86-63.5-86 cm)

Dress Size - 4 (US) or 36 (EU) or 8 (UK)

Bra Size - 32B

Shoe Size - 8 (US) or 38.5 (EU)

Quotes from others about the person

• "I’ve taught at Harvard, Dartmouth and Vassar, and I’ve had the privilege of teaching a lot of very bright kids. There are very few who are as inherently bright as Natalie is, who have as much intellectual horsepower, who work as hard as she did. She didn’t take a single thing for granted." - Abigail A. Baird

Interests

• She has a passion for travel. In late 2003 and early 2004, she traveled alone to Morocco and Guatemala.
  
  She occasionally shelters dogs.

• Politicians

  Hillary Clinton, John McCain

• Writers

  Oscar-winning actress Natalie Portman is a self-professed book worm. A Harvard alum, Portman once said: “I studied psychology in school, and the best psychology is in literature. It’s so much easier to understand a character than a theory. You can recognize yourself — or other people — in a different way.” Her favorite books include: The Ministry of Special Cases by Nathan Englander, Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell, A Tale of Love and Darkness by Amos Oz, The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank, Great House by Nicole Krauss and The Baby-Sitters Club series by Ann M. Martin.

• Artists

  Het favorite actresses include Audrey Hepburn, Jane Fonda, Meryl Streep and Diane Keaton. Favorite actor is Ben Kingsley.

• Sport & Clubs

  Is trained in ballet, jazz, and tap dancing.
  
  She took diving courses in Eilat, Israel. Diving is one of her favorite hobbies.

• Athletes

  She is a huge fan of professional wrestling.

• Music & Bands

  She listens mostly to R&B, old school hip-hop and 1990s alternative rock. Some of her favorite groups and artists are A Tribe Called Quest, Radiohead, Stevie Wonder, Portishead, Wu-Tang Clan and Nirvana.
  
  She unwinds by singing karaoke at Winnie's, a New York City bar in Chinatown.

Connections

In 2006, she commented that she felt more Jewish in Israel and that she would like to raise her children Jewish: "A priority for me is definitely that I'd like to raise my kids Jewish, but the ultimate thing is to have someone who is a good person and who is a partner."

After Portman appeared in the video for folk singer Devendra Banhart's song "Carmensita," the two began a relationship, which ended in September 2008.

Portman began dating French ballet dancer Benjamin Millepied in 2009. The couple met while she was filming Black Swan, for which he was the choreographer. In December 2010, Portman announced their engagement and confirmed her pregnancy. Portman and Millepied married in a Jewish ceremony in Big Sur, California on August 4, 2012. The couple has two children: son Aleph (born June 2011) and daughter Amalia (born February 2017).

In January 2013, the Paris Opera Ballet announced that Millepied had accepted the position of director of dance, beginning September 2014. The couple subsequently announced plans to relocate to Paris with Portman stating that she would like to become a French citizen. In 2016, the family returned to Los Angeles from Paris.

Father:

Avner Hershlag

He is an Israeli fertility specialist and gynecologist.

Mother:

Shelley Stevens

She works as Portman's agent.

Spouse:

Benjamin Millepied

(born 10 June 1977)

He is a French dancer and choreographer, who has lived and worked in the United States after joining the New York City Ballet in 1995, where he became a soloist in 1998 and a principal in 2002. He also quickly started creating choreography for the company, and choreographed pieces for other major companies. He retired from NYCB in 2011.

Son:

Aleph Portman-Millepied

(born June 2011)

Daughter:

Amalia Millepied

(born February 2017)

Collegue :

Dustin Hoffman

(born August 8, 1937)

He is an American actor and director, with a career in film, television, and theater since 1960.

coellegue:

Anthony Hopkins

(born 31 December 1937)

He is a Welsh actor, director, producer, widely considered to be one of the world's greatest living actors.

Friend:

Rashida Leah Jones

(born February 25, 1976)

She is an American actress. She is known for starring as Ann Perkins on the NBC comedy series Parks and Recreation, for which she received critical acclaim.

Friend:

Britney Spears

(born December 2, 1981)

She is an American singer, dancer, and actress.

Friend:

Julia Roberts

(born October 28, 1967)

She is an American actress and producer.

Friend:

Jake Gyllenhaal

(born December 19, 1980)

He is an American actor.

Friend:

Mila Kunis

(born August 14, 1983)

She is an American actress.

Friend:

Robert Pattinson

(born 13 May 1986)

He is an English actor, producer, model, and musician.

References

• Natalie Portman: Queen of Hearts
  2002
• Natalie Portman's Stark Reality: A Biography
  2012
• Natalie Portman: A Biography
  2012
• Natalie Portman RED-HOT Career Guide; 2578 REAL Interview Questions
  2018
• Natalie Portman Unauthorized & Uncensored (All Ages Deluxe Edition with Videos)
  2013