Actors - Natalie Portman

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	Actors - Natalie Portman

Natalie Hershlag (born June 9, 1981), better known under her stage name, Natalie Portman, is an Academy Award-nominated and Golden Globe Award-winning Israeli-American actress.

As a young child, Portman spent her school holidays attending theatre camps where she developed her love of acting. After some experience in an off-Broadway musical, she was cast in Léon
(released in North America as The Professional) at age twelve. During the mid-1990s, Portman had small roles in films such as Heat
, Everyone Says I Love You
and Mars Attacks!, as well as having a major role in Beautiful Girls
. She placed a priority on education and pursued tertiary education even when it conflicted with her acting career.

In the late 1990s, she was cast as Queen Amidala in the Star Wars prequel trilogy. Recent roles include Anywhere But Here
, Garden State
, Closer
, and V for Vendetta
. For Closer
, she received a Golden Globe and was nominated for an Academy Award.

Biography

Early life

Portman was born in Jerusalem, Israel. Her father, Avner Hershlag, is an Israeli medical doctor specializing in the research and treatment of human fertility and reproduction (reproductive endocrinology). Her mother, Shelley Stevens, is a Jewish American artist who now works as her agent. Portman's father's family are descendants of Jewish immigrants from Poland and Romania, while her mother's family were Jewish immigrants from Austria and Russia; her paternal grandfather's parents died in Auschwitz and her Romanian-born great-grandmother was a spy for the British during World War II.

Portman's parents met at a Jewish student center at Ohio State University, where Portman's mother was selling tickets. Portman's father returned to Israel, but the two corresponded and were married when Portman's mother visited Israel a few years later. When Portman was three years old, her family moved from Israel to her mother's native United States, where her father pursued his medical training. The family lived in Washington, D.C. in 1984 and then Connecticut in 1988, before finally settling down in Syosset, New York in 1990. Portman has said that although she "really love the States", her "heart's in Jerusalem. That's where I feel at home." During the latter part of 2005, Portman filmed Goya's Ghosts
, and Free Zone.

2006 - present

Portman made her Saturday Night Live
debut on March 4, 2006, as she hosted the show with band Fall Out Boy. In the episode, she portrayed herself as a gangsta rapper during a faux-interview with Chris Parnell, jokingly claiming that she cheated on exams at Harvard University while high on pot.

On March 17, 2006, V for Vendetta
opened. Portman plays Evey Hammond, the young woman who is saved from a secret police by the main character, V. Portman worked with a voice coach for the role, learning to speak in an English accent. Portman has commented on V for Vendetta's political relevance, and mentioned that her character, who joins an underground anti-government group, is "often bad and does things that you don't like" and that "Being from Israel was a reason I wanted to do this because terrorism and violence are such a daily part of my conversations since I was little", although the film "doesn't make clear good or bad statements. It respects the audience enough to take away their own opinion".

Portman's upcoming films include Goya's Ghosts
and Free Zone
(an Israeli film currently scheduled for an April 2006 release in the United States). She is set to appear in the children's film, Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium, which will begin filming in April of 2006; Portman has said she is "excited to do a kids movie".

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Natalie Portman ]

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Actors - Natalie Portman

Biography

Early life

2006 - present

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