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Natalie Hershlag (born ), known professionally as Natalie Portman, is an actress, film producer and director with dual Israeli and American citizenship.<!--Do not change this part of the sentence without discussing at the talk page, as there is already a consensus in place (see Talk:Natalie Portman/Archive 3#"Israeli-born American (with dual citizenship) actress" and Talk:Natalie Portman/Archive 5#RfC about the opening line).--> She has had a prolific screen career from her teenage years and has starred in various blockbusters and independent films, receiving multiple accolades, including an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, and two Golden Globe Awards.
Portman was born in Jerusalem and moved to the United States when she was 3, where she began her acting career at twelve, starring as the young protégée of a hitman in Léon: The Professional (1994). While still in high school, she made her Broadway debut in The Diary of Anne Frank (1997) and gained international recognition for her role as Padmé Amidala in Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace (1999). From 1999 to 2003, Portman attended Harvard University, earning a bachelor's degree in psychology. During this time, she took fewer acting roles but continued to appear in the Star Wars prequel trilogy (2002 and 2005) and performed in a 2001 revival of Anton Chekhov's The Seagull at The Public Theater.
Her career gained further momentum in 2004 when she won a Golden Globe and received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress for Closer. She then played Evey Hammond in V for Vendetta (2005), Anne Boleyn in The Other Boleyn Girl (2008), and a troubled ballerina in Black Swan (2010), for which she won the Academy Award for Best Actress. In the following years, Portman starred in the romantic comedy No Strings Attached (2011) and portrayed Jacqueline Kennedy in Jackie (2016), which earned her a third Academy Award nomination. She also became a prominent figure in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, playing Jane Foster in Thor (2011), Thor: The Dark World (2013), and Thor: Love and Thunder (2022), which established her as one of the world's highest-paid actresses.
Portman has also directed the short film Eve (2008) and the biographical drama A Tale of Love and Darkness (2015), in which she also starred. In 2021, she co-founded the production company MountainA, under which she produced and starred in the film May December (2023) and the miniseries Lady in the Lake (2024). Portman is an advocate for various causes, including women's rights, environmental issues, and animal welfare, supporting organizations like the Human Rights Foundation and the Jane Goodall Institute.
Early life
Natalie Hershlag<!--See discussion at Talk:Natalie Portman/Archive 5#"Neta-Lee Hershlag"--> was born on June 9, 1981, <!-- Please do not add a country next to her place of birth. This has been discussed and rejected at Talk:Natalie Portman/Jerusalem and Israel. Please read the talk page and archives. -->in Mount Scopus, Jerusalem, at Hadassah Medical Center to Jewish parents. She is the only child of Shelley Stevens, an Ohio-born artist, and Avner Hershlag, an Israeli-born gynecologist. Portman is a dual citizen of Israel and the United States.
Portman and her family migrated to the United States when she was 3, first living in Washington, D.C., but relocating to Connecticut in 1988 and then settling in Syosset, Long Island. While living in Washington, Portman attended Charles E. Smith Jewish Day School in Rockville, Maryland. Her native language is Hebrew. While living on Long Island, she attended a Jewish elementary school, the Solomon Schechter Day School of Nassau County.
When Portman was ten years old, a Revlon agent spotted her at a pizza restaurant and asked her to become a child model. She turned down the offer but used the opportunity to get an acting agent. She auditioned for the 1992 off-Broadway Ruthless!, a musical about a girl who is prepared to commit murder to get the lead in a school play. Portman and Britney Spears were chosen as understudies for star Laura Bell Bundy. She played Mathilda, an orphan child who befriends a middle-aged hitman (played by Jean Reno). Her parents were reluctant to let her do the part due to the explicit sexual and violent nature of the script, but agreed after Besson took out the Mathilda character's nudity and killings that she committed. Portman herself said that after those scenes were removed, she found nothing objectionable about the content. Even so, her mother was displeased with some of the "sexual twists and turns" in the finished film, which were not part of the script.