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Natalie Hershlag (born June 9, 1981), known professionally as Natalie Portman, is an Israeli actress, film producer and director. 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 three, 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.
