Actress, Screenwriter, Film Director, Film Producer Natalie Portman (Natalie Portman)

Natalie Portman in 2013

Natalie Portman (born Natalie Hershlag, born Natalie Hershlag, born June 9, 1981) is an American film and theater actress of Israeli descent, film director, screenwriter, producer.

She was best known for her participation in the films "Leon" (1994, debut role) and "Proximity" (2004, Golden Globe Award and BAFTA and Oscar for Best Supporting Actress) Prequel to the "Star Wars".

The winner of the Oscar, Golden Globe, BAFTA and Saturn awards in the nomination "Best Actress" in the film "The Black Swan" (2011).

• Name at birth: Natalie Herschlag
• Date of birth: 9 June 1981
• Place of birth: Jerusalem, Israel
• Citizenship: United States, Israel
• Profession: actress, screenwriter, film director, film producer
• Career: 1994 - present time
• Filmography: wiki
• IMDb: ID 0000204

There were Portman in his career and other notable roles in the cinema, as well as in the theater. So, even in the 1990s Natalie played the main roles in the films "Beautiful Girls" and "Anywhere, Only Not Here". And in July 2001 Natalie played in the play based on A. Chekhov's play "The Seagull". She shaved her head and learned to speak with a British accent for a role in "V - Vendetta" (2006), for which she won the Saturn Award for Best Actress. Portman also played leading roles in the historical dramas Ghosts of Goya (2006) and Another One of the Boleyn Girl (2008). In May 2008, she became the youngest member of the jury at the 61st Cannes Film Festival. Her directorial debut, short film "Eva", opened a short film contest for the 65th Venice Film Festival.

Early life and education

Natalie Portman was born on June 9, 1981 in Jerusalem, in the family of Avner Hershlag and Shelley Stevens. The father of the actress is a specialist in the treatment of infertility and reproductive endocrinology, a professor at the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the Hofstra School of Medicine, graduate of the Hadassah Medical School of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. Mother - a former housewife, and now agent Natalie. The ancestors of the actress on the maternal line are Jews from Russia and Austria-Hungary (they immigrated to the US and changed their surname from Edelstein to Stevens), and on the paternal line from Romania and Poland. Natalie's father's grandfather, whose parents died in Auschwitz, was a professor of economics in Israel, and her great-grandmother of Romanian origin was a spy of British intelligence during the Second World War. Scenic pseudonym "Portman" is the maiden name of the Jewish-Russian maternal grandmother actress, Bernice Stevens (born 1925).

Portman's parents met at a Jewish student center at Ohio State University, where her mother sold tickets. They began to correspond after the father returned to Israel, and a few years later his mother came to him, and they got married. When Natalie was three years old, the family moved from Israel to the United States, where the girl's father could improve his skills. First they lived in Washington, where the actress attended the Jewish day school of Charles I. Smith and learned to speak Hebrew, but in 1988 moved to Connecticut and finally settled in Long Island, New York, in 1990. Natalie Portman has dual citizenship - the US and Israel. On this occasion, she said: "I love the United States very much, but my heart is in Jerusalem - I feel at home there."

Since four years Natalie has been dancing and performing with local troupes. The actress attended Solomon Schechter's Jewish primary day school in Glen Cove, New York, and graduated from Siosset High School. In 1998, while studying in high school, the actress co-authored (along with scientists Jan Hurley and Jonathan Woodward) a research paper on "Enzymatic hydrogen production", which enabled her to participate in Intel's scientific competitions, where she reached the semifinals. Portman even missed the premiere of the movie "Star Wars. Episode I »to prepare for the final exams. In June 2003, Natalie became a graduate of Harvard, receiving a bachelor's degree in psychology. "I'm not worried if my college is ruining my career. I'd rather be educated than a movie star, "she told the New York Post. In addition to two native languages ​​- Hebrew and English - Natalie studied French, German, Japanese and Arabic.