Date of Birth: June 9, 1981

Natalie Portman's story about how she started her film career sounds like the old hanging-out-in-Schwab's-drugstore-in-Hollywood-waiting-to-be-discovered cliché. "Oh, the pizza parlor story," she says, recalling the 1992 encounter that changed her life. "I was in a pizza parlor after dance class one day when I was 11 and a man from Revlon saw me and wanted me to model and I said I wanted to act, so he introduced me to an acting agent and I started going out on auditions and that was it."

Well, that's not quite it. Fact is, her first role as the Lolita-ish character who befriends hitman Jean Reno in The Professional (1994) was a tour-de-force performance from the then 13-year-old girl. So convincing was she that director Adrian Lynn tried to cast her in his remake of Lolita, a role she turned down because, she says, "I don't know if I'll ever be able to do nudity in film, and certainly not when I'm 14."

Born in Jerusalem, Israel, as a teen Portman said her film career was limited by one thing at the time: "My father has a general rule. He says if I haven't done it in real life, I shouldn't do it on the screen."

In 1998, Natalie turned down a role in The Horse Whisperer (1998), instead opting to do The Diary of Anne Frank on Broadway. She received a Tony nomination for her role as Anne. Natalie then turned down a role in Anywhere But Here (1999) because of a nude scene, but Susan Sarandon, who had co-star approval, asked that the scene be rewritten for Portman. Natalie went on to receive a Golden Globe nomination for her work in the film.

Natalie has been making the transition to adult roles on screen gradually, limiting her work onscreen as she studied at Harvard, but managing to fit in starring roles in Where The Heart Is (2000) and Star Wars: Episode II: Attack of the Clones (2002), as well as supporting roles in Zoolander (2001) and Cold Mountain (2003).

A strict vegetarian since the age of eight, Natalie received her Harvard degree in June 2003 and has returned full time to acting.

In 2005, at the age of 23, Portman picked up her first Golden Globe award and received her first Oscar nomination for her role in Closer (2004).

FILMOGRAPHY:

BROTHERS (2008)
The Other Boleyn Girl (2008)
Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium (2007)
The Darjeeling Limited (2007)
My Blueberry Nights (2007)
Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium (2007)
Goya's Ghosts (2006)
Paris, je t'aime (2006)
V for Vendetta (2006)
Free Zone (2005)
Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith (2005)
Closer (2004)
True (2004)
Garden State (2004)
Cold Mountain (2003)
Star Wars: Episode II: Attack of the Clones (2002)
Zoolander (2001)
Where The Heart Is (2000)
Anywhere But Here (1999)
Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace (1999)
Beautiful Girls (1996)
Everyone Says I Love You (1996)
Mars Attacks! (1996)
Heat (1995)
The Professional (1994)