Natalie Portman

Natalie Portman (born Neta-Lee Hershlag, known professionally as Natalie Portman; June 9, 1981) is an Israeli-American actress, director, and producer. She adopted "Portman," her paternal grandmother's maiden name, as her stage surname early in her career for privacy reasons. Born in Jerusalem to an Israeli physician father and an American mother, she relocated to the United States during childhood and holds dual citizenship. Portman debuted as a child actress in Léon: The Professional (1994), followed by her role as Padmé Amidala in the Star Wars prequel trilogy (1999–2005), which brought her international recognition. Her portrayal of a psychologically unraveling ballerina in Black Swan (2010) earned her the Academy Award for Best Actress, along with a Golden Globe. She later appeared as Jane Foster in the Marvel Cinematic Universe films Thor (2011), Thor: The Dark World (2013), and Thor: Love and Thunder (2022). Portman graduated from Harvard University in 2003 with a bachelor's degree in psychology, balancing her studies with acting commitments. In addition to her film work, she has directed projects like A Tale of Love and Darkness (2015) and engaged in activism on issues such as women's rights, animal welfare, and Israeli politics, where she has critiqued government leadership and policies like the 2018 nation-state law while rejecting the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement and expressing alarm over rising antisemitism.

Portman's family background is Ashkenazi Jewish, with her father's ancestors emigrating to Israel from Poland and Romania, including relatives who perished in the Holocaust, and her mother's forebears being Jewish immigrants from Austria and Russia. The household observed a secular form of Judaism, emphasizing cultural rather than religious observance.

During her early infancy, Portman resided in Jerusalem, where she was exposed to Hebrew as a first language alongside English, reflecting her father's Israeli upbringing and the bilingual environment of her birthplace. She retains dual citizenship in Israel and the United States, stemming from her birth in Israel and her mother's American nationality, which conferred U.S. citizenship by descent.

Portman was the only child of Avner Hershlag, an Israeli-born physician specializing in reproductive endocrinology and infertility treatment, and Shelley Stevens, an American artist and homemaker of Ashkenazi Jewish descent from Cincinnati, Ohio. Her father's focus on fertility research and clinical practice often required professional adaptability, contributing to family relocations that exposed her to varied cultural contexts in her pre-teen years, though the primary move from Israel occurred when she was three.