Biography of Natalie PortmanNatalie Portman (Hebrew: born June 9, 1981) is a Golden Globe-winning, Academy Award-nominated Israeli-American actress.
Portman was born Natalie Hershlag (Hebrew: נטלי הרשלג) in Jerusalem, Israel.[1] Her father, Avner Hershlag, is an Israeli medical doctor specializing in the research and treatment of human fertility and reproduction (reproductive endocrinology). Her mother, Shelley Stevens, is a Jewish American homemaker who now works as her agent (she is an artist by hobby and not profession). Portman's father's family members are descendants of Jewish immigrants from Poland and Romania, while her mother's family members were Jewish immigrants from Austria and Russia; her paternal grandfather's parents died in Auschwitz and her Romanian-born great-grandmother was a spy for the British during World War II.
Portman's parents met at a Jewish student center at Ohio State University, where Portman's mother was selling tickets. Portman's father returned to Israel, but the two corresponded and were married when Portman's mother visited Israel a few years later. When Portman was three years old, her family moved from Israel to her mother's native United States, where her father pursued his medical training. The family lived in Washington, D.C. in 1984 (she attended the Charles E. Smith Jewish Day School), and then Connecticut in 1988, before finally settling down in Syosset, New York in 1990.
Portman has said that although she "really love the States... my heart's in Jerusalem. That's where I feel at home". Portman is an only child and very close to her parents, who are often seen with her at her film premieres.
Portman started taking dancing lessons at the age of four. She performed in local troupes, and dreamed of dancing on Broadway. At the age of twelve, Portman was discovered in a pizza parlor by an agent for Revlon, who offered her an opportunity to model. However, she asked to be introduced to acting talent scouts instead of modeling agents. Referring to her discovery in an interview with Blender Magazine, Portman stated "I was definitely different from the other kids. I was more ambitious, I knew what I liked and what I wanted, and I worked very hard. I was a very serious kid."
As a child, Portman spent her school holidays attending theater camps. In 1994, she auditioned for Luc Besson's film Léon (aka The Professional). She was initially turned down, but through further auditioning won the part. Soon after getting the part, she took "Portman", her grandmother's maiden name, as her stage name, in the interest of privacy; in the Director's Cut of the film found on DVD she is credited as Natalie Hershlag. In the film, Portman plays an orphaned girl who befriends a much older assassin. Léon opened on November 18, 1994, and marked her feature film debut at age 13. That same year she appeared in the short film Developing, which aired on television. Starting at age thirteen, Portman spent her school holidays attending upscale theater camps Stagedoor Manor and Usdan Camp, where she fell in love with acting, playing roles in camp productions such as the title character in Anne of Green Gables, Dream Laurey in Oklahoma!, and Hermia in A Midsummer Night's Dream.
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