Natalie Portman

Natalie Portman (born Neta-Lee Hershlag; Hebrew: June 9, 1981) is an actress, film director and film producer with dual Israeli and American citizenship. Portman is best known for her roles as Padmé Amidala in the Star Wars prequel trilogy and Nina Sayers in Black Swan (2010); she won an Academy Award, Golden Globe Award and Screen Actors Guild Award, among other accolades, for her performance in the latter.

Portman made her film debut in Léon: The Professional (1994), which co-starred Jean Reno and Gary Oldman. At the same time, she studied dancing and acting in New York, and starred in Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace (1999) while still at high school in Long Island. In 1999, Portman enrolled at Harvard University to study psychology, alongside her work as an actress; she completed a bachelor's degree in 2003. During her studies she starred in Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones (2002) and opened in New York City's The Public Theater production of Anton Chekhov's The Seagull in 2001.

Portman was nominated for an Academy Award and won a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture for her role in Closer (2004), and went on to play leading roles in V for Vendetta (2006), Goya's Ghosts (2006), Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium (2007), The Other Boleyn Girl (2008) and No Strings Attached (2011). She also starred as Jane Foster in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) films Thor (2011) and Thor: The Dark World (2013), and portrayed First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy in Jackie (2016); for her role in the latter, she was nominated for an Academy Award, Golden Globe Award, Screen Actors Guild Award and BAFTA Award, and won the Critics' Choice Movie Award for Best Actress.

In May 2008, Portman served as the youngest member of the 61st Annual Cannes Film Festival jury. Later that year, she also directed a segment of the collective film New York, I Love You. Her first feature film as a director, A Tale of Love and Darkness, was released in 2015. Portman has also featured prominently on television, twice hosting Saturday Night Live and twice appearing on The Simpsons.

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