Natalie Portman was born on June 9, 1981, in Jerusalem, Israel as the only child of a doctor and an artist (mother, who also acts as Natalie's agent).

Portman is not the actress's actual last name; she reportedly adopted her grandmother's maiden name of Portman to protect her off-screen privacy.

Natalie Portman made her mark as a coming-of-age actress in the mid-1990s, co-starring in The Professional (1994), Heat (1995, with Al Pacino) and Mars Attacks (1996, with Jack Nicholson).

She studied acting at the Lee Strassberg Institute, and had her first role as a German dominatrix in her school play ROOM SERVICE. She got her first Hollywood starring role in the movie HACKERS. She portrayed the only female in the group capable of reaching elite status in the hacker business. She followed up that initial success with the film FOXFIRE, which is based on the novel by Joyce Carol Oates.

She has been a strict vegetarian since the age of 8 and has taken dance lessons since the age of 4. She can speak fluent Hebrew, French, and Japanese.