Portman, Natalie (1981– )

Israeli-born US actor. Before rising to international celebrity for her role as Queen Amidala in Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace (1999), Portman had already established herself as one of the most critically-acclaimed and versatile US film actors of her generation.

Her range includes comedy, as in Mars Attacks (1996), musicals, as in Everyone Says I Love You (1996), and drama, as in Anywhere but Here (1999), Where the Heart Is (2000), Cold Mountain (2003), Garden State (2004), Closer (2004), V for Vendetta (2005), and My Blueberry Nights (2007). She starred on Broadway in The Diary of Anne Frank (1997–98).

She was born in Jerusalem and moved to the USA as a child. After a few moves her family settled in Long Island, New York. She began modelling before reaching adolescence. In 1994 she made an impressive film debut as the self-assured child companion to Jean Reno's professional assassin in Léon (US title The Professional). Her range as a character actor was further illustrated in the roles of Al Pacino's suicidal step-daughter in the thriller Heat (1995) and as a precocious teen who seduces older man Timothy Hutton in Beautiful Girls (1996).