Natalie Portman
Born: 9th June, 1981
Where: Jerusalem, Israel
The Oscar-nominated actress first attracted attention in 1994 as the little girl taken under the wing of an assassin in Luc Besson's Leon.
But it was Portman's stint as Senator Amidala in the first three instalments of the Star Wars series that catapulted her into the limelight.
The daughter of an artist and a doctor, her family left Jerusalem for Washington when she was three years old and finally settled in New York.
At the age of 11, an agent spotted her in a pizza restaurant. Although tempted by the world of modelling, Portman decided that acting was her true calling.
At 14, Portman was approached for the starring role in Adrian Lyne's controversial remake Lolita, but passed up on the role because of the nudity.
The following year she starred in the Michael Mann thriller Heat and went on to appear in Beautiful Girls and Woody Allen's Everyone Says I Love You.
However, it was in 1999 that she received worldwide fame as Queen Amidala in the prequel Star Wars: The Phantom Menace.
(She reprised the role in 2002's Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones and Star Wars: Episode III: Revenge of the Sith.
In 2003, Portman starred in Anthony Minghella's Cold Mountain with Jude Law and Nicole Kidman and proved herself in Zach Braff's touching Garden State.
Most recently she landed an Oscar nomination for her role in Mike Nichols' award winning big screen version of the dark Patrick Marber play Closer, opposite Jude Law and Julia Roberts.
