Profile Text
Portman in 2011, Helga Esteb / Shutterstock.com
Birth Name: Neta-Lee Hershlag
Place of Birth: Jerusalem, Israel
Date of Birth: June 9, 1981
Ethnicity: Ashkenazi Jewish
Natalie Portman is an Israeli-American actress, director, and producer. She won the Academy Award for Best Actress for Black Swan (2010). Her roles also include the films Léon: The Professional , Heat (1995), Beautiful Girls , Everyone Says I Love You , Mars Attacks! , Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace , and its follow-ups, Episode II – Attack of the Clones and Episode III – Revenge of the Sith ; Anywhere but Here , Where the Heart Is , Cold Mountain , Garden State , Closer (2004), Free Zone , V for Vendetta , Paris, je t’aime ; Goya’s Ghosts , My Blueberry Nights , Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium , The Other Boleyn Girl , New York, I Love You ; The Other Woman , Brothers (2009), Hesher , No Strings Attached , Your Highness , Thor , and its sequels, Thor: The Dark World and Thor: Love and Thunder ; Knight of Cups , The Heyday of the Insensitive Bastards , Jane Got a Gun , Jackie , Planetarium (2016), Song to Song , Eating Animals , Annihilation , Dolphin Reef , Vox Lux , The Death & Life of John F. Donovan , Lucy in the Sky , May December , Arco , Fountain of Youth , The Twits , and The Gallerist ; the series Sesame Street , The Simpsons , Secrets of the Elephants , and Lady in the Lake ; the tv documentary The Armenian Genocide ; and the music videos for “Dance Tonight,” “Natalie’s Rap 2.0,” and “Imagine.” She directed and wrote the film A Tale of Love and Darkness , which she also starred in; as well as the short film Eve , and another segment of New York, I Love You . She is an animal rights and environmental activist.
Natalie was born in Jerusalem, Israel, and moved with her family to the U.S. East Coast during her early childhood. Natalie’s father, Avner Hershlag, is Israeli-born; his family were Jews from Poland and Romania. Two of Natalie’s paternal great-grandparents were killed in the Holocaust. Natalie’s mother, Shelley (Stevens), is American, from Ohio; her family were Jewish emigrants from Austria, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, and Ukraine. Natalie is able to speak Hebrew, and studied French, Japanese, Arabic, and German. She attended Solomon Schechter, a Jewish day school. Natalie co-founded production company MountainA.
Natalie has two children with her former husband, French dancer Benjamin Millepied .
She is the first person born in the 1980s to have won the Best Actress Oscar, and thus could be considered the first millennial to have done so ( Eddie Redmayne is the first millennial to have won the Best Actor Academy Award, for The Theory of Everything , 2014).
Natalie’s paternal grandfather was Zvi Yehuda Hershlag (the son of Eliezer “Leiser” Hershlag and Leah Penzak). Zvi was an economics professor and author. He was a Polish Jew, who was born in Rzeszów, Poland. Eliezer was born, in 1885, in Dembitz, Poland, the son of Israel Hershlag and Miriam. Leah was born in 1888, in Rzeszow, Poland. Natalie’s great-grandparents Eliezer and Leah were both killed in 1942 in the Holocaust, in Belzec, Poland.
Natalie’s paternal grandmother, Mania/Manya Portman, was a Romanian Jew. Natalie has stated that Mania’s mother spied for the British during World War II.
Natalie’s maternal grandfather was Arthur “Art” Stevens (born Arthur Edelstein; the son of Moses Edelstein and Helen Klar). Arthur was born in New York, to Jewish immigrant parents; Arthur’s paternal grandparents were from Austria and Ukraine, and Arthur’s maternal grandparents were from Russia. Moses Edelstein was the son of Avraham Edelstein (who was born in Kawsko, Stryj, Galicia, the son of Baruch Edelstein [the son of Yosef Edelstein and Neche Ettinger/Ettginger] and Henie Scheninger [the daughter of Abraham Seinwel Scheninger and Eidel]) and Bruche Hendel/Handel/Handler (born in Bolekhiv, Ivano-Frankivs’ka oblast, Ukraine, the daughter of Leib Hendel/Handel and Breine/Brenner Kiwak). Natalie’s great-grandmother Helen Klar was the daughter of Hershel Klar and Sarah.
Natalie’s maternal grandmother was Bernice Hurwitz (the daughter of Michael Hurwitz and Esther Schiff). Bernice was born in Maryland, as were her parents. All of Bernice’s grandparents were Jewish emigrants from Eastern Europe; according to one census, all of her grandparents were born in Lithuania; other censuses list all of her grandparents as having been born in Russia. Michael was the son of Simon Hurwitz and Fannie Alexander. Esther was the daughter of Aaron Harry Schiff and Lizzie/Libby.
Portman in 2006, photo credit: Erik Vanden
Sources: Genealogy of Natalie Portman – https://www.geni.com
Natalie’s maternal grandfather, Arthur Edelstein, on the 1930 U.S. Census – https://familysearch.org
Natalie’s maternal grandmother, Bernice Hurwitz, on the 1930 U.S. Census – https://familysearch.org
Natalie’s maternal great-grandmother, Esther Schiff (Shiff), on the 1900 U.S. Census – https://familysearch.org Esther Schiff (Scheff), on the 1910 U.S. Census – https://familysearch.org
Natalie talks about her background, 2006 – http://www.hillel.org