Natalie Hershlag (born June 9, 1981 in Jerusalem, Israel) better known under her stage name Natalie Portman, is an Oscar nominated and Golden Globe Award-winning Israeli-American actress.

Portman is a descendent of Holocaust survivors, though many in her father's family perished. Natalie's paternal family are Israeli descendants of Jewish immigrants from Poland, while her American mother's family is descended from Jewish refugees from Austria and Russia. [1]. When Natalie was three years old her family moved from Israel to the United States for her father to pursue his medical training. They first went to Washington, D.C. in 1984 and then Connecticut in 1988, before finally settling down in Syosset, New York in 1990.

While pursuing her bachelor's degree in psychology at Harvard she appeared in the Star Wars prequel trilogy of movies, which were filmed during her summer break from university. Among Star Wars fans she is known for playing the role of Padmé Amidala in The Phantom Menace, Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith.


Natalie Portman in Star WarsAfter graduating from Harvard in 2003 Natalie had a small but pivotal role as a young war widow in the Oscar-winning movie Cold Mountain. That was followed in 2004 by starring roles in the successful independent movies Garden State and Closer, winning a Supporting Actress Golden Globe for her role as Alice in Closer. She was also nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for the same role.

Natalie Hershlag graduated Syosset High School in Syosset, New York; June of 1999 after being a straight-A honors student with many academic achievements. After high school she continued to maintain straight-A's through her time at Harvard University where she graduated with a Bachelor's degree in Psychology June 5, 2003.

Portman is credited as a research assistant to Harvard Professor Alan Dershowitz's Case For Israel. She was a research assistant to Dr. Stephen M. Kosslyn's psychology lab as well.

As of 2005 Portman is pursuing graduate studies at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, Israel.

In addition to her native Hebrew and English, Portman has studied and/or can speak (to some degree) French, Japanese, German, and a little Spanish; and she is now learning to speak Arabic.

As student Natalie Hershlag, Portman co-authored two research papers which were published in professional scientific journals:

Her 1998 high school paper on the Enzymatic Production of Hydrogen earned her a semi-finalist placement in the Intel Science Talent Search.
In 2002, she contributed to a study on memory called Frontal Lobe Activation During Object Permanence (PDF) during her psychology studies at Harvard.

Natalie Portman is currently pursuing her master's degree at the Hebrew State University in Jerusalem, her hometown.