Julia Roberts

Biography of Julia Roberts

Julia Roberts was born on October 28, 1967 in Smyrna, Georgia.

She is the daughter of Betty Lou Bredemus, and Walter Grady Roberts. She is of English, Scottish, Irish, Welsh, German and Swedish descent. Her mother was Catholic and her father was her Baptist; she was raised Catholic.

Her older brother Eric Roberts, her sister Lisa Roberts Gillan, and her niece Emma Roberts are also actors. Her friends call her Julie or Jules. Her parents divorced in 1971.

Her father was a salesman and died of cancer in 1976, when she was barely ten years old. In 1972, her mother married violent and often unemployed Michael Motes; Julia despised him. The couple had a daughter, Nancy Motes, who died in 2014 at age 37 from an apparent drug overdose. In 1983, Betty Lou divorced Motes on the grounds of cruelty, and she declared that marrying him was the biggest mistake of her life.

She attended Fitzhugh Lee Elementary School, later Griffin Middle School, and then Campbell High. She wanted to be a veterinarian and played clarinet in the Campbell High School band.

She worked as a waitress in a pizzeria in New York, while her brother Eric landed her small roles in the theater.

Director Herbert Ross noticed her when he saw her playing a Portuguese waitress in the movie Mystic Pizza. She cast the young actress in Steel Magnolias and earned her first Oscar nomination.

She later became a superstar thanks to the movie Pretty Woman, (1990), where she plays a luxury prostitute.

At the end of the 1990s, she worked in films such as Stepmom (1998) with Susan Sarandon and Ed Harris, in the romantic comedies Notting Hill (1999) and Runaway Bride (1999).

In Notting Hill she plays a famous movie actress who fell in love with a common man from London, played by Hugh Grant. The film earned her her fourth Golden Globe nomination. In Runaway Bride she works again with Richard Gere and became the first woman to be considered the most profitable of the year by American distributors.

A year later, she stars in Erin Brockovich (2000) and her performance gave her the Oscar, a Golden Globe for best drama actress, the BAFTA for best actress and the Screen Actors Guild Award; She also became the first woman to earn twenty million dollars, becoming the highest paid in history.

She would later work on titles like The Mexican (2001) with Brad Pitt and she had a supporting role in the Hollywood comedy America's Sweethearts (2001) with Catherine Zeta-Jones, John Cusack and Billy Crystal. She works in the remake of Ocean's Eleven (2001) and returned to participate in the sequel titled Ocean's Twelve (2004).

After her motherhood, she returns with the drama Mona Lisa Smile (2004) and appears in Closer (2004) with Jude Law. She would later work in Charlie Wilson's War (2007) with Tom Hanks and that earned her a new nomination for the Golden Globefor best supporting actress. She followed up with the thriller Duplicity (2009) and the comedy Valantine's Day (2010).

In 2011, she works alongside Tom Hanks who directed her in the comedy Larry Crowne. In the same year, she signed a contract committing herself to the firm Lancôme for five years for 53 million dollars.

In 2012 she stars in Tarsem Singh's adaptation of Snow White, titled Mirror Mirror.

In 2013, she appeared in August: Osage County alongside Meryl Streep. Her performance earned her nominations for the Golden Globe, Screen Actors Guild Award, Critics' Choice Award, and Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, among other accolades. It was her fourth Oscar nomination for her. She followed up with Money Monster (2016) and Wonder (2017).

Roberts was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Series or Movie for her performance in the HBO television movie The Normal Heart (2014).

She had relationships with actors Liam Neeson, Jason Patric, Kiefer Sutherland, Dylan McDermott, and Matthew Perry.

She married singer Lyle Lovett on June 25, 1993 and divorced on March 22, 1995.

She was married in July 2002 in New Mexico to Danny Moder, whom she met while filming The Mexican. They had three children: Phinnaeus Walter, Hazel Patricia, and Henry Daniel.