Julia Fiona Roberts (born October 28 1967) is an Academy Award-winning American film actress and former fashion model. She shot to fame during the early 1990s after starring in the romantic comedy, Pretty Woman, opposite Richard Gere. Her career includes films such as Pretty Woman, Runaway Bride, and Ocean's Eleven, which have collectively earned box office receipts well over $2 billion. She won the Best Actress Academy Award in 2001 for her critically praised turn as the title character in Erin Brockovich after two previous nominations during the 1990s.

Since then, Roberts has become the highest-paid actress in the world, topping the Hollywood Reporter's annual power list of top-earning female stars for four consecutive years (2002-2005). An unprecedented $25 million was paid to Roberts for her role in 2003's Mona Lisa Smile. As of 2007, Roberts' net worth was estimated around US$140,000,000.

Roberts was also the first actress to appear on the cover of Vogue and the first woman to land on the cover of GQ. She has been named one of People magazine's "50 Most Beautiful People in the World" eleven times, tied with Halle Berry. In 2001 Ladies Home Journal ranked her as the 11th most powerful woman in America, beating out then national security advisor Condoleezza Rice and first lady Laura Bush.

It is commonly mistaken that Julia's birth name is "Julie"; however, Roberts has said in interviews that "Julie" was a nickname given to her by classmates in elementary school, and she never took well to it. Roberts was born in Smyrna, Georgia. Her father, Walter Grady Roberts, was a vacuum cleaner salesman, and her Minneapolis, Minnesota-born mother, Betty Lou Motes (née Bredemus), was a one-time church secretary and real estate agent. Her parents, one-time actors and playwrights, met while performing theatrical productions for the armed forces and later co-founded the Atlanta Actors and Writers Workshop in Georgia; the two divorced in 1971. Her mother later re-married to Michael Motes and had another daughter, named Nancy Motes who was born in 1976. Roberts' father died of cancer when she was ten. Her older brother and sister, Eric Roberts (from whom she was estranged for a while) and Lisa Roberts Gillan, are also actors. Roberts wanted to be a veterinarian as a child, but soon after graduating from Smyrna's Campbell High School, and after attending Georgia State University, she headed to New York to join her sister Lisa Roberts Gillan and pursue a career in acting. Once there, she signed with the Click modeling agency and enrolled in acting classes. She reverted to her original name "Julia Roberts" when she found that there was already a "Julie Roberts" registered with the Screen Actors Guild.

Her niece Emma Roberts, who she used to take to the sets when she was younger, has joined her father and aunts in the acting business. Recently, she gained a starring role on the Nickelodeon series Unfabulous and has appeared in the films Blow (2001), Aquamarine (2006) and Nancy Drew (2007).

Roberts made her film debut playing a supporting role opposite her brother, Eric, in Blood Red (she gets just two words of dialogue), which, although completed in 1986, was not released until 1989. She once appeared on Sesame Street opposite the character Elmo, demonstrating her ability to change emotions. Roberts first caught the attention of moviegoers with her performance in the independent film Mystic Pizza in 1988; the same year she had a role in the last episode of season four of Miami Vice. The following year she was featured in Steel Magnolias as a young bride battling diabetes and garnered her first Oscar nomination (as Best Supporting Actress) for her performance. Julia Roberts also made a guest appearance as a juvenile rape victim in season 1 of the 1986 tv series, Crime Story, in the episode titled as, "The Survivor."

Roberts first catapulted to worldwide fame when she co-starred with Richard Gere in the Cinderella/Pygmalianesque story Pretty Woman in 1990. Roberts was able to win the role after the first two choices for the part, Molly Ringwald and Meg Ryan turned it down. The role also earned her a second Oscar nod, this time as Best Actress. Her next box office success was the thriller Sleeping with the Enemy, playing a battered wife who escapes her demented husband and starts a new life in Iowa. She played Tinkerbell in Steven Spielberg's Hook in 1991, which was followed by a two-year period of no acting roles other than a cameo appearance in Robert Altman's The Player (1992). In early 1993, she was the subject of a People magazine cover story asking, "What Happened to Julia Roberts?"

In 1993, she co-starred with Denzel Washington in the successful The Pelican Brief, based on the John Grisham novel. She also starred alongside Liam Neeson in the 1996 film Michael Collins. Over the next few years, she starred in a series of films that were critical and commercial failures, primarily because she was cast in roles that strayed too far from her film persona. She broke her losing streak with the hugely popular comedy My Best Friend's Wedding (1997), and eventually regained her earlier reputation as an actress who could open a movie and guarantee box office success. She then starred with Hugh Grant in the popular 1999 film Notting Hill. In that same year she also starred in Runaway Bride, another movie with the famous Julia Roberts-Richard Gere duo.

In 2001, she won critical acclaim and finally received a Best Actress Oscar for her portrayal of Erin Brockovich, who helped wage a successful lawsuit against energy giant Pacific Gas & Electric. Whilst presenting the Best Actor Award to Denzel Washington the following year she made a gaff when she said she was glad Tom Conti wasn't there. She meant the conductor Bill Conti who tried to hasten the conclusion of her speech the previous year but named the British actor instead. Subsequently, Roberts would team up with Erin Brockovich director Steven Soderbergh for three more films: Ocean's Eleven, Full Frontal, and Ocean's Twelve.

In 2005, she was featured in the music video for the hit single "Dreamgirl" by the Dave Matthews Band. Roberts is reported to be a longtime fan of the band.

Roberts recently enjoyed her Broadway debut as Nan in Three Days of Rain opposite Alias and Kitchen Confidential star Bradley Cooper, and The 40 Year Old Virgin star, Paul Rudd, at the Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre. Although the play grossed nearly one million dollars in ticket sales its first week out and continued to be a commercial success throughout its limited run, most critics have heavily criticized Roberts' performance and the play itself. The New York Times' critic Ben Brantly, a self proclaimed 'Juliaholic', described her as being fraught with "self-consciousness (especially in the first act) [and] only glancingly acquainted with the two characters she plays." Three Days of Rain received two Tony Award nominations in stage design categories, but took home neither prize. Julia Roberts did, however, receive a Broadway.com audience award (a minor theatrical prize) for her performance.

As of February 25 2007, Roberts's films have grossed $2,203,765,451 at the American box office making her the biggest female movie star in history and reaching this feat with only thirty films to her name. She was also placed at the pinnacle of the Ulmer Scale, a comprehensive guide to the global star power of actors and directors in independent and studio films created by James Ulmer, ahead of such other luminaries as Tom Cruise and Tom Hanks. This was partly owing to her ability to attract filmgoers solely on the basis of her name's appearance above the title and without the support of a male co-star, something few other actresses are able to do.

Roberts's personal life has often been in the spotlight, a fact reflected in her Notting Hill, a romantic comedy about a famous actress falling for a bookstore owner played by Hugh Grant, another star with a high-profile personal life.

Roberts has had numerous famous boyfriends, including Kiefer Sutherland, Lyle Lovett, Daniel Day-Lewis, Matthew Perry, Liam Neeson, Benjamin Bratt and Dylan McDermott. For a time, she lived with Liam Neeson. Roberts met Sutherland in 1990, when he was her co-star in Flatliners . Sutherland left his wife and children to move in with Roberts. In August 1990, Roberts and Sutherland announced their engagement, with a wedding planned for June 14 1991. Roberts canceled the wedding when she discovered Sutherland had been meeting with a stripper named Amanda Rice. Roberts went to Europe with Jason Patric, a friend of Sutherland, after she and Sutherland broke up. Eventually, she married country singer Lyle Lovett after the couple had known each other for a few weeks. The wedding was planned on very short notice and was held in Marion, Indiana. Two years later, in March 1995, the couple announced that they were separating.

At the Christmas '98 premiere of Stepmom, Roberts appeared with actor Benjamin Bratt. In late June 2001, Roberts and Bratt announced they were breaking up. "It's come to a kind and tenderhearted end," she said of their relationship.

Roberts met her current husband, cameraman Danny Moder, on the set of her movie The Mexican in 2000 and they began an affair. He was already married to Vera Steinberg Moder at the time and it has been widely reported that Roberts offered Danny's then-wife $250,000.00 to agree to a divorce. After Moder's divorce was finalized, he and Roberts wed on Fourth of July 2002, at her ranch in Taos, New Mexico.

On November 28 2004, they became the parents of fraternal twins, daughter Hazel Patricia and son Phinnaeus Walter. They had their third child, son Henry Daniel Moder, on June 18 2007 in Los Angeles.

Roberts bought a penthouse in Manhattan's Gramercy Park neighborhood. She reportedly loves to shop anonymously, buying her own organic greens on weekends at the market in nearby Union Square. She and her family divide their time between their homes in Taos New Mexico, New York City, Malibu, and Venice Beach, California.

Roberts has a production company called Red Om Films ("Moder" spelled backwards; formerly "Shoelace Productions") and has given her time and resources to UNICEF as well as to other charitable organizations. In Spring 1995, Roberts, an enthusiastic supporter of UNICEF, asked if she could meet some of the relief agency's neediest recipients. On May 10, she arrived in Port-au-Prince, as she said, "to educate myself." The poverty she found was overwhelming. "My heart is just bursting," she said. UNICEF officials hoped that her six-day visit would trigger an outburst of giving: $10 million in aid was sought at the time.

In 2000, Roberts narrated "Silent Angels", a documentary about Rett syndrome, which was shot in Los Angeles, Baltimore and New York. The documentary was designed to help raise public awareness about the disease. In July 2006, Earth Biofuels announced Roberts as a spokeswoman for the company and as chair of the company’s newly formed Advisory Board promoting the use of renewable fuels.

*1990: Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture Steel Magnolias *1991: Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Comedy/Musical Pretty Woman *1991: ShoWest Female Star of the Year *1991: People's Choice Award for Favourite Motion Picture Actress *1992: People's Choice Award for Favourite Comedy Motion Picture Actress and Favourite Dramatic Motion Picture Actress *1994: National Board of Review Award for Best Acting by an Ensemble Pret-a-Porter *1994: People's Choice Award for Favourite Dramatic Motion Picture Actress *1997: Hasty Pudding Theatricals for Woman of the Year *1998: Blockbluster Entertainment Award for Favourite Actress - Comedy My Best Friend's Wedding and Favourite Actress - Suspense Conspiracy Theory *1998: ShoWest Award for International Star of the Year *1998: People's Choice Award for Favourite Motion Picture Actress *1999: Blockbluster Entertainment Award for Favourite Actress- Drama Stepmom *2000: People's Choice Award for Favourite Motion Picture Actress *2001: People's Choice Award for Favourite Motion Picture Actress *2001: American Museum of the Moving Image Honoree Award *2001: Academy Award, BAFTA, Golden Globe, National Board of Review, Critic's Choice Award, Blockbuster Entertainment Award, London's Critic's Circle Film Award, Los Angeles Film Critic's Association Award, MTV Movie Award, San Diego Film Critic's Society Award, Teen Choice Award and Screen Actors Guild for Best Actress in Erin Brockovich *2002: People's Choice Award for Favourite Motion Picture Actress *2003: People's Choice Award for Favourite Motion Picture Actress *2004: National Board of Review Award for Best Acting by an Ensemble Closer *2004: People's Choice Award for Favourite Motion Picture Actress *2005: People's Choice Award for Favourite Female Movie Star *2007: 22nd American Cinematheque Award



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*1989: Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Actress in Mystic Pizza *1989: Young Artist Awards for Best Young Actress in a MOtion Picture- Drama Mystic Pizza *1989: Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in Steel Magnolias *1990: Academy Awards and BAFTA for Best Actress in Pretty Woman *1991: Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actress Flatliners *1992: Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films Saturn Award for Best Actress Sleeping with the Enemy *1992: MTV Movie Award for Best Female Performance and Most Desirable Female Dying Young *1994: MTV Movie Award for Best Female Performane The Pelican Brief *1997: Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Comedy/Musical My Best Friend's Wedding *1998: MTV Movie Award for Best Female Performane and Golden Satellite Award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture- Comedy or Musical My Best Friend's Wedding *1999: Golden Globe for 'Best Actress in a Comedy/Musical Notting Hill *1999: Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series Law & Order *1999: Kid's Choice Awards Blimp Award for Favourite Movie Actress Stepmom *2000: Blockbuster Entertainment Award for Favourite Actress- Comedy/Romance Notting Hill and Runaway Bride,Csapnivalo Awards Golden Slate Best Female Performance and MTV Movie Award for Best Female Performance Runaway Bride *2000: Kid's Choice Awards Blimp Award for Favourite Movie Actress Notting Hill and Runaway Bride and Blimp Award for Favourite Movie Couple Notting Hill *2000: Golden Satellite Award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture-Comedy or Musical Notting Hill *2001: Chicago Film Critic's Association, Las Vegas Film Critics Society Sierra Award, Online Film Critics Society, Golden Satellite Award-Drama and Empire Awards (UK) for Best Actress Erin Brockovich and MTV Movie Award for Best Line from a Movie Erin Brockovich *2001: Teen's Choice Award for Film-Choice Chemistry The Mexican *2002: PhoenixFilm Critics Society Award for Best Acting Ensemble Ocean's Eleven *2005: Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Cast Ensemble Closer and Ocean's Twelve

Julia: Her Life by James Spada (New York: St Martin's Press, 2004)

Julia Roberts: America's Sweetheart by Mark Bego (New York: AMI Books, 2003)

Julia Roberts Confidential: The Unauthorised Biography by Paul Donnelley (London: Virgin, 2003)

Julia Roberts: Pretty Superstar by Frank Sanello (Edinburgh: Mainstream 2000)

* * * * *An assessment of the hype surrounding Julia Roberts Broadway debut * *Linda Hörnfeldt.Aboutjulia August 31, 2004