Having started her acting career as a child, Natalie Portman has lived much of her life in the spotlight.
The Black Swan actress was born in Jerusalem in 1981, moved to the United States when she was three years old, and was only 12 when she made her screen debut in 1994 in Léon: The Professional, catapulting her into stardom, an ascent further accentuated when she starred as Padmé Amidala in Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace in 1999.
Since then, she has graduated from Harvard University (2003), won an Oscar (2011), and become a mom, just a few months after the Oscar win.
See Natalie through every decade of her life below.
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Natalie as a child in a photo she shared on Instagram in November 2024, pictured with her cousin Daniella. “Happy birthday to my cousin Daniella! Not much has changed,” she wrote at the time.
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Natalie while filming Léon, which starred Jean Reno as the titular character, the hitman with whom Natalie’s character Mathilde joins forces to avenge her family’s death after their murder.
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Natalie in 2003, the year she graduated from Harvard with a Bachelor’s degree in psychology, attending the m.r.s. Spring 2004 fashion show at The Boxtree Restaurant in New York City.
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Natalie in February 2011, pregnant with her first child Aleph, who was born in June 2011, while accepting her first Oscar for Best Actress for her role in Black Swan. She is also a mom to daughter Amalia, born in February 2017, who she shares with ex-husband Benjamin Millepied.
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Natalie, who is now based in Paris, at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2026. She finalized her divorce from Benjamin in February 2024, and in April 2026, she announced she was expecting her third child, her first with French music producer Tanguy Destable.
