Julia Stiles
Encyclopedia
Julia O'Hara Stiles is an American actress.

After beginning her career in small parts in a New York City theatre troupe, she has moved on to leading roles in plays by writers as diverse as William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...

 and David Mamet
David Mamet
David Alan Mamet is an American playwright, essayist, screenwriter and film director.Best known as a playwright, Mamet won a Pulitzer Prize and received a Tony nomination for Glengarry Glen Ross . He also received a Tony nomination for Speed-the-Plow . As a screenwriter, he received Oscar...

. Her film career has included both commercial and critical successes, ranging from teen romantic comedies
Romantic Comedy
Romantic Comedy can refer to* Romantic Comedy , a 1979 play written by Bernard Slade* Romantic Comedy , a 1983 film adapted from the play and starring Dudley Moore and Mary Steenburgen...

 such as 10 Things I Hate About You
10 Things I Hate about You
10 Things I Hate About You is a 1999 American teen romantic comedy film. It is directed by Gil Junger and stars Heath Ledger, Julia Stiles, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Larisa Oleynik, David Krumholtz, and Larry Miller...

(1999) to dark art house pictures
Art film
An art film is the result of filmmaking which is typically a serious, independent film aimed at a niche market rather than a mass market audience...

 such as The Business of Strangers
The Business of Strangers
The Business of Strangers is a 2001 motion picture that tells the story of an eventful night shared between a middle-aged businesswoman and her young assistant....

(2001). She is also known for playing the supporting character Nicky Parsons in the Bourne film series
Bourne (film series)
The Bourne films are a series of dramatic films based on the character Jason Bourne, a former CIA assassin suffering from extreme memory loss, created by author Robert Ludlum. All three of Ludlum's novels were adapted for the screen, featuring Matt Damon as the titular character in each...

 and the leading role in Save the Last Dance
Save the Last Dance
Save the Last Dance is a 2001 romantic drama dance film produced by MTV Films, directed by Thomas Carter and released by Paramount Pictures on January 12, 2001. The film stars Julia Stiles and Sean Patrick Thomas as a teenage interracial couple in Chicago who work together to help the main...

, and for her role in Mona Lisa Smile
Mona Lisa Smile
Mona Lisa Smile is a 2003 romantic drama film produced by Revolution Studios and Columbia Pictures in association with Red Om Films Productions, directed by Mike Newell, written by Lawrence Konner and Mark Rosenthal, and starring Julia Roberts, Kirsten Dunst, Maggie Gyllenhaal, and Julia Stiles...

. She guest starred as Lumen Pierce
Lumen Pierce
Lumen Ann Pierce is a fictional character portrayed by Julia Stiles in the fifth season of the Showtime television series Dexter. Lumen is introduced in the third episode of the fifth season as a rape victim of Boyd Fowler...

 in the fifth season of the Showtime series Dexter
Dexter (TV series)
Dexter is an American television drama series, which debuted on Showtime on October 1, 2006. The sixth season premiered on October 2, 2011. The series centers on Dexter Morgan , a bloodstain pattern analyst for the Miami Metro Police Department who moonlights as a serial killer...

, a role that earned her Emmy Award
Emmy Award
An Emmy Award, often referred to simply as the Emmy, is a television production award, similar in nature to the Peabody Awards but more focused on entertainment, and is considered the television equivalent to the Academy Awards and the Grammy Awards .A majority of Emmys are presented in various...

 and Golden Globe Award
Golden Globe Award
The Golden Globe Award is an accolade bestowed by the 93 members of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association recognizing excellence in film and television, both domestic and foreign...

 nominations.

Early life

Stiles was born in New York City, the eldest of three children. Her mother, Judith Newcomb Stiles, is a potter
Pottery
Pottery is the material from which the potteryware is made, of which major types include earthenware, stoneware and porcelain. The place where such wares are made is also called a pottery . Pottery also refers to the art or craft of the potter or the manufacture of pottery...

, and her father, John O'Hara, is a businessman. Stiles has English, Irish, and Italian ancestry. She started acting at age eleven, performing with New York's La MaMa Theatre Company.

Film career

Stiles' first film was a non-speaking part in I Love You, I Love You Not
I Love You, I Love You Not
I Love You, I Love You Not is a 1996 romantic drama film directed by Billy Hopkins and written by Wendy Kesselman.-Plot:The film is told through the stories of two women: Nana, a grandmother, and Daisy, her granddaughter...

(1996), with Claire Danes
Claire Danes
Claire Catherine Danes is an American actress of television, stage and film. She has appeared in roles as diverse as Angela Chase in My So-Called Life, as Juliet in Baz Luhrmann's Romeo + Juliet, as Kate Brewster in Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, as Yvaine in Stardust and as Temple Grandin in...

 and Jude Law
Jude Law
David Jude Heyworth Law , known professionally as Jude Law, is an English actor, film producer and director.He began acting with the National Youth Music Theatre in 1987, and had his first television role in 1989...

. She also had small roles as Harrison Ford
Harrison Ford
Harrison Ford is an American film actor and producer. He is famous for his performances as Han Solo in the original Star Wars trilogy and as the title character of the Indiana Jones film series. Ford is also known for his roles as Rick Deckard in Blade Runner, John Book in Witness and Jack Ryan in...

's daughter in Alan J. Pakula
Alan J. Pakula
Alan Jay Pakula was an American film director, writer and producer noted for his contributions to the conspiracy thriller genre.-Career:...

's The Devil's Own
The Devil's Own
The Devil's Own is a 1997 action thriller movie starring Harrison Ford, Brad Pitt, Rubén Blades, Natascha McElhone, Julia Stiles and Treat Williams. It was the final film directed by Alan J...

(1997) and in M. Night Shyamalan
M. Night Shyamalan
Manoj Nelliyattu Shyamalan,known professionally as M. Night Shyamalan, is an Indian-born American screenwriter, film director, and producer known for making movies with contemporary supernatural plots that climax with a twist ending. He is also known for filming his movies in and around...

's Wide Awake (1998). Her first lead was in Wicked (1998), playing a teenage girl who might have murdered her mother so she could have her father all to herself. Critic Joe Balthai wrote she was "the darling of the 1998 Sundance Film Festival
Sundance Film Festival
The Sundance Film Festival is a film festival that takes place annually in Utah, in the United States. It is the largest independent cinema festival in the United States. Held in January in Park City, Salt Lake City, and Ogden, as well as at the Sundance Resort, the festival is a showcase for new...

" and Internet movie writer Harry Knowles
Harry Knowles
Harry Knowles is known for his website called Ain't It Cool News. Knowles is a member of the Austin Film Critics Association.-Biography:...

 said she was the "discovery of the fest", but the film was not commercially released in the U.S. and went direct-to-video
Direct-to-video
Direct-to-video is a term used to describe a film that has been released to the public on home video formats without being released in film theaters or broadcast on television...

.

In 1999, she portrayed Kat Stratford, opposite Heath Ledger
Heath Ledger
Heath Andrew Ledger was an Australian television and film actor. After performing roles in Australian television and film during the 1990s, Ledger moved to the United States in 1998 to develop his film career...

, in Gil Junger
Gil Junger
Gil Junger is an American director for Touchstone Pictures, most famous for 10 Things I Hate About You, his directorial film debut...

's 10 Things I Hate About You
10 Things I Hate about You
10 Things I Hate About You is a 1999 American teen romantic comedy film. It is directed by Gil Junger and stars Heath Ledger, Julia Stiles, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Larisa Oleynik, David Krumholtz, and Larry Miller...

, an adaptation of The Taming of the Shrew
The Taming of the Shrew
The Taming of the Shrew is a comedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1590 and 1591.The play begins with a framing device, often referred to as the Induction, in which a mischievous nobleman tricks a drunken tinker named Sly into believing he is actually a nobleman himself...

set in a high school in Tacoma, Washington
Tacoma, Washington
Tacoma is a mid-sized urban port city and the county seat of Pierce County, Washington, United States. The city is on Washington's Puget Sound, southwest of Seattle, northeast of the state capital, Olympia, and northwest of Mount Rainier National Park. The population was 198,397, according to...

. She won an MTV Movie Award for "Breakthrough Female Performance" for the role, and the Chicago Film Critics voted her the most promising new actress of the year. Foreign critics applauded her work as well, including Adina Hoffman, who praised her as "a young, serious looking Diane Lane
Diane Lane
Diane Lane is an American film actress.Born and raised in New York City, Lane made her screen debut at the age of 13 in George Roy Hill's 1979 film A Little Romance, starring opposite Sir Laurence Olivier. Soon after, she was featured on the cover of Time magazine...

" and Martin Hoyle, who commented that Stiles played Kat "with bloody-minded independent charm from the beginning with hints of wistfulness beneath the determination."

Her next starring role was in Down to You
Down to You
Down to You is a 2000 romantic comedy film about losing a first love. It was directed by Kris Isacsson. The main characters are Alfred 'Al' Connelly Imogen and Cyrus...

(2000), which was panned by critics, but earned her and her co-star Freddie Prinze, Jr.
Freddie Prinze, Jr.
Freddie James Prinze, Jr. is an American actor. He rose to fame during the late 1990s and early 2000s, after starring in several Hollywood films aimed at teenage audiences, I Know What You Did Last Summer and its sequel, I Still Know What You Did Last Summer , as well as She's All That , Summer...

 a Teen Choice Award nomination for their on-screen chemistry. She subsequently appeared in two more Shakespearean adaptations. The first was as Ophelia in Michael Almereyda
Michael Almereyda
Michael Almereyda is an American film director, screenwriter, and film producer. His most well known work is Hamlet , starring Ethan Hawke.-Early life:...

's Hamlet
Hamlet (2000 film)
Hamlet is a 2000 American film written and directed by Michael Almereyda, set in contemporary New York City, and based on the Shakespeare play of the same name...

(2000), with Ethan Hawke
Ethan Hawke
Ethan Green Hawke is an American actor, writer and director. He made his feature film debut in 1985 with the science fiction movie Explorers, before making a supporting appearance in the 1989 drama Dead Poets Society which is considered his breakthrough role...

 in the lead. The second was in the Desdemona
Desdemona (Othello)
Desdemona is a character in William Shakespeare's play Othello . Shakespeare's Desdemona is a Venetian beauty who enrages and disappoints her father, a Venetian senator, when she elopes with Othello, a man several years her senior. When her husband is deployed to Cyprus in the service of the...

 role, opposite Mekhi Phifer
Mekhi Phifer
Mekhi Thira Phifer is an American actor. He is perhaps best known for his multi-year role as Dr. Greg Pratt on NBC's long-running medical drama ER and his co-starring role opposite Eminem in the feature film 8 Mile...

, in Tim Blake Nelson
Tim Blake Nelson
Tim Blake Nelson is an American director, writer, singer, and actor.-Early life:Nelson was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, the son of Ruth Kaiser Nelson, who is a noted social activist and philanthropist in Tulsa, and a geologist father...

's O
O (film)
O is a 2001 American drama film, and a loose modern adaptation of William Shakespeare's Othello.The film's intended release date was April 1999, but due to the Columbine High School massacre, the film was shelved for two years by its original distributor, Miramax Films. Ultimately, it was sold...

(2001), a version of Othello
Othello
The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in approximately 1603, and based on the Italian short story "Un Capitano Moro" by Cinthio, a disciple of Boccaccio, first published in 1565...

set in a private boarding school. Neither film was a great success; O was subject to many delays and a change of distributors, and Hamlet was an art house film shot on a minimal budget.

Stiles' next commercial success was in Save the Last Dance
Save the Last Dance
Save the Last Dance is a 2001 romantic drama dance film produced by MTV Films, directed by Thomas Carter and released by Paramount Pictures on January 12, 2001. The film stars Julia Stiles and Sean Patrick Thomas as a teenage interracial couple in Chicago who work together to help the main...

(2001), as an aspiring ballerina
Ballet
Ballet is a type of performance dance, that originated in the Italian Renaissance courts of the 15th century, and which was further developed in France and Russia as a concert dance form. The early portions preceded the invention of the proscenium stage and were presented in large chambers with...

 forced to leave her small town in downstate Illinois
Illinois
Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...

 to live with her struggling musician father in Chicago after her mother dies in a car accident. At her new, nearly all-black school, she falls in love with the character played by Sean Patrick Thomas
Sean Patrick Thomas
Sean Patrick Thomas is a Guyanese-American actor. He is perhaps best known for his co-starring role in the 2001 film Save the Last Dance, as well as his television role as Detective Temple Page in The District and also "Barber Shop".- Early life :Thomas is the son of immigrants from Guyana and was...

, who teaches her hip-hop
Hip hop music
Hip hop music, also called hip-hop, rap music or hip-hop music, is a musical genre consisting of a stylized rhythmic music that commonly accompanies rapping, a rhythmic and rhyming speech that is chanted...

 dance steps that get her into The Juilliard School. The role won her two more MTV awards for "Best Kiss" and "Best Female Performance", and a Teen Choice Award for best fight scene for her battle with Bianca Lawson
Bianca Lawson
Bianca Jasmine Lawson is an American film and television actress.-Early life:Lawson was born in Los Angeles, California. She is the daughter of Denise and actor Richard Lawson. Bianca is also the great niece of Motown founder Berry Gordy...

. Rolling Stone pronounced her "the coolest co-ed," putting her on the cover of its April 12, 2001 issue. She told Rolling Stone that she performed all her own dancing in the film, though the way the film was shot and edited might have made it appear otherwise.
In David Mamet
David Mamet
David Alan Mamet is an American playwright, essayist, screenwriter and film director.Best known as a playwright, Mamet won a Pulitzer Prize and received a Tony nomination for Glengarry Glen Ross . He also received a Tony nomination for Speed-the-Plow . As a screenwriter, he received Oscar...

's State and Main
State and Main
State and Main is a 2000 comedy film, written and directed by David Mamet and starring Philip Seymour Hoffman and Rebecca Pidgeon, about the on-location production in Waterford, Vermont of a film called The Old Mill...

(2000), about a film shooting on location in a small town in Vermont
Vermont
Vermont is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. The state ranks 43rd in land area, , and 45th in total area. Its population according to the 2010 census, 630,337, is the second smallest in the country, larger only than Wyoming. It is the only New England...

, she played a teenage girl who seduces a film actor (Alec Baldwin
Alec Baldwin
Alexander Rae "Alec" Baldwin III is an American actor who has appeared on film, stage, and television.Baldwin first gained recognition through television for his work in the soap opera Knots Landing in the role of Joshua Rush. He was a cast member for two seasons before his character was killed off...

) with a weakness for young girls
Ephebophilia
Ephebophilia is the sexual preference of adults for mid-to-late adolescents, generally ages 15 to 19. The term was originally used in the late 19th to mid 20th century, and has been more recently revisited by Ray Blanchard. It is one of a number of sexual preferences across age groups subsumed...

. Stiles also appeared opposite Stockard Channing
Stockard Channing
Stockard Channing is an American stage, film and television actress. She is known for her portrayal of First Lady Abbey Bartlet in the NBC television series The West Wing; for playing Betty Rizzo in the film Grease; and for her role as Ouisa Kittredge in the play Six Degrees of Separation and its...

 in the dark art-house film The Business of Strangers
The Business of Strangers
The Business of Strangers is a 2001 motion picture that tells the story of an eventful night shared between a middle-aged businesswoman and her young assistant....

(2001) as a conniving, amoral secretary who exacts revenge
Revenge
Revenge is a harmful action against a person or group in response to a grievance, be it real or perceived. It is also called payback, retribution, retaliation or vengeance; it may be characterized, justly or unjustly, as a form of justice.-Function in society:Some societies believe that the...

 on her boss. Channing was impressed by her co-star: "In addition to her talent, she has a quality that is almost feral, something that can make people uneasy. She has an effect on people." Stiles also had a small but crucial role as Treadstone operative Nicolette "Nicky" Parsons in The Bourne Identity
The Bourne Identity (2002 film)
The Bourne Identity is a 2002 American spy film loosely based on Robert Ludlum's novel of the same name. It stars Matt Damon as Jason Bourne, an amnesiac attempting to discover his true identity amidst a clandestine conspiracy within the Central Intelligence Agency . The film also stars Franka...

(2002), a role that was enlarged in The Bourne Supremacy
The Bourne Supremacy (film)
The Bourne Supremacy is a 2004 American spy film very loosely based on Robert Ludlum's novel of the same name. The film was directed by Paul Greengrass, written by Tony Gilroy and Brian Helgeland, and produced by Frank Marshall and Pat Crowley. Universal Pictures released the film to theaters in...

(2004), then greatly expanded in The Bourne Ultimatum
The Bourne Ultimatum (film)
The Bourne Ultimatum is a 2007 American spy film directed by Paul Greengrass and loosely based on the Robert Ludlum novel of the same title. This film is the third in the Bourne film series, being preceded by The Bourne Identity and The Bourne Supremacy...

(2007).

Between the Bourne films, she appeared in Mona Lisa Smile
Mona Lisa Smile
Mona Lisa Smile is a 2003 romantic drama film produced by Revolution Studios and Columbia Pictures in association with Red Om Films Productions, directed by Mike Newell, written by Lawrence Konner and Mark Rosenthal, and starring Julia Roberts, Kirsten Dunst, Maggie Gyllenhaal, and Julia Stiles...

(2003) as Joan, a student at Wellesley College in 1953, whose art professor (Julia Roberts
Julia Roberts
Julia Fiona Roberts is an American actress. She became a Hollywood star after headlining the romantic comedy Pretty Woman , which grossed $464 million worldwide...

) encourages her to pursue a career in law rather than become a wife and mother. Critic Stephen Holden referred to her as one of cinema's "brightest young stars," but the film met with generally unfavorable reviews.

Stiles played a Wisconsin
Wisconsin
Wisconsin is a U.S. state located in the north-central United States and is part of the Midwest. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michigan to the northeast, and Lake Superior to the north. Wisconsin's capital is...

 college student who is swept off her feet by a Danish prince in The Prince and Me
The Prince and Me
The Prince and Me is a 2004 romantic comedy film directed by Martha Coolidge, and starring Julia Stiles, Luke Mably, and Ben Miller, with Miranda Richardson, James Fox, and Alberta Watson...

(2004), directed by Martha Coolidge
Martha Coolidge
Martha Coolidge is an American film director and former President of the Directors Guild of America. -Career:Born in New Haven, Connecticut, Ms. Coolidge first made her reputation by directing many award winning documentaries in New York before moving out to Hollywood in 1976. She spent several...

. Stiles told an interviewer that she was very similar to the character, Paige Morgan. Critic Scott Foundas said while she was, as always, "irrepressibly engaging," the film was a "strange career choice for Stiles." This echoed criticism in reviews of A Guy Thing
A Guy Thing
- Plot :Karen and Paul are about get married. However, after his bachelor party, Paul wakes up next to Becky , a dancer at the party. Assuming they slept together, Paul rushes Becky out of his apartment and hopes never to see her again. He tries to cover up the connection for the few days before...

(2003), a romantic comedy with Jason Lee
Jason Lee (actor)
Jason Michael Lee is an American actor and skateboarder known for his role as the title character on the NBC television series My Name is Earl, his portrayal of Syndrome in the film The Incredibles, his role as Dave Seville in the Alvin and the Chipmunks films, and his work with director Kevin...

 and Selma Blair
Selma Blair
Selma Blair is an American actress who has worked in film, theatre and television. She has performed in feature films including Cruel Intentions, Legally Blonde, The Sweetest Thing, Hellboy, The Fog, Purple Violets and Hellboy II: The Golden Army...

. Critic Dennis Harvey wrote that Stiles was "wasted," and Stephen Holden called her "a serious actress from whom comedy does not seem to flow naturally".

In 2005, Stiles was cast opposite her Hamlet co-star Liev Schreiber
Liev Schreiber
Isaac Liev Schreiber , commonly known as Liev Schreiber, is an American actor, producer, director, and screenwriter. He became known during the late 1990s and early 2000s, having initially appeared in several independent films, and later mainstream Hollywood films, including the Scream trilogy of...

 in The Omen
The Omen (2006 film)
The Omen is a 2006 remake of Richard Donner's The Omen of 1976 and a part of The Omen series. Directed by John Moore and written by David Seltzer, the film stars Liev Schreiber, Julia Stiles and Seamus Davey-Fitzpatrick...

,
a remake of the 1976 horror film
The Omen
An original score for the film, including the movie's theme song Ave Satani, was composed by Jerry Goldsmith, for which he received the only Oscar of his long career. The score features a strong choral segment, with a foreboding Latin chant...

. The film was released on June 6, 2006.

She returned to the Bourne series with a much larger role in The Bourne Ultimatum
The Bourne Ultimatum (film)
The Bourne Ultimatum is a 2007 American spy film directed by Paul Greengrass and loosely based on the Robert Ludlum novel of the same title. This film is the third in the Bourne film series, being preceded by The Bourne Identity and The Bourne Supremacy...

in 2007, and to this day it is her highest grossing film. Producer Lynda Obst said that Stiles was "turning into the next Meryl Streep
Meryl Streep
Mary Louise "Meryl" Streep is an American actress who has worked in theatre, television and film.Streep made her professional stage debut in 1971's The Playboy of Seville, before her screen debut in the television movie The Deadliest Season in 1977. In that same year, she made her film debut with...

." Stiles also appears in the 2008 film Gospel Hill
Gospel Hill
Gospel Hill is a 2008 film directed and produced by Giancarlo Esposito, who also stars in the film. The film was released on February 10, 2009 on DVD in the United States after being at numerous film festivals.-Plot:...

. She portrayed a woman who falls in love with her stalker
Stalking
Stalking is a term commonly used to refer to unwanted and obsessive attention by an individual or group to another person. Stalking behaviors are related to harassment and intimidation and may include following the victim in person and/or monitoring them via the internet...

 in the 2009 thriller The Cry of the Owl
The Cry of the Owl (film)
The Cry of the Owl may refer to the following films based on a novel of the same name by Patricia Highsmith.* The Cry of the Owl , a 1987 French film staring Christophe Malavoy, Mathilda May and Virginie Thévenet...

, based on the novel
The Cry of the Owl
The Cry of the Owl is a psychological thriller novel by Patricia Highsmith.- Plot summary:Following a messy divorce from his vindictive wife Nickie, Robert Forrester leaves New York and moves to a small Pennsylvania town, where he develops an obsession with the seemingly happy, 23-year old Jenny...

 by Patricia Highsmith
Patricia Highsmith
Patricia Highsmith was an American novelist and short-story writer most widely known for her psychological thrillers, which led to more than two dozen film adaptations. Her first novel, Strangers on a Train, has been adapted for stage and screen numerous times, notably by Alfred Hitchcock in 1951...

.

Julia Stiles began filming on her latest project, Between Us, in May 2011 with co-stars Taye Diggs
Taye Diggs
Scott Leo "Taye" Diggs is an American theatre, film and television actor. He is perhaps best known for his roles in the Broadway musical Rent, the motion picture How Stella Got Her Groove Back, and the television series Private Practice...

, David Harbour
David Harbour
David Harbour is an American actor who has performed in film, television and in the theater. He is known for his role as villain Gregg Beam in Quantum of Solace, as Shep Campbell in Revolutionary Road, and as Russell Crowe's source in State of Play...

 and Melissa George
Melissa George
Melissa Suzanne George is an Australian film and television actress who has worked in Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States. Melissa is perhaps best known for her role as Angel Parrish on the Australian soap opera Home and Away...

. Between Us is the screen adaptation of the Off-Broadway
Off-Broadway
Off-Broadway theater is a term for a professional venue in New York City with a seating capacity between 100 and 499, and for a specific production of a play, musical or revue that appears in such a venue, and which adheres to related trade union and other contracts...

 play by the same name written by playwright Joe Hortua
Joe Hortua
Joe Hortua is an American playwright and television writer. He has written such plays as Burning, Making It, and Between Us which have been performed at The Manhattan Theatre Club, South Coast Repertory Theater. "Between Us" was translated into Hebrew at the Be’er Theatre in Israel, and performed...

.

Stage career

Stiles' first theatrical roles were in works by author/composer John Moran with the group Ridge Theater, in Manhattan
Manhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...

's Lower East Side from 1993–1998. She later performed on stage in Eve Ensler
Eve Ensler
Eve Ensler is an American playwright, performer, feminist and activist, best known for her play The Vagina Monologues.- Personal life :...

's The Vagina Monologues
The Vagina Monologues
The Vagina Monologues is an episodic play written by Eve Ensler which ran at the Off Broadway Westside Theatre after a limited run at AFRICA in 1996. Ensler originally starred in the production which was produced by David Stone, Nina Essman, Dan Markley, The Araca Group, Willa Shalit, Mike Skipper...

, in the summer of 2002 and appeared as Viola, the lead role in Shakespeare in the Park
Shakespeare in the Park
Shakespeare in the Park is a concept used across the world, as a form of free public presentation of William Shakespeare's works. Such performances exist in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Singapore, the United Kingdom, and the United States of America....

's production of Twelfth Night with Jimmy Smits
Jimmy Smits
Jimmy Smits is an American actor. Smits is perhaps best known for his roles as attorney Victor Sifuentes on the 1980s legal drama L.A. Law, as NYPD Detective Bobby Simone on the 1990s police drama NYPD Blue, and as Congressman Matt Santos on The West Wing...

. Reviewing the production, Ben Brantley of The New York Times saluted Stiles as "the thinking teenager's movie goddess" who put him in mind of a "young Jane Fonda
Jane Fonda
Jane Fonda is an American actress, writer, political activist, former fashion model, and fitness guru. She rose to fame in the 1960s with films such as Barbarella and Cat Ballou. She has won two Academy Awards and received several other movie awards and nominations during more than 50 years as an...

."

In the spring of 2004, she made her London
West End theatre
West End theatre is a popular term for mainstream professional theatre staged in the large theatres of London's 'Theatreland', the West End. Along with New York's Broadway theatre, West End theatre is usually considered to represent the highest level of commercial theatre in the English speaking...

 stage debut opposite Aaron Eckhart
Aaron Eckhart
Aaron Edward Eckhart is an American film and stage actor. Born in California, he moved to England at the age of 13, when his father relocated the family. Several years later, he began his acting career by performing in school plays, before moving to Sydney, Australia, for his high school senior year...

 in a revival of David Mamet
David Mamet
David Alan Mamet is an American playwright, essayist, screenwriter and film director.Best known as a playwright, Mamet won a Pulitzer Prize and received a Tony nomination for Glengarry Glen Ross . He also received a Tony nomination for Speed-the-Plow . As a screenwriter, he received Oscar...

's play Oleanna
Oleanna (play)
Oleanna is a two-character play by David Mamet, about the power struggle between a university professor and one of his female students, who accuses him of sexual exploitation and, by doing so, spoils his chances of being accorded tenure...

at the Garrick Theatre
Garrick Theatre
The Garrick Theatre is a West End theatre, located on Charing Cross Road, in the City of Westminster. It opened on 24 April 1889 with The Profligate, a play by Arthur Wing Pinero. In its early years, it appears to have specialised in the performance of melodrama, and today the theatre is a...

.

She reprised the role of Carol in a 2009 production, directed by Doug Hughes
Doug Hughes
Douglas Hughes is an American theatre and film director. He is the son of acting couple Barnard Hughes and Helen Stenborg.-References:-External links:...

 and co-starring Bill Pullman
Bill Pullman
William James "Bill" Pullman is an American film, television, and stage actor. Pullman made his film debut in the supporting role of Earl Mott in the 1986 film Ruthless People. He has since gone on to star in other films, including Spaceballs, Independence Day, Lost Highway, Casper and Scary Movie 4...

 at the Mark Taper Forum
Mark Taper Forum
The Mark Taper Forum is a 739 seat thrust stage at the Los Angeles Music Center built by Welton Becket and Associates on the Bunker Hill section of downtown Los Angeles...

. On June 30, 2009, it was announced that this production would be transferring to Broadway's John Golden Theatre
John Golden Theatre
The John Golden Theatre is a Broadway theatre located at 252 West 45th Street in midtown-Manhattan. Designed in a Moorish style along with the adjacent Royale Theatre by architect Herbert J. Krapp for Irwin Chanin, it opened as the Theatre Masque on February 24 1927 with the play Puppets of Passion...

, with previews beginning Sept. 29 before an October 11 opening night.

Stiles will play Jeannie in a production of Neil LaBute
Neil LaBute
Neil N. LaBute is an American film director, screenwriter and playwright.-Early life:LaBute was born in Detroit, Michigan, the son of Marian, a hospital receptionist, and Richard LaBute, a long-haul truck driver. LaBute is of French Canadian, English and Irish ancestry, and was raised in Spokane,...

's Fat Pig
Fat Pig
- Plot synopsis :Fat Pig tells us the story of Tom, a stereotypical professional in a large city, who falls for a very plus-size librarian named Helen. They meet in a crowded cafeteria at lunchtime and get to talking. Tom is taken with her brash acceptance of the way people see her and her...

directed by the playwright beginning in April 2011.

Other work

Stiles appeared in the video for Cyndi Lauper
Cyndi Lauper
Cynthia Ann Stephanie "Cyndi" Lauper is an American singer, songwriter, actress and LGBT rights activist. She achieved success in the mid-1980s with the release of the album She's So Unusual and became the first female singer to have four top-five singles released from one album...

's single, "Sally's Pigeons
Sally's Pigeons
"Sally's Pigeons" is a pop song by Cyndi Lauper that was featured on her 1993 album Hat Full of Stars. It was released as the album's second single in some countries, and as its third in others....

" in 1993. On March 17, 2001, Stiles hosted Saturday Night Live
Saturday Night Live
Saturday Night Live is a live American late-night television sketch comedy and variety show developed by Lorne Michaels and Dick Ebersol. The show premiered on NBC on October 11, 1975, under the original title of NBC's Saturday Night.The show's sketches often parody contemporary American culture...

and, eight days later, she was a presenter at the 73rd Academy Awards
73rd Academy Awards
The 73rd Academy Awards honored the best films of 2000 and was held on March 25, 2001. It was the last Academy Awards to take place at the Los Angeles Shrine Auditorium...

. She returned to Saturday Night Live
Saturday Night Live
Saturday Night Live is a live American late-night television sketch comedy and variety show developed by Lorne Michaels and Dick Ebersol. The show premiered on NBC on October 11, 1975, under the original title of NBC's Saturday Night.The show's sketches often parody contemporary American culture...

on May 5 appearing as then-President George W. Bush
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....

's daughter Jenna Bush
Jenna Bush
Jenna Welch Bush Hager , is the younger of the sororal twin daughters of the 43rd U.S. President George W. Bush and former First Lady Laura Bush, and a granddaughter of the 41st U.S. President George H. W. Bush. She and her sister, Barbara, were the first twin children of a U.S. President...

 in a skit that poked fun at the two first daughters being arrested for underage drinking. MTV profiled her in its Diary series in 2003, and she was Punk'd
Punk'd
Punk'd is an American hidden camera/practical joke reality television series that first aired on MTV in 2003 and was created by Ashton Kutcher and Jason Goldberg, produced and hosted by Ashton Kutcher. It bore a resemblance to both the classic hidden camera show Candid Camera and to TV's Bloopers...

by Ashton Kutcher
Ashton Kutcher
Christopher Ashton Kutcher , best known as Ashton Kutcher, is an American actor, producer, former fashion model and comedian, best known for his portrayal of Michael Kelso in the Fox sitcom That '70s Show...

 at a Washington DC museum in the spring of 2004.

Stiles made her writing and directorial debut with Elle
Elle (magazine)
Elle is a worldwide magazine of French origin that focuses on women's fashion, beauty, health, and entertainment. Elle is also the world's largest fashion magazine. It was founded by Pierre Lazareff and his wife Hélène Gordon in 1945. The title, in French, means "she".-History:Elle was founded in...

magazine's short
Short subject
A short film is any film not long enough to be considered a feature film. No consensus exists as to where that boundary is drawn: the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences defines a short film as "an original motion picture that has a running time of 40 minutes or less, including all...

 Raving starring Zooey Deschanel
Zooey Deschanel
Zooey Claire Deschanel is an American actress, musician, and singer-songwriter. In 1999, Deschanel made her film debut in Mumford, followed by her breakout role as young protagonist William Miller's troubled older sister Anita in Cameron Crowe's 2000 semi-autobiographical film Almost Famous...

. It premiered at the 2007 Tribeca Film Festival
Tribeca Film Festival
The Tribeca Film Festival is a film festival founded in 2002 by Jane Rosenthal, Robert De Niro and Craig Hatkoff in a response to the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center and the consequent loss of vitality in the TriBeCa neighborhood in Lower Manhattan.The mission of the festival...

.

In May 2010 Stiles was cast in a major role in the Showtime series Dexter
Dexter (TV series)
Dexter is an American television drama series, which debuted on Showtime on October 1, 2006. The sixth season premiered on October 2, 2011. The series centers on Dexter Morgan , a bloodstain pattern analyst for the Miami Metro Police Department who moonlights as a serial killer...

and signed for 10 episodes. For this role Stiles received a nomination for the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Series, Miniseries or Television Film. as well as a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series.

Personal life

Stiles is a graduate of Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...

 and holds a degree in English literature
English literature
English literature is the literature written in the English language, including literature composed in English by writers not necessarily from England; for example, Robert Burns was Scottish, James Joyce was Irish, Joseph Conrad was Polish, Dylan Thomas was Welsh, Edgar Allan Poe was American, J....

. She received a John Jay Award in 2010, the annual honorary award given to five alumni by the Columbia College Alumni Association for professional achievements.

Stiles has also worked for Habitat for Humanity, building housing in Costa Rica
Costa Rica
Costa Rica , officially the Republic of Costa Rica is a multilingual, multiethnic and multicultural country in Central America, bordered by Nicaragua to the north, Panama to the southeast, the Pacific Ocean to the west and the Caribbean Sea to the east....

, and has worked with Amnesty International
Amnesty International
Amnesty International is an international non-governmental organisation whose stated mission is "to conduct research and generate action to prevent and end grave abuses of human rights, and to demand justice for those whose rights have been violated."Following a publication of Peter Benenson's...

 to raise awareness of the harsh conditions of immigration detention of unaccompanied juveniles; Marie Claire
Marie Claire
Marie Claire is a monthly women's magazine first published in France but also distributed in other countries with editions specific to them and in their languages. While each country shares its own special voice with its audience, the United States edition focuses on women around the world and...

, in January 2004, featured Stiles' trip to see conditions at the Berks County
Berks County, Pennsylvania
-Demographics:As of the census of 2000, there were 373,638 people, 141,570 households, and 98,532 families residing in the county. The population density was 435 people per square mile . There were 150,222 housing units at an average density of 175 per square mile...

 Youth Center in Leesport, Pennsylvania
Leesport, Pennsylvania
Leesport is a borough in Berks County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 1,805 at the 2000 census.-Geography:Leesport is located at ....

.

She is an ex-vegan, occasionally eating red meat. She says she gave up veganism after she developed anemia
Anemia
Anemia is a decrease in number of red blood cells or less than the normal quantity of hemoglobin in the blood. However, it can include decreased oxygen-binding ability of each hemoglobin molecule due to deformity or lack in numerical development as in some other types of hemoglobin...

 and found it difficult to get proper nutrition while traveling. Stiles has described herself as a feminist
Feminism
Feminism is a collection of movements aimed at defining, establishing, and defending equal political, economic, and social rights and equal opportunities for women. Its concepts overlap with those of women's rights...

 and wrote on the subject in The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...

.

An avid baseball
Baseball
Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each. The aim is to score runs by hitting a thrown ball with a bat and touching a series of four bases arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot diamond...

 fan, she supports the New York Mets
New York Mets
The New York Mets are a professional baseball team based in the borough of Queens in New York City, New York. They belong to Major League Baseball's National League East Division. One of baseball's first expansion teams, the Mets were founded in 1962 to replace New York's departed National League...

. She threw the ceremonial first pitch before their May 29, 2006 game. She is also an avid soccer fan and supports the New York Red Bulls.

She's currently in a relationship with actor David Harbour
David Harbour
David Harbour is an American actor who has performed in film, television and in the theater. He is known for his role as villain Gregg Beam in Quantum of Solace, as Shep Campbell in Revolutionary Road, and as Russell Crowe's source in State of Play...

.

Filmography

Year Title Role Notes
1993–94 Ghostwriter
Ghostwriter (TV series)
Ghostwriter is an American television program created by Liz Nelson and produced by the Children's Television Workshop and BBC One. It began airing on PBS on October 4, 1992, and the final episode aired on February 13, 1995...

Erica Episodes: "Who Is Max Mouse?: Part 1" and "A Crime of Two Cities: Part 1"
1996 I Love You, I Love You Not
I Love You, I Love You Not
I Love You, I Love You Not is a 1996 romantic drama film directed by Billy Hopkins and written by Wendy Kesselman.-Plot:The film is told through the stories of two women: Nana, a grandmother, and Daisy, her granddaughter...

Young Nana's Friend
1996 Promised Land Megan Walker TV, 1 episode: "The Secret"
1997 Chicago Hope
Chicago Hope
Chicago Hope is an American medical drama series created by David E. Kelley that ran from September 18, 1994, to May 5, 2000. It takes place in a fictional private charity hospital.-Premise:The show stars Mandy Patinkin as Dr...

Corey Sawicki TV, 1 episode: "Mother, May I?"
1997 Bridget O'Meara
1997 Before Women Had Wings
Before Women Had Wings
Before Women Had Wings is a 1997 television film, based on the story by Connie May Fowler about a mother whose abusive husband commits suicide, and she starts to violently abuse her two daughters...

Phoebe Jackson Television film
1998 Wicked Ellie Christianson
1998 Wide Awake Neena Beal
1999 The '60s Katie Herlihy Television film
1999 Kat Stratford Chicago Film Critics Association Award
Chicago Film Critics Association Awards 1999
The 12th Chicago Film Critics Association Awards, given on 13 March 2000, honored the finest achievements in 1999 filmmaking.-Winners:*Best Actor:**Kevin Spacey - American Beauty*Best Actress:**Hilary Swank - Boys Don't Cry*Best Cinematography:...

 for Most Promising Actress
MTV Movie Award
2000 MTV Movie Awards
The 2000 MTV Movie Awards were hosted by Sarah Jessica Parker. In conjunction with the success of a certain HBO Original Series at the time, the awards show presented a parody of Sex and the City and The Matrix during the program's opening...

 for Best Breakthrough Performance – Female
Nominated — Teen Choice Award for Choice Movie Breakout Performance – Female
Nominated — Teen Choice Award for Choice Movie Sexiest Love Scene
Nominated — YoungStar Award for Best Performance by a Young Actress in a Comedy Film
2000 Down to You
Down to You
Down to You is a 2000 romantic comedy film about losing a first love. It was directed by Kris Isacsson. The main characters are Alfred 'Al' Connelly Imogen and Cyrus...

Imogen Teen Choice Award for Choice Movie Chemistry
Nominated — Teen Choice Award for Choice Movie Actress
2000 Hamlet
Hamlet (2000 film)
Hamlet is a 2000 American film written and directed by Michael Almereyda, set in contemporary New York City, and based on the Shakespeare play of the same name...

Ophelia
2000 State and Main
State and Main
State and Main is a 2000 comedy film, written and directed by David Mamet and starring Philip Seymour Hoffman and Rebecca Pidgeon, about the on-location production in Waterford, Vermont of a film called The Old Mill...

Carla Florida Film Critics Circle Award for Best Cast
Online Film Critics Society Award for Best Cast
National Board of Review Award for Best Cast
National Board of Review Award for Best Cast
The National Board of Review Award for Best Acting by an Ensemble is an annual film award given by the National Board of Review.-1990s:...

2001 Save the Last Dance
Save the Last Dance
Save the Last Dance is a 2001 romantic drama dance film produced by MTV Films, directed by Thomas Carter and released by Paramount Pictures on January 12, 2001. The film stars Julia Stiles and Sean Patrick Thomas as a teenage interracial couple in Chicago who work together to help the main...

Sara MTV Movie Award for Best Kiss
MTV Movie Award for Best Kiss
This is a following list for the MTV Movie Award winners and nominees for Best Kiss.This is a following list for the MTV Movie Award winners and nominees for Best Kiss....

 
Teen Choice Award for Choice Movie Actress
Teen Choice Award for Choice Movie Fight Scene
Nominated — MTV Movie Award for Best Female Performance
2001 Paula Murphy Nominated — Satellite Award for Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture
2001 O
O (film)
O is a 2001 American drama film, and a loose modern adaptation of William Shakespeare's Othello.The film's intended release date was April 1999, but due to the Columbine High School massacre, the film was shelved for two years by its original distributor, Miramax Films. Ultimately, it was sold...

Desi Brable
2002 Nicky Parsons
2003 Becky
2003 Carolina
Carolina (film)
Carolina is a 2003 romantic comedy film directed by Marleen Gorris, starring Julia Stiles, Shirley MacLaine, Alessandro Nivola, Mika Boorem, Randy Quaid, and Jennifer Coolidge. Lisa Sheridan has a cameo role in the film, and Barbara Eden has the uncredited part of Daphne. It is set in Los Angeles,...

Carolina Mirabeau
2003 Mona Lisa Smile
Mona Lisa Smile
Mona Lisa Smile is a 2003 romantic drama film produced by Revolution Studios and Columbia Pictures in association with Red Om Films Productions, directed by Mike Newell, written by Lawrence Konner and Mark Rosenthal, and starring Julia Roberts, Kirsten Dunst, Maggie Gyllenhaal, and Julia Stiles...

Joan Brandwyn Nominated — Teen Choice Award for Choice Movie Actress – Drama/Action Adventure
2004 Paige Morgan Nominated — Teen Choice Award for Choice Movie Actress – Drama/Action Adventure
2004 Nicky Parsons
2005 Edmond
Edmond (film)
Edmond is a 2005 drama-thriller film starring William H. Macy, based on the play of the same name. It was written by David Mamet and directed by Stuart Gordon....

Glenna
2005 Isold
2006 Katherine Thorn Nominated — Teen Choice Award for Choice Movie Scream
2007 Nicky Parsons
2008 Gospel Hill
Gospel Hill
Gospel Hill is a 2008 film directed and produced by Giancarlo Esposito, who also stars in the film. The film was released on February 10, 2009 on DVD in the United States after being at numerous film festivals.-Plot:...

Rosie
2009 The Cry of the Owl
The Cry of the Owl
The Cry of the Owl is a psychological thriller novel by Patricia Highsmith.- Plot summary:Following a messy divorce from his vindictive wife Nickie, Robert Forrester leaves New York and moves to a small Pennsylvania town, where he develops an obsession with the seemingly happy, 23-year old Jenny...

Jenny Thierolf
2009 Passage
Passage (2009 film)
Passage is a 2009 short drama film, directed by Shekhar Kapur, written by Sheila Callaghan and Amy Kaufman, composed by A.R. Rahman, and starring Haley Bennett, Julia Stiles and Lily Cole. It was shot in Buenos Aires, Federal District, Argentina...

Ella Short film
2010 Dexter
Dexter (TV series)
Dexter is an American television drama series, which debuted on Showtime on October 1, 2006. The sixth season premiered on October 2, 2011. The series centers on Dexter Morgan , a bloodstain pattern analyst for the Miami Metro Police Department who moonlights as a serial killer...

Lumen Pierce
Lumen Pierce
Lumen Ann Pierce is a fictional character portrayed by Julia Stiles in the fifth season of the Showtime television series Dexter. Lumen is introduced in the third episode of the fifth season as a rape victim of Boyd Fowler...

TV, 10 episodes
Nominated — Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series (2011)
Nominated — Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Series, Miniseries or Television Film
Nominated — Golden Nymph for Outstanding Actress – Drama Series

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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