Portman, actually Natalie's stage name is her Grandmothers maiden name. Natalie was afraid to use it, because it could disgrace her Grandmother's name if her performance in "Leon" was unsatisfactory. An unsatisfactory performance it was not, and so much in fact that she was asked to do a short film in 1995 with Francis Conroy, and Jon De Vries. The film was called "Developing" which is about a single mother dealing with breast cancer and while trying to come with together with her daughter finally on good terms. While Nina (played by Natalie Portman) is trying to cope with her mothers disease and understand what advice her mother tries to give her on life.

Natalie's performance in this short film brought her to another call for a part as Al Pacino's step daughter in the 1995 drama, "Heat," about a criminal who was just released from prison; decides to pull off a number of robberies in Los Angeles. Even though Natalie's performance was short in the movie, and even though she played along big names she didn't go unnoticed. After "Heat" opportunities started to knock on Natalie's door.

Then in February of '96 Natalie released her fourth movie called "Beautiful Girls" staring famous actors such as Matt Dillon, Uma Thurman, Rose O'Donnell, and Timothy Hutton. In this, Natalie plays a 13-year-old girl who befriends a man who visits his hometown for his high school reunion. Troubled with a decision about life, he is helped to find his way through this crisis and come to a conclusion by the help of Natalie's character.

After her role in "Beautiful Girls" yet another opportunity came her way to play in Woody Allen's musical comedy "Everybody says I love you" that discusses a group of well off people and their romantic difficulties. Her role as Laura in this comedy won her the nomination for Best Performance by a young actress. At Natalie's young age she had already shown her talent in drama, comedy, and action performances. She was showing everyone that she could do it and wasn't afraid of anything.

In the same year Natalie had yet another movie released called "Mars attacks." In this comedy Natalie plays Taffy the presidents daughter. Natalie plays a teen unhappy with her life as the Presidents daughter. Matters don't improve much when aliens try to attack the earth, and her father (played by Jack Nicholson) doesn't handle the situation very well. That year Natalie was supposed to have released another movie called "Romeo & Juliet" with Leonardo DiCaprio, but she turned down the role as Juliet because of the age difference between her and DiCaprio.

A year later Natalie turned Broadway when she got the lead as Anne Frank in the popular play "The Diary of Anne Frank." The play originally started in Boston and it ran from October of '97 to May of '98. Natalie did over two hundred performances, and all the while keeping up with her schooling and maintaining her strait A's. Natalie did not have too many problems with the role since she had already read the story many years earlier during her filming of "Leon."

After her Broadway debut Natalie got her biggest break ever when she signed a ten -year contract to play in episodes 1, 2, and 3 of "Star Wars." When Natalie was 15 she began the filming of "Star Wars, Episode One: The Phantom Menace." She never even saw the original films until after production began. Natalie's part as Queen Amidala/Padme got her nominated for Best Young Actress in a drama, in the 1999 Young Star Awards. The hype of Natalie's role as Queen Amadala made her a hero to many younger generations of Star Wars fans. Natalie couldn't even go out any more without little kids staring at Queen Amadala while she ate. Though this did not bother Natalie, nor does it now.

1999 was becoming a great year for Natalie, with a couple TV interviews such as her appearance on the "Daily Show" with Jon Stewart, and David Letterman, many internet sites, and with a hit movie was all it took for her to become an international star. Things were about to become just a little sweeter when she graduated from Sosseyt High School in Long Island. Natalie started off her freshmen year at her Ivy League school with her new movie "Anywhere but here." This coming of age movie stars Natalie as fourteen -year old Ann August moving to California to start a new life with her mother. Her mother (played by Susan Sarandon) takes her across country to live in Beverly Hills and forget about their hometown. It's a dramatic story about a girl growing up alone, with a single mother taking care of her.

Natalie's portray as a high school student living in Beverly Hills won her 3rd place for Best Supporting Actress in the 2000 Southeastern Film Critics Association Awards. Natalie also was nominated in the Golden Slate Awards for Best Female Performance for "Star Wars: Episode One." That same year Natalie was nominated for four more awards for both "Anywhere but here" and "Star Wars: Episode One." She was nominated in Golden Globe Awards by Best Performance by an Actress in a supporting role in a Motion Picture for "Anywhere but here". Also she was nominated for Best Performance in a Feature Film-Leading Young Actress for "Anywhere but here," for the Young Artist Awards. She was also nominated for "Star Wars: Episode One" in both the Blockbuster Entertainment Awards and the 26th annual Saturn Awards.

2000 also becoming a very big year it wasn't enough for 19 year old Natalie, as she had her 9th movie released called "Where the heart is." In it Natalie plays Novalee Nation a pregnant teen that is abandoned at a Wal-Mart by her boyfriend, and is taken in by kind country folks, and she has her baby in the Wal-Mart. She then takes care of her baby as a single mother. Natalie expresses the fear and drama there is to single motherhood that she was nominated for Choice Actress in a Movie for the Teen Choice Awards. Then she won Best Young Actress/Performance in a Motion Picture Comedy for the Young Star Awards for "Where the heart is." Also in 2001 she was nominated for Best Performance in a Feature Film-Leading Young Actress for the Young Artist Awards for "Where the heart is."

Then in August of 2001 Natalie went back on stage, this time at the Delacorte Theatre in Central Park. The play "The Seagull." In it she plays Nina an aspiring actress who is finds her self in the middle of an intertwined love circle. Though this play only ran for a few months people were waiting for hours at a time to get tickets for the show.

That same year Natalie got a glimpse in the movie "Zoolander" which came out in September of '01. In it Natalie is seen being interviewed at the 2001 Young Artist Awards. Though her small part in "Zoolander" was not much, It wasn't a matter for long when she came out with "Star Wars: Episode Two- Attack of the Clones" in 2002. With this movie Natalie has regained her name as the Queen, and now more than ever she is the most popular rising star today.

Episode Two won her the Choice Actress: Action/Adventure Award for the Teen Choice Awards. In the aftermath of Episode Two Natalie has recently appeared in many magazines such as "People" and the new magazine "Weekly, In Touch." "Star Wars: Episode Three" is set to be released in 2005. With all the hype on Star Wars Natalie has become a big advertiser of Isaac Mizrahi. She also finds time to help young actors and actress. Natalie currently attends her Ivy League College in New York City. Natalie is also presently working on two new movies called "Cold Mountain" about a man's mythical journey back home and his encounters along the way. Her other movie is called "Head In the Clouds." Both of these movies will be released in December of 2003.

With having accomplished so much already at such a young age; it will be very
exciting to see how this young women that came from Israel and made it in New York continues her career. Natalie sends out a message for all that you can accomplish anything. In an August of 2002 article of Star Wars Insider entitled "Forbidden Love" Natalie is said, "that she is beyond her years." That couldn't be anymore true when she was quoted saying, "I remember when I was younger, thinking, 'Why wouldn't someone want to be famous? But when you get older, you realize it's a lot less about your place in the world, but your place in you."