Julia Roberts Biography
Everyone has come to recognize Julia Roberts' million-dollar smile. It's that smile, coupled with talent and remarkable charm that have led to Julia Roberts becoming the highest-paid actress, and to many, the girl next door.

Julie Fiona Roberts was born October 28, 1967, in Smyrna, Georgia. The daughter of a vacuum salesman and a church secretary, Julia is not the only Roberts sibling to pursue an acting career. Her bother and sister were also aspiring actors, albeit not as famous as Julia. Case in point: few even know their names.

A seventeen-year old girl with big dreams headed to the Big Apple to join her actress sister. Starting out as a model in order to make a living, Julia also took acting classes in order to perfect her trade. She finally received her big break after her brother, B-movie actor Eric Roberts, convinced a director to cast his little sister in the film Blood Red. While the film was only released four years after its completion, Julia appeared on the television series Crime Story.

In the late '80s, she landed roles in the film Satisfaction and Mystic Pizza. Her role in the romantic comedy did not go unnoticed, and audiences and critics alike would soon remember the name Julia Roberts (who actually changed her name to from Julie to Julia since there already was an actress with the name Julie Roberts.) In 1989, Oscar noticed Julia's work in Steel Magnolias, by honoring her with a Best Supporting Actress Academy Award nomination.

No role, however, could ever match the success of Pretty Woman. Julia's portrayal of street-talking prostitute turned princess Vivian Ward was so flawless, that it seemed as though the role was meant for her. Her role opposite Richard Gere garnered her a second Oscar nomination, this time for Best Actress, and cemented Julia as a Hollywood actress.

After Pretty Woman, Julia's success at the box-office continued with the thrillers Sleeping With The Enemy and Flatliners, but then her film career did not look as pretty. The tearjerker Dying Young and Steven Spielberg's Peter Pan adaptation Hook were box-office and critical failures.

While Julia's film career had experienced a high and a subsequent low, her romantic life was taking a similar bumpy ride. Her wedding to Kiefer Sutherland was canceled just days before the wedding date, and Julia was next seen with actor Jason Patric. The couple wasn't actually seen much, since they fled to Ireland.

Julia's only screen appearance in that 2-year hiatus was in Robert Altman's The Player. Her 1993 role in The Pelican Brief, co-starring Denzel Washington, marked Julia's Hollywood comeback. The following years were marked with hits such as Everyone Says I Love You and Something to Talk About, and misses with Ready To Wear, I Love Trouble and Mary Reilly.

In 1997, the Julia Roberts everyone loved was back in full form with the summer hit, My Best Friend's Wedding. Her role in the romantic comedy garnered her a Golden Globe nomination and was the start of a whole new form of success for Julia. That same year, she co-starred with Mel Gibson in Conspiracy Theory.

Stepmom featured Julia as a loveable, carefree woman, but it was her only film of 1998. The following year she came back with a vengeance with 2 summer blockbusters, Notting Hill, as the most famous movie actress in the world (not much a stretch for Julia) and Runaway Bride, a sequel to Pretty Woman, in denial.

Her role as a single mother that challenges a mega corporation in Erin Brockovich has proved to be her best performance to date, and has bumped Julia to the $20 million club, along with heavy hitters Tom Cruise and Jim Carrey. The title role garnered her the Best Actress Oscar and the SAG Award.

Sitting pretty as the highest-paid actress, Forbes magazine has named Julia the most powerful celebrity on the planet.

Hailed as one of the 50 Most Beautiful People in the World by People magazine at least five times (and appearing on the cover twice), Julia has every reason to smile with a film career that is only growing.

After her 3-year romance with actor Benjamin Bratt, she was seeing cinematographer Daniel Moder.

2001 brought the roles in the disappointing The Mexican and America's Sweethearts, Julia appeared in the star-studded Ocean's Eleven, directed by Steven Soderbergh.