Julia Louis-Dreyfus
Birthdate: January 13, 1961 (65 Years Old)
Birthplace: New York City, New York, USA
Julia Louis-Dreyfus (birthname: Julia Scarlett Elizabeth Louis-Dreyfus) is one of the most acclaimed comedy actors of her generation, with her best-known work for television being her long-running roles on Seinfeld (1989-1998) and Veep (2011-2019), but with several roles in live-action and animated feature movies.
Louis-Dreyfus’ feature debut was the horror comedy, Troll (1986), followed by a small supporting role in Woody Allen’s Hannah and Her Sisters (1986), starring Mia Farrow, Barbara Hershey, Dianne Wiest, Michael Caine, Allen, Carrie Fisher, Lloyd Nolan, Maureen O’Sullivan, Daniel Stern, and Max Von Sydow. Louis-Dreyfus’ next supporting role was in the hit comedy, Soul Man (1986), directed by Steve Miner, and starring C. Thomas Howell, James Earl Jones, Rae Dawn Chong, and Arye Gross, followed by another small role in National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation (1989), written and produced by John Hughes, with Chevy Chase, Beverly D’Angelo, and Randy Quaid.
Louis-Dreyfuss played support to Danny DeVito in the Marshall Herskovitz-directed drama written by Steven Zaillian, Jack the Bear (1993), and then Louis-Dreyfuss played Elijah Wood’s mother in the Rob Reiner-directed North (1994), with Jon Lovitz, Bruce Willis, Jason Alexander, Alan Arkin, Dan Aykroyd, Kathy Bates, Graham Greene, and Reba McEntire. Julia Louis-Dreyfus’ first significant supporting role was opposite Robin Williams and Billy Crystal in director-producer Ivan Reitman’s commercially failed comedy, Fathers’ Day (1997). Then, Louis-Dreyfus was cast in her second Woody Allen movie, Deconstructing Harry (1997), starring Allen, Judy Davis, Richard Benjamin, Kirstie Alley, Bob Balaban, Elisabeth Shue, Williams, and Crystal.
Julia Louis-Dreyfus has performed voice roles in three Disney-Pixar movies: the John Lasseter-directed A Bug’s Life (1998), director/co-writer Klay Hall’s Planes (2013), and director/co-writer Dan Scanlon’s Onward (2020), Oscar-nominated for Best Animated Film. Louis-Dreyfus has had two starring roles in dramedies written and directed by Nicole Holofcener: first, opposite the late James Gandolfini in Enough Said (2013), and a decade later (as star and producer), You Hurt My Feelings (2023), with Tobias Menzies and Jeannie Berlin, and premiering at the Sundance Film Festival. Another Sundance premiere for co-star Louis-Dreyfuss was the remake of Ruben Östlund’s Force Majeure (2014), the critically lambasted black comedy-drama, Downhill (2020), with Will Ferrell, Miranda Otto, and Zoe Chao.
Julia Louis-Dreyfus’ first role in a Marvel movie was as CIA director Valentina in Ryan Coogler’s sequel, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (2022), with Letitia Wright, Lupita Nyong’o, Angela Bassett, Danai Gurira, and Martin Freeman. Louis-Dreyfus’s second movie as Valentina was the Marvel supervillain adventure directed by Jake Schreier, Thunderbolts (2024), with Florence Pugh, Harrison Ford, David Harbour, Steven Yeun, and Sebastian Stan. Louis-Dreyfus co-starred with Lola Petticrew in writer-director Daina O. Pusic’s U.S.-U.K. debut co-production, Tuesday (date to be announced), distributed by A24.
Louis-Dreyfus led the voice cast of the live-action/animated comedy mystery, The Sheep Detectives (2026), adapted by screenwriter Craig Mazin from Leonie Swann’s 2005 novel, Three Bags Full, with the voice cast of Julia Louis-Dreyfuss, Bryan Cranston, Chris O’Dowd, Regina Hall, Patrick Stewart and the live-action cast of Hugh Jackman, Nicholas Braun, Nicholas Galitzine, Molly Gordon and Hong Chau under the direction of Kyle Balda, and which was released wide by Amazon MGM Studios (U.S., Canada)/Sony Pictures Releasing International (International).
Dreyfuss once again co-starred with Cranston in director/co-writer Leah Nelson’s animated drama, Tangles: A Story About Alzheimer’s, My Mother and Me (2026), co-starring Seth Rogen, Beanie Feldstein, Pamela Adlon, Bowen Yang, Sarah Silverman, Samira Wiley, Abbi Jacobson, Wanda Sykes and Adam Shapiro, and which was co-produced by Giant Ant/Lylas Pictures/Monarch Media/Point Grey Pictures.
Personal life
Julia Louis-Dreyfus was born and raised in New York City by parents Gerard Louis-Dreyfus (French-born president of the French merchant firm Louis Dreyfus Group) and Judith (American-born writer and special needs tutor). When Louis-Dreyfus and her parents divorced; when she was four, her mother Judith married the Dean of the George Washington University Medical School, L. Thompson Bowles. Louis-Dreyfus’ new half-sister was Lauren Bowles, who later became an actor.
The family moved to many different countries for her stepfather’s work with Project HOPE, including Tunisia, Sri Lanka, and Colombia, where Louis-Dreyfus attended various schools, though it was in the US (Bethesda-based Holton-Arms School) where she graduated from high school. Louis-Dreyfus majored in theater at Northwestern University, but dropped out in her junior year to take a job at Saturday Night Live in 1982; she received an honorary degree from Northwestern in 2007. Louis-Dreyfus has been married to producer Brad Hall since 1987; the couple has two children, Henry and Charlie. Louis-Dreyfus’ height is 5’ 3”. Louis-Dreyfus’s estimated net worth is $250 million.
Awards
Five-time Winner, Funniest Supporting Female TV Series Performer, American Comedy Awards (1993-1995, 1997-1998); Winner, Charlie Chaplin Britannia Award for Excellence in Comedy, BAFTA/LA Britannia Awards (2014); Eleven-time Winner, Supporting Actress—Comedy Series/Actress—Comedy Series/Best Comedy Series, Emmy Awards (1996, 2006, 2012-2017); Winner, Best Supporting Actress-Series, Miniseries or TV Movie, Golden Globe Awards (1994); Winner, Hollywood Star Walk of Fame (2010); Winner, Mark Twain Prize, Mark Twain Prize for American Humor (2018); Six-time Nominee, Best Producer Comedy Episodic Television, Producers Guild of America Awards (2014-2018, 2020); Nine-time Winner, Best Ensemble/Best Comedy Series Female Actor, Screen Actors Guild Awards (1995, 1997-1998, 2014, 2017-2018).
Julia Louis-Dreyfus Movies
Actor
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Previous (11)
- 2025 |
Thunderbolts*
asValentina Allegra de Fontaine
After finding themselves ensnared in a death trap, an unconventional team of antiheroes must go on a dangerous mission that will force them to confront the darkest corners of their pasts.
- 2024 |
- 2023 |
You Hurt My Feelings
asBeth
A novelist's longstanding marriage is suddenly upended when she overhears her husband giving his honest reaction to her latest book.
- 2022 |
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
asValentina Allegra de Fontaine
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
The people of Wakanda fight to protect their home from intervening world powers as they mourn the death of King T'Challa.
- 2020 |
- 2020 |
- -- | Planesas Rochelle
- -- | National Lampoon's Christmas Vacationas Margo Chester
- -- | Hannah and Her Sistersas Mary
- -- | as Lily
- -- | as Lily
Producer
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Previous (2)
- 2023 |
You Hurt My Feelings
A novelist's longstanding marriage is suddenly upended when she overhears her husband giving his honest reaction to her latest book.
- 2020 |
Facts About Julia Louis-Dreyfus
Producer: Julia Louis-Dreyfus pacted in 2020 with Apple TV+ to develop projects as executive producer and star.
Family Tree: Louis-Dreyfus’ extraordinary paternal French family tree includes grandfather Pierre Louis-Dreyfus, president of the commodities and shipping conglomerate, Louis Dreyfus Group (founded by her great-great-grandfather Leopold Louis-Dreyfus) and a member of the French Resistance during World War II. She can also claim as a relative the legendary figure, Alfred Dreyfus, who was the center of the notorious and controversial “Dreyfus Affair,” which shook the French military system to its core and exposed corrosive anti-Semitism that roiled Europe in the early 20th century.
