Julia Louis-Dreyfus
Julia Louis-Dreyfus | |
|---|---|
 Louis-Dreyfus in May 2010 | |
| Born | Julia Scarlett Elizabeth Louis-Dreyfus January 13, 1961 |
| Occupation | Actress/Comedienne |
| Years active | 1982–present |
| Spouse(s) | Brad Hall (1987–present) 2 children |
Julia Scarlett Elizabeth Louis-Dreyfus[1] (pronounced /ˈluːi ˈdraɪfəs/; born January 13, 1961) is an American actress and comedian, widely known for her sitcom roles in Seinfeld and The New Adventures of Old Christine.
She rose to prominence as one of the regular cast members of Saturday Night Live in the early 1980s. In 1989 she was cast in the role of Elaine Benes on the NBC sitcom Seinfeld. Her performance over nine seasons earned her an Emmy Award, a Golden Globe Award and five Screen Actors Guild Awards. In 2002, she and her husband developed the series Watching Ellie, which lasted two short seasons. After playing recurring roles on programs such as Curb Your Enthusiasm and Arrested Development, she earned her second Emmy Award as Christine Campbell in the sitcom The New Adventures of Old Christine, which lasted for five seasons on CBS. Louis-Dreyfus recently received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame due to her contribution to the broadcast television industry.
Personal life
Louis-Dreyfus was born in New York City, to Judith, a writer and special-needs tutor, and Gérard Louis-Dreyfus (also known as William Louis-Dreyfus), a French attorney and business executive.[1][2] Her paternal grandfather was Pierre Louis-Dreyfus, a French Jew who fought in the French Resistance during World War II.[3] Her parents divorced a year after her birth in 1961. After relocating to Washington, D.C., when Julia was eight,[4] her mother married L. Thompson Bowles, Dean of the George Washington University Medical School.[1][5]
Louis-Dreyfus has two half-sisters on her Louis-Dreyfus side, Emma and Phoebe.[6] Through her father, a billionaire heir to the Louis Dreyfus Group, one of the world's largest commodities trading and merchandising firms,[2] she had a cousin, Robert Louis-Dreyfus (1946–2009), former CEO of Adidas and owner of the Olympique de Marseille soccer team.[7]
Louis-Dreyfus' maternal half-sister, Lauren Bowles, is also an actress, appearing with her on Seinfeld and The New Adventures of Old Christine, as well as on Veronica Mars and in the film Ghost World.
Louis-Dreyfus spent her childhood in several states and countries in connection with her stepfather's work with Project HOPE, including Sri Lanka, Colombia and Tunisia.[8] She graduated from the Holton-Arms School in Bethesda, MD in 1979, and attended Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, where she studied theater, appeared in the Mee-Ow Show, and was a member of the Delta Gamma sorority. After three years she left to begin work on Saturday Night Live;[1] later receiving (2007) an honorary Doctor of Arts degree from Northwestern.[9]
While at Northwestern, Louis-Dreyfus met future husband and Saturday Night Live comedian Brad Hall.[1] She, Hall, and future SNL writer Paul Barrosse all were members of the community's storefront theater troupe, the Practical Theatre Company. She and her husband have two sons. [10]
Louis-Dreyfus campaigned for Al Gore during the 2000 U.S. presidential election.[citation needed] She speaks French fluently.[citation needed]
Career
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Louis-Dreyfus was a cast member on NBC's Saturday Night Live from 1982 to 1985, tying with current cast member Abby Elliot as the youngest female cast member in the show's history at the age of 21.[1] While on SNL, she met writer Larry David, who would later co-create Seinfeld.[1] Louis-Dreyfus also appeared in a few sitcoms and films over the years, and is widely known for her nine-season role as "Elaine Benes" on NBC's Seinfeld from 1990 to 1998, appearing in all but three episodes.[1] On the "Notes About Nothing" featurette on the Season 1-2 DVD, Jerry Seinfeld says that Louis-Dreyfus' ability to eat a peanut M&M without cracking the peanut aptly describes the actress: "She cracks you up without breaking your nuts".
After Seinfeld, Louis-Dreyfus began a new NBC sitcom, Watching Ellie, which was canceled after two abbreviated seasons. Louis-Dreyfus came to be seen[by whom?] as a victim of the "Seinfeld Curse", a term applied to typecast actors who, after appearing in an enormously popular television series or movie, have trouble finding popularity in other roles.[citation needed]
Her mid- to late-2000s series, The New Adventures of Old Christine, received high ratings. Louis-Dreyfus won the Outstanding Actress Emmy Award for her work on the show's first season, exactly 10 years after her fifth Seinfeld win. Referring to the curse, she stated in her acceptance speech, "I'm not somebody who really believes in curses, but curse this, baby!"[1]
She had a recurring guest role as the deceitful prosecutor and love interest of Michael Bluth, Maggie Lizer, on Arrested Development. She has also appeared on The Simpsons, providing the voice for Snake's girlfriend Gloria on three episodes.
She returned to host Saturday Night Live on May 13, 2006, becoming the first female former cast member to return as host. (Gilda Radner was supposed to host in the 1987-88 season,[citation needed] season 13, but the 1988 Writers Guild of America strike cut the season short, and Radner died of ovarian cancer a year later.) Louis-Dreyfus appeared with former Seinfeld mates Jason Alexander and Jerry Seinfeld in the opening monologue, parodying the so-called "Seinfeld Curse". She mocked the curse once again while accepting her Emmy award in 2006. She has also appeared on Seinfeld co-creator Larry David's show Curb Your Enthusiasm, playing herself fictionally trying to break the "curse" by planning to star in a show in which she would play an actress affected by a Seinfeld-like curse. She has currently[when?] been nominated for all the show's seasons for Emmys, but has lost to Tina Fey for 30 Rock, America Ferrera for Ugly Betty and most recently Toni Collette for The United States of Tara.
On June 21, 2009, the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce announced Louis-Dreyfus would receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in the upcoming year. Louis-Dreyfus received the 2,407th star on Tuesday May 4, 2010. Originally, the star was set with Louis-Dreyfus's name misspelled, missing the 'o' in Louis and the hyphen in her last name,[11] Julia Luis Dreyfus.[12] The star was corrected and the misspelled portion will be[12] removed and presented to the actress.[11]
In the fall of 2009, she appeared with rest of the cast of Seinfeld in the third, sixth, ninth, and tenth episodes of the seventh season of Larry David's sitcom Curb Your Enthusiasm.
In the spring of 2010, Julia Louis-Dreyfus joined the cast of the web series Web Therapy, starring Lisa Kudrow as a self-involved mediocre therapist who gives her therapy online, and earned strong reviews. She joined in the third season, playing Shevaun, the sister of Kudrow's character Fiona, who is also a therapist. Web Therapy is to air on Showtime in 2011, though it is unknown if Dreyfus will continue to star on the series once it produces new episodes for television.
Recurring characters on Saturday Night Live
- April May June, a female televangelist
- Becky, El Dorko's (Gary Kroeger) date
- Consuela, Chi Chi's friend and co-host of Let's Watch TV
- Darla in SNL's parody of The Little Rascals
- Weather Woman, a female superhero who controls the weather
- Patti Lynn Hunnsucker, a teenage correspondent on Saturday Night News (Weekend Update)
Credits
Filmography
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1982 | Saturday Night Live | Various | 1982-1985 (57 episodes) |
| 1986 | Troll | Jeanette Cooper | |
| Hannah and Her Sisters | Mary | ||
| Soul Man | Lisa Stimson | ||
| The Art of Being Nick | Rachel | TV series | |
| 1988 | Family Ties | Susan White | Episode: "Read It and Weep: Part 2" |
| Day by Day | Eileen Swift | 1988-1989 (33 episodes) | |
| 1989 | Christmas Vacation | Margo Chester | |
| 1990 | Seinfeld | Elaine Benes | 1990-1998 (173 episodes) |
| 1992 | Dinosaurs | Heather Worthington (voice) | Episode: "Slave to Fashion" |
| 1993 | Jack the Bear | Peggy Etinger | |
| 1994 | All-Star 25th Birthday: Stars and Streets Forever! | Kathy Lee Kathy | TV movie |
| North | North's Mom | ||
| 1995 | The Single Guy | Tina | Episode: "Mugging" |
| 1996 | London Suite | Debra Dolby | TV movie |
| 1997 | Fathers' Day | Carrie Lawrence | |
| Dr. Katz, Professional Therapist | Julia (voice) | Episode: "Ben Treats" | |
| Deconstructing Harry | Leslie | ||
| Hey Arnold! | Miss Felter (voice) | Episode: "Helga's Boyfriend/Crush on Teacher" | |
| 1998 | A Bug's Life | Atta (voice) | |
| 1999 | Animal Farm | Mollie (voice) | |
| 2000 | Geppetto | Blue Fairy | |
| Curb Your Enthusiasm | Herself | 2000-2001 (4 episodes) | |
| 2001 | The Simpsons | Gloria (voice) | Episode: "A Hunka Hunka Burns in Love" |
| 2002 | Watching Ellie | Eleanor 'Ellie' Riggs | 2002-2003 (17 episodes) |
| 2004 | Arrested Development | Maggie Lizer | Episode: "Altar Egos" Episode: "Justice Is Blind" |
| 2005 | Episode: "Out on a Limb" Episode: "Hand to God" | ||
| 2006 | The New Adventures of Old Christine | Christine Campbell | 2006-2010 (88 episodes) |
| 2007 | The Simpsons | Gloria (voice) | Episode: "I Don't Wanna Know Why the Caged Bird Sings" |
| 2008 | Episode: "Sex, Pies and Idiot Scrapes" | ||
| 2009 | Curb Your Enthusiasm | Herself | 4 episodes |
| 2010 | Web Therapy | Shevaun Haig | 3 episodes |
| 2010 | 30 Rock | Liz Lemon | Episode: "Live Show" |
Music
- "Nightshift" on Unexpected Dreams – Songs From the Stars (2006)
- "Wale - "The Vacation from Ourselves [Shout-Out]" on The Mixtape About Nothing (2008)
Awards and nominations
| Year | Award | Category | Work | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1992 | Emmy Award | Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series | Seinfeld | Nominated |
| Viewers for Quality Television Award | Best Supporting Actress in a Quality Comedy Series | Won | ||
| 1993 | American Comedy Award | Funniest Supporting Female Performer in a TV Series | Won | |
| Emmy Award | Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series | Nominated | ||
| Viewers for Quality Television Award | Best Supporting Actress in a Quality Comedy Series | Won | ||
| 1994 | American Comedy Award | Funniest Supporting Female Performer in a TV Series | Won | |
| Emmy Award | Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series | Nominated | ||
| Golden Globe Award | Best Supporting Actress in a Series, Mini-Series or TV Film | Won | ||
| Viewers for Quality Television Award | Best Supporting Actress in a Quality Comedy Series | Won | ||
| 1995 | American Comedy Award | Funniest Supporting Female Performer in a TV Series | Won | |
| Emmy Award | Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series | Nominated | ||
| Golden Globe Award | Best Supporting Actress in a Series, Mini-Series or TV Film | Nominated | ||
| Screen Actors Guild Award | Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Comedy Series | Nominated | ||
| Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series | Won | |||
| 1996 | American Comedy Award | Funniest Supporting Female Performer in a TV Series | Nominated | |
| Emmy Award | Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series | Won | ||
| Screen Actors Guild Award | Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Comedy Series | Nominated | ||
| Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series | Nominated | |||
| 1997 | American Comedy Award | Funniest Supporting Female Performer in a TV Series | Won | |
| Emmy Award | Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series | Nominated | ||
| Screen Actors Guild Award | Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Comedy Series | Won | ||
| Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series | Won | |||
| 1998 | American Comedy Award | Funniest Supporting Female Performer in a TV Series | Won | |
| Emmy Award | Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series | Nominated | ||
| Screen Actors Guild Award | Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Comedy Series | Won | ||
| Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series | Won | |||
| 1999 | American Comedy Award | Funniest Supporting Female Performer in a TV Series | Nominated | |
| Screen Actors Guild Award | Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Comedy Series | Nominated | ||
| 2001 | American Comedy Award | Funniest Female Guest Appearance in a TV Series | Curb Your Enthusiasm | Nominated |
| 2004 | Gold Derby TV Award | Best Guest Actress in a Comedy Series | Arrested Development | Won |
| 2005 | Gold Derby TV Award | Best Guest Actress in a Comedy Series | Nominated | |
| 2006 | Emmy Award | Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series | The New Adventures of Old Christine | Won |
| Satellite Award | Best Actress in a Series, Comedy or Musical | Nominated | ||
| 2007 | Emmy Award | Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series | Nominated | |
| Gold Derby TV Award | Best Lead Actress in a Comedy Series | Nominated | ||
| Golden Globe Award | Best Actress in a TV Series - Musical or Comedy | Nominated | ||
| People's Choice Award | Favorite Female TV Star | Nominated | ||
| Favorite Funny Female Star | Nominated | |||
| Satellite Award | Best Actress in a Series, Comedy or Musical | Nominated | ||
| Screen Actors Guild Award | Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Comedy Series | Nominated | ||
| 2008 | Emmy Award | Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series | Nominated | |
| Gold Derby TV Award | Best Lead Actress in a Comedy Series | Nominated | ||
| Satellite Award | Best Actress in a Series, Comedy or Musical | Nominated | ||
| 2009 | Emmy Award | Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series | Nominated | |
| Gold Derby TV Award | Best Lead Actress in a Comedy Series | Nominated | ||
| TV Land Award | Legacy of Laughter Award | Won | ||
| 2010 | Screen Actors Guild Award | Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Comedy Series | The New Adventures of Old Christine | Nominated |
| Emmy Award | Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series | Nominated | ||
| Hollywood Walk of Fame Star | Contribution to the broadcast television industry | Won |
References
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Stated in interview at Inside the Actors Studio
- ^ a b Forbes World's Richest People. Gérard Louis-Dreyfus & family
- ^ By TVtropolis June 1, 2006 (2006-06-01). "Julia Louis-Dreyfus - Seinfeld". Canada.com. Retrieved 2010-09-01.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) - ^ TCM.com
- ^ Regenerex.com
- ^ NNDb.com: Julia Louis-Dreyfus
- ^ Martin, Douglas H. "Robert Louis-Dreyfus, Turnaround Specialist, Dies at 63", The New York Times, July 14, 2009, p. B10
- ^ Rochlin, Margy. "Trying to Turn Elaine Into Christine", The New York Times, March 9, 2006
- ^ "Julia Louis-Dreyfus to Speak at Northwestern Commencement : Northwestern University Newscenter". Northwestern.edu. Retrieved 2010-09-01.
- ^ CenterStageChicago.com: Practical Theatre Company
- ^ a b "Welcome to the Hollywood Walk of... oops!". CNN, May 4, 2010, David Daniel.
- ^ a b "'Seinfeld' actress is tickled by Walk of Fame typo - MSN TV News". Tv.msn.com. Retrieved 2010-09-01.
- ^ "Julia Louis-Dreyfus - Awards". Farm.imdb.com. 2009-05-01. Retrieved 2010-09-01.
External links
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- 1961 births
- Actors from Maryland
- Actors from New York City
- American people of French descent
- American Jews
- Jewish actors
- American comedians
- American film actors
- American stage actors
- American television actors
- Best Supporting Actress Golden Globe (television) winners
- Emmy Award winners
- Living people
- Northwestern University alumni
- Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Comedy Series Screen Actors Guild Award winners
- Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series Screen Actors Guild Award winners
- People from Bethesda, Maryland
- Women comedians