Biography: Julia Louis-Dreyfus

Julia Scarlett Elizabeth Louis-Dreyfus^[1] (born January 13, 1961) is an American actress and comedienne, well known for her performances in several sitcoms such as 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 1990 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, with her husband, she developed her own series, Watching Ellie, which had short lived success lasting just two short seasons. After playing recurring roles on programs such as Curb Your Enthusiasm and Arrested Development, she was cast as Christine Campbell in the sitcom The New Adventures of Old Christine earning her a second Emmy Award. The series is now in its fifth season on CBS.

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, a social worker.^[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] being rewarded by the University in 2007 with an honorary Doctor of Arts degree.^[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.^[10]

Louis-Dreyfus and Hall have two sons, Henry (born June 1992) and Charles (born May 1997).^{[citation needed]}

Louis-Dreyfus campaigned for Al Gore during the 2000 U.S. presidential election. She speaks French fluently.

Career

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, but is best 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 notes 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 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.

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 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 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 will receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in the upcoming year.

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.

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

• Troll as Jeanette Cooper (1986)
• Hannah and Her Sisters as Mary (1986)
• Soul Man as Lisa Stimson (1986)
• National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation as Margo Chester (1989)
• Jack the Bear as Peggy Etinger (1993)
• North as North's Mom (1994)
• Father's Day as Carrie Lawrence (1997)
• Deconstructing Harry as Leslie (1997)
• A Bug's Life as Atta (1998)

Television work

• Saturday Night Live as Various Characters (1982–1985) 57 episodes
• The Art of Being Nick (1986) 1 episode
• Family Ties as Susan 'Raindrop' White (1988) 1 episode
• Day by Day as Eileen Swift (1988–1989) 33 episodes
• Seinfeld as Elaine Benes (1990–1998) 173 episodes
• Dinosaurs as Heather Worthington (1992) 1 episode
• Sesame Street's All-Star 25th Birthday Special: Stars and Streets Forever! as Kathy Lee Kathy (1994) 1 episode
• The Single Guy as Tina (1995) 1 episode
• London Suite as Debra Dolby (1996) TV movie
• Hey Arnold! as Miss Felter (1997) 1 episode)
• Dr. Katz, Professional Therapist as Julia (1997) 1 episode
• Geppeto as Blue Fairy (2000) TV movie
• Curb Your Enthusiasm as Herself (2000–2009) 8 episodes
• The Simpsons as Gloria (2001–2008) 3 episodes
• Watching Ellie as Eleanor 'Ellie' Riggs (2002–2003) 19 episodes
• Arrested Development as Maggie Lizer (2004–2005) 4 episodes
• The New Adventures of Old Christine as Christine Campbell (2006–present) 89 episodes

Awards and nominations

^[11]

References

1. ^ ^{a b c d e f g h i} Stated in interview at Inside the Actors Studio
2. ^ ^{a b} Forbes World's Richest People. Gérard Louis-Dreyfus & family
3. ^ http://www.canada.com/tvtropolis/story.html?id=1375fbf0-e748-4bfc-9729-d2b6e065bec7
4. ^ TCM.com
5. ^ Regenerex.com
6. ^ NNDb.com: Julia Louis-Dreyfus
7. ^ Martin, Douglas H. "Robert Louis-Dreyfus, Turnaround Specialist, Dies at 63", The New York Times, July 14, 2009, p. B10
8. ^ Rochlin, Margy. "Trying to Turn Elaine Into Christine", The New York Times, March 9, 2006
9. ^ http://www.northwestern.edu/newscenter/stories/2006/11/commencement.html
10. ^ CenterStageChicago.com: Practical Theatre Company
11. ^ http://farm.imdb.com/name/nm0000506/awards

External links

• Julia Louis-Dreyfus at the Internet Movie Database
• Julia Louis-Dreyfus at Yahoo! Movies
• Julia Louis-Dreyfus at TV.com

Julia Louis-Dreyfus main page.