Uma Thurman Biography:

Tall, beautiful and sober-eyed, Uma Thurman relocated to New York City at age seventeen and like her mother, began her career as a "Click" model, posing for a number of magazines. The blonde splendor moved into acting in 1988 with the independent feature "Kiss Daddy Good Night", as a young sexy teen who lures men only to rob them. Thurman received great reviews as the perfectly gorgeous, innocent victim of John Malkovich's seduction in Stephen Frears' "Dangerous Liaisons" starring Glenn Close and Michelle Pfeiffer (1998) before extending her performance as the Goddess of Love in Terry Gilliam's wacky piece "The Adventures of Baron Munchausen" featuring Robin Williams (1989).

Thurman's commanding accomplishment as June, the controlling wife of Henry Miller in Philip Kaufman's "Henry and June" (1990), showed her to be a performer with extensive depth and skill. She turned in another strong performance as a blind woman under fire by a serial killer in Bruce Robinson's dark "Jennifer 8" (1992) and played a maid to cop Robert De Niro and thug Bill Murray in the curious gangster romance "Mad Dog and Glory" (1993). Her next film was Gus Van Sant's clumsy "Even Cowgirls Get the Blues" featuring Keanu Reeves (1994), an anticipated but rambling variation of the popular Tom Robbins novel, nearly wasted the actress in the leading role of hitchhiker Sissy Hankshaw. But these movie roles were only the beginning for Thurman's strong portrayal of a drug addicted gangster's wife in Quentin Tarantino's acclaimed "Pulp Fiction" (1994). After a romantic twist with heavy hitter co-star John Travolta, her character overdoses and in a truly dreadful and alarming scene, Travolta is forced to force a needle in her chest. For her talents, she was awarded with a Best Supporting Actress Oscar nomination against the all-star cast that included not only Travolta, but also Samuel L. Jackson, Bruce Willis and Christopher Walken.

While Thurman received great reviews for her role as a young sexy woman flirting with Edward Fox in John Irving's "A Month by the Lake" (1995), the film failed at the box office. She did a little better in Ted Demme's group-cast drama "Beautiful Girls" (1996), as an outcast visiting a small town, allowing her to work with some of her idols such as Lauren Holly, Rosie O'Donnell and Natalie Portman. Thurman next played against type as a less than cerebral blonde helping friend Janeane Garofalo win a gorgeous man in the comedy "The Truth About Cats and Dogs" (1996). Changing the pace a bit, Uma gave a scene stealing part as the evil Poison Ivy to George Clooney's Dark Knight in "Batman & Robin" (1997). Thurman then came back to a more traditional role as the moral, somewhat cold and submissive worker in an ultramodern space project who is seduced by a co-worker in the futuristic thriller "Gattaca" (also 1997). She followed with a highly applauded performance as Fantine in Bille August's 1998 remake of "Les Miserables" before joining with Ralph Fiennes as Emma Peel to his John Steed in the movie version of the hit 1960's television series "The Avengers" next to uber-celebrity Sean Connery (also 1998), which was not well received by the tabloid media and audiences alike.

There was a visible slow down in Uma Thurman's career as she settled into her new role as wife and mother. However, she did find time to take on projects and movie roles which appealed to her. She appeared in small roles in both Woody Allen's "The Sweet and the Lowdown" in 1999 and artistic styled art film "Chelsea Walls" in 2001. In 2002, she gained great media reviews for her role in the HBO film "Hysterical Blindness." Thurman played effectively as a anxiously apprehensive blue collar girl from New Jersey who, along with her best friend from high school (Juliette Lewis), spends her evenings trolling the local bars for love and some kind of direction. By 2003 Thurman was a media sensation once again, for both professional and personal reasons. Not long after her high profile separation from Ethan Hawke, she returned to movies under the direction of Quentin Tarantino in "Kill Bill, Vol. 1" oppisite Daryl Hannah and Lucy Liu (2003) and again in "Kill Bill, Vol. 2" adding Samuel L. Jackson to the original cast (2004), Tarantino's bloody multi part major work and tribute to the dearly loved exploitation films and Sergio Leone movies of his teen years, based on a idea he and Thurman came up with on the set of "Pulp Fiction" years earlier. 

Thurman, in a magnificent performance, played the "Bride", a nameless woman beaten and left for dead who wakes up from a coma to inflict violent retribution on her rebel and his martial artist cronies. Thurman never looked more stunning or amazing on screen. In between the "Kill Bill" movies, Thurman also appeared opposite Ben Affleck in the John Woo directed science fiction thriller "Paycheck" (2003).

Thurman was dazzling as a  rock group costumer turned record executive who falls for John Travolta's Chili Palmer in "Be Cool" with supporting roles by Vince Vaughn and Anna Nicole Smith (2005), the enjoyable continuation to "Get Shorty" reunited Uma with her "Pulp Fiction" co-star.

Thurman enjoyed another on-screen dance sequence with Travolta, this time more sexy and romantic then before, and just as convincing. Next she went up against Meryl Streep in the romantic comedy "Prime" (2005) as a 37-year-old woman suffering from a divorce and working through relationship issues with her psychotherapist (Streep), energized by her affair with a much younger man who happens to be her therapist's son. 

Then Uma moved to singing and dancing alongside Matthew Broderick and Nathan Lane in "The Producers: The Movie Musical" (2005) as the Broadway team sexy, long legged and English language challenged secretary Ulla. She then joined Luke Wilson for "My Super Ex Girlfriend" (2006), in which Wilson learns his girlfriend is a super hero and breaks up with her when she becomes too controlling and phobic, forcing her to use her powers to take revenge by tormenting and embarrassing him.

• Also Credited As:
  Uma Karuna Thurman
• Born:
  on 04/29/1970 in Boston, Massachusetts
• Job Titles:
  Actor, Model

Family

• Brother: Dechen Thurman. born in 1973
• Brother: Ganden Thurman. born in 1968; director of Tibet House
• Brother: Mipam Thurman. born in 1978
• Daughter: Maya Ray Thurman-Hawke. born on July 8, 1998 in NYC
• Father: Robert A F Thurman. teaches Indo-Tibetan Buddhist Studies at Columbia University, NYC; first Westerner to be ordained as a Tibetan monk
• Godfather: Timothy Leary.
• Grandfather: Baron Karl von Schlebrugge. jailed by Nazis in WWII for not betraying Jewish business partners; maternal grandparent
• Grandmother: Brigit Holmquist. famous Swedish beauty who posed for statue in Trelleborg; maternal grandparent
• Grandmother: Elizabeth Farrar. paternal grandparent
• Half-sister: Taya Thurman. born 1960; from her father's previous marriage
• Mother: Nena Thurman. briefly married in 1964 to LSD guru Timothy Leary after the two were introduced by Salvador Dalí; divorced in 1966
• Son: Roan Thurman-Hawke. born in January 2002

Significant Others

• Companion: Andre Balazs. began dating in December 2003, soon after her split with husband Ethan Hawke; ended their three-year, on-again, off-again relationship in March 2006
• Companion: Arpad Busson. rumored to be dating as of July 2007; formerly dated supermodel Elle MacPherson
• Companion: Phil Joanou. dated briefly in 1988
• Husband: Ethan Hawke. married on May 1, 1998
• Companion: Timothy Hutton. on and off relationship; began during filming of "Beautiful Girls" (1995); no longer together

Education

• Northfield Mount Herman School, Northfield, Massachusetts

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