Julia Louis-Dreyfus: Snapshot

Name
Julia Louis-Dreyfus
Date of Birth
January 13, 1961
Birth Place
New York, N.Y.
With a head full of curls and an eye for comedy, Julia Louis-Dreyfus burst onto the scene in 1990 as unlucky-in-love serial dater Elaine Benes on Seinfeld.

During the show's 9-year run, she served as the show's lone female star and earned a supporting comedic actress Emmy in 1996. After Seinfeld's final season in 1998, instead of pursuing solo projects, Louis-Dreyfus took a break from Hollywood to focus on her family: she married her college sweetheart and has two sons.

In 2006, she returned to the small screen in The New Adventures of Old Christine, earning her second Emmy award and breaking that Seinfeld curse!

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Julia Louis-Dreyfus: Five Fun Facts

  1. After winning an Emmy for outstanding lead comedic actress in 2008, Tina Fey thanked Julia Louis-Dreyfus. "When I don't know how to quite play a scene, my husband will say just try to act like Julia Louis-Dreyfus," she said. "So thank you, Julia, that is really working out for me."
  2. Julia Louis-Dreyfus said Abraham Lincoln is her dream costar.
  3. Julia Louis-Dreyfus recorded a skit for rapper Wale's Seinfeld-inspired mixtape, The Mixtape About Nothing.
  4. Three things Julia Louis-Dreyfus can't live without: "My husband, my children and a good bar of chocolate!"
  5. Julia Louis-Dreyfus counts Mary Tyler Moore as one of her inspirations. "Her being able to play humiliation as well as she did was very appealing," she told EW. "[Her] impeccable [timing was] a language that just got under my skin."

Julia Louis-Dreyfus: Biography

1980s

Julia Louis-Dreyfus

SNL Beginnings

At Northwestern University, Louis-Dreyfus is the only female member of the improv troupe, the Practical Theater Company, run by her college sweetheart Brad Hall. In 1982, the producers of Saturday Night Live hire her and Hall. "Working with him is great," Louis-Dreyfus says of Hall – whom she marries in 1987. "He's a really nice man and he's always funny to be with."

1990

Julia Louis-Dreyfus

May 31

Seinfeld's Leading Lady

Louis-Dreyfus is catapulted to superstardom as Seinfeld's lone female lead, the perpetually single Elaine Benes, costarring Jerry Seinfeld, Jason Alexander and Michael Richards. "We had a very vague idea of Elaine," Seinfeld tells the New York Times. "But once Julia walked in, we knew who Elaine was. We created her together." Adds Louis-Dreyfus, "It's probably the best job I'll ever have."

1992

Julia Louis-Dreyfus

June

Working Mom

Louis-Dreyfus and Hall welcome their first child, a son named Henry. "Sleeping is a thing of the past," she tells PEOPLE of juggling a hit show and a family. "You've got to go with the flow and laugh about it, or you're dead." In 1997, they welcome another son, Charles, to their brood.

Read More on Julia Louis-Dreyfus' Life

Photo Credits

Top Left: Tammie Arroyo/AFF-USA

BIOGRAPHY (top to bottom): Robin Platzer/Time & Life Pictures/Getty; Everett; Ron Galella/WireImage

Edited by Julia Wang

Julia Louis-Dreyfus

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