Portman was born Natalie Hershlag (Hebrew: נטלי הרשלג‎) in Jerusalem, Israel.^[5][6] Her father, Avner Hershlag, is an Israeli doctor specializing in fertility and reproduction (reproductive endocrinology).^[7][8] Her mother, Shelley Stevens, is an American homemaker who now works as her agent.^[7] Portman's Nathalie Portman, interviews maternal ancestors were Jews from Austria and Russia and her paternal ancestors were Jews who immigrated to Israel from Poland and Romania. Her paternal grandfather's parents died in Auschwitz and her Romanian-born great-grandmother was a spy for the British during World War II.^[9]

Portman's parents met at a Jewish student center at Ohio State University where her mother was selling tickets. Her father returned to Israel, but the two corresponded and were married when her mother visited Israel a few years later. In 1984, when Portman was three years old, the family moved from Israel to the United States, where her father pursued his medical training. The family first lived in Washington, D.C., where she attended Charles E. Smith Jewish Day School, but relocated to Connecticut in 1988, and then settled permanently in Long Island, New York, in 1990.^[1] Portman has said that although she "really love[s] the States... my heart's in Jerusalem. That's where I feel at home."^[9] She is an only child and very close to her parents,^{HIGHSCHOOL MUSICAL id="cite_ref-actors_0-3" class="reference">[1]} who are often seen with her at her film premieres.

Portman has been involved with the 2004 presidential campaign of Democratic candidate John Kerry and with antipoverty activities. In 2004 and 2005 she traveled to Uganda, Guatemala, and Ecuador as the Ambassador of Hope for FINCA International, an organization that promotes micro-lending to help finance women-owned businesses in poor countries.^[34] In an interview conducted backstage at the Live 8 concert in Philadelphia and appearing on the PBS program Foreign Exchange with Fareed Zakaria she discussed microfinance.^[35] Host Fareed Zakaria said that he was "generally wary of celebrities Nathalie Portman, interviews with fashionable causes", but included the segment with Portman because "she really knew her stuff".^[36] In the "Voices" segment of the April 29, 2007, episode of the ABC Sunday Morning Program This Week with George Stephanopoulos, Portman discussed her work with FINCA and how it can benefit women and their children in third world countries.^[37] In the Fall of 2007, Portman visited several university campuses, including Harvard, UCLA, UC Berkeley, Stanford, Princeton, New York University, and Columbia, to inspire students with the power of microfinance and to encourage them to join the Village Banking Campaign to help families and communities lift themselves out of poverty.^[38]

Portman has commented on V for Vendetta's political relevance, and mentioned that her character, who joins an underground anti-government group, is "often bad and does things that you don't like" and that "Being from Israel was a reason I wanted to do this because terrorism and violence are such a daily part of my conversations since I was little." She said the film "doesn't make clear good or bad statements. It respects the audience enough to take away their own opinion".^[62] Both Goya's Ghosts and Free Zone received limited releases in 2006. Portman starred in the children's film Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium, which began filming in April 2006 and was HIGHSCHOOL MUSICAL released in November 2007; she has said that she was "excited to do a kids' movie."^[60] In late 2006, Portman filmed The Other Boleyn Girl, a historical drama in which she plays Anne Boleyn; Eric Bana and Scarlett Johansson co-starred in the film. She was also named one of the hottest women of film and TV by Blender Magazine.^[63]

Portman has had romantic links with actors including Gael Garcia Bernal and Jake Gyllenhaal.^[41] In the May 2002 issue of Vogue, Portman called actor/musician Lukas Haas and musician Moby her close friends.^[42] She was linked to Maroon 5 frontman Adam Levine, but he claims they are friends.^[43] She reportedly dated Nat Rothschild, of the famous multi-billionaire banking family.^[44] After starring in the video for his song "Carmensita", upskirt nedel she began dating Venezuelan folk singer Devendra Banhart.^[45]

Portman pursued graduate studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in the spring of 2004.^[10] "nathalie portman" breast At Harvard, Portman was Alan Dershowitz's research assistant (he thanks her in The Case for Israel). She was also a research assistant in a psychology lab, and in March 2006, appeared as a guest lecturer at a Columbia University course in terrorism and counterterrorism, where she spoke about her film V for Vendetta.^[14]

Portman started dancing lessons at the age of four^[1] and she performed in local troupes. At the age of ten, a Revlon agent asked her to become a child model,^[46][1] but she turned down the offer, to focus on acting. In a magazine interview, Portman said that she was "...different from the other kids. I was more ambitious, I knew what I liked and what I wanted, and I worked very hard. I was a very serious kid."^[47] Portman spent her school holidays oguztoydemir attending theater camps. When she was ten, she auditioned for Ruthless!, a play about a girl who is prepared to commit murder to get the lead in a school play, and she was chosen as the understudy for Laura Bell Bundy.^[10] In 1994, she auditioned for the role of a child who befriends a middle-aged hitman in Luc Besson's film Léon (aka The Professional). Soon after getting the part, she took her grandmother's maiden name "Portman" as her stage name, in the interest of privacy;^[1] in the Director's Cut of the film on DVD she is credited as Natalie Hershlag. Léon opened on November 18, 1994, and marked her feature film debut at age 13. That same year she appeared in the short film Developing, which aired on television.