Julia Fiona Roberts (born October 28, 1967) is an American actress. She became a Hollywood star after headlining the 1990s romantic comedy Pretty Woman, which grossed $464 million worldwide. After receiving Academy Award nominations for Steel Magnolias in 1990 and Pretty Woman in 1991, she won the Academy Award for Best Actress in 2001 for her performance in Erin Brockovich. Her films My Best Friend's Wedding, Mystic Pizza, Notting Hill, Runaway Bride, Valentine's Day, The Pelican Brief, Ocean's Eleven and Twelve have collectively brought box office receipts of over $2.4 billion, making her one of the most successful actors in terms of box office receipts.
Julia had become one of the highest-paid actresses in the world, topping the Hollywood Reporter's annual "power list" of top-earning female stars from 2005 to 2006. Her fee for 1990's Pretty Woman was $300,000;[citation needed] in 2003, she was paid an unprecedented $25 million for her role in Mona Lisa Smile. As of 2010, Julia's net worth was estimated to be $140 million.
Julia has been named one of People magazine's "50 Most Beautiful People in the World" eleven times, tied with Halle Berry. In 2001, Ladies Home Journal ranked her as the 11th most powerful woman in America, ahead of then national security advisor Condoleezza Rice and former first lady Laura Bush. Julia has a production company called Red Om Films.
Julia was born in Atlanta, Georgia at Crawford Long Hospital (now Emory University Hospital Midtown), to Betty Lou (née Bredemus) and Walter Grady Roberts. Her maternal great-grandmother immigrated from Sweden. Her parents were Baptist and Catholic, and she was raised Catholic. Her older brother Eric Roberts (from whom she was estranged until 2004), sister Lisa Roberts Gillan, and niece Emma Roberts, are also actors. Julia's parents, one-time actors and playwrights, met while performing theatrical productions for the armed forces and later co-founded the Atlanta Actors and Writers Workshop in Atlanta, Georgia, off Juniper Street in Midtown. While her mother was pregnant with Julia, she and her husband ran an acting school for children in Decatur, Georgia. The children of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Coretta Scott King attended the school. As a thank-you for their service, Mrs. King paid the hospital bill when Julia's mother gave birth to Julia. Julia's mother filed for divorce in 1971, with the divorce being finalized early in 1972. The family moved to Smyrna, Georgia in 1972, where Julia attended Fitzhugh Lee Elementary School, Griffin Middle School, and Campbell High School. Her mother married Michael Motes and had daughter Nancy Motes in 1976. Julia's father died of cancer when she was ten.
In school, Julia played clarinet in the band. She wanted to be a veterinarian as a child. After graduating from Smyrna's Campbell High School, she headed to New York to join her siblings and pursue a career in acting. Once there, she signed with the Clack modeling agency and enrolled in acting classes. She reverted to her original name "Julia Roberts" when she discovered that a "Julie Roberts" was already registered with the Screen Actors Guild. Her niece Emma Roberts, whom Julia used to take to movie sets when she was a young girl, has joined her father and aunts in the acting business.
