Julia Louis-Dreyfus

Producer

Singer

**Julia Scarlett E Louis-Dreyfus Hall**[1] (/ˈluːi ˈdraɪfəs/; born January 13, 1961)[2] is an American actress, comedian, producer, and singer. She is known for her work in the television comedy series *Saturday Night Live* (1982–1985), *Seinfeld* (1989–1998), *The New Adventures of Old Christine* (2006–2010), and *Veep* (2012–2019). She is one of the most awarded actresses in American television history, winning more Emmy Awards and more Screen Actors Guild Awards than any other performer (eight of the Emmy Awards were for acting, tying Cloris Leachman for the most acting wins).

Louis-Dreyfus broke into comedy as a performer in The Practical Theatre Company in Chicago, Illinois, which led to her casting in the sketch show *Saturday Night Live* from 1982 to 1985. Her breakthrough came in 1989 with a nine-season run playing Elaine Benes on *Seinfeld*, one of the most critically and commercially successful sitcoms of all time. Other notable television roles include Christine Campbell in *The New Adventures of Old Christine*, which had a five-season run on CBS, and her role as Selina Meyer in *Veep*, which ran for seven seasons on HBO. Her notable film roles have included *Hannah and Her Sisters* (1986), *National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation* (1989), *Deconstructing Harry* (1997), and *Enough Said* (2013). She also voiced roles in the animated films *A Bug's Life* (1998), *Planes* (2013) and the upcoming *Onward*.

Louis-Dreyfus has received eleven Emmy Awards, eight for acting and three for producing, with a total of 24 nominations throughout her career. She has also received a Golden Globe Award, nine Screen Actors Guild Awards, five American Comedy Awards, and two Critics' Choice Television Awards. Louis-Dreyfus received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2010, and was inducted into the Television Academy Hall of Fame in 2014. In 2016, *Time* named Louis-Dreyfus as one of the 100 most influential people in the world on the annual *Time* 100 list.[3] In 2018, she received the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor, presented by the Kennedy Center as America's highest comedy honor.

## Early life

Louis-Dreyfus was born in New York City. Her American-born mother, Judith (née LeFever), was a writer and special needs tutor,[5] and her French-born father, Gérard Louis-Dreyfus, chaired Louis Dreyfus Energy Services.

She is a great-great-granddaughter of Léopold Louis-Dreyfus, who in 1851 founded the Louis Dreyfus Group, a French commodities and shipping conglomerate, which members of her family control into the 21st century.[6] Her paternal grandfather, Pierre Louis-Dreyfus, was president of the Louis Dreyfus Group.[7] Pierre was from an Alsatian Jewish family;[8][9] he remained in France during World War II, fighting as a cavalry officer and later in the French Resistance.[10]Her paternal grandmother was born in America to parents from Brazil (of German descent) and Mexico; during the 1940s, she moved Julia's father to America from France.[11][12]

In 1962, one year after Louis-Dreyfus's birth, her parents divorced. After relocating to Washington, D.C., when Julia was eight, her mother married L. Thompson Bowles, Dean of the George Washington University Medical School.[5][13]During her childhood, her mother occasionally took her to Unitarian church services.[14]

Louis-Dreyfus spent her childhood in several states and countries, in connection with her stepfather's work with Project HOPE, including Colombia, and Tunisia.[15] She graduated from the Holton-Arms School in Bethesda, Maryland, in 1979.[16]

Louis-Dreyfus attended Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, where she was a member of the Delta Gamma sorority. She studied theatre and performed in the Waa Mu Show, a student-run improv and sketch comedy revue, before dropping out during her junior year to take a job at *Saturday Night Live*.[18][19] She later received an honorary doctor of arts degree from Northwestern University in 2007