Julia Stiles
was born March 28, 1981, in New York, NY. While growing up
in Soho, where her parents ran a pottery business, Julia was
encouraged to take on a different kind of art -- drama.
When she was 11 years old,
she took matters into her own hands and wrote a letter to
the director of La Mama Theater, in hopes of getting an audition.
It worked, and she had the chance to expand her resume with
roles in Matthew: School of Life and The Sandalwood Box, both
at the Kitchen Theater.
Julia moved up the ranks by
working in television, with a recurring guest-appearance on
the series, Ghostwriter, and a bit part in the 1996 film I
Love You, I Love You Not, starring Claire Danes and Jude Law.
She then had the chance to appear as Harrison Ford's daughter
in the disappointing film, The Devil's Own.
It took roles in the made-for-TV
movie Oprah Winfrey Presents: Before Women Had Wings, as well
as Wicked (which garnered her the Best Actress Award at the
KVI Film Festival) and Wide Awake, for Julia to land the role
that would gain her the recognition she deserved, and it was
on TV nonetheless. She starred in NBC's miniseries, The '60s,
in 1999.
In the tradition of summer
teenybopper films, 10 Things I Hate About You was released
in 1999 and became a hit, not only among moviegoers, but also
with critics. Julia starred as the feisty and sarcastic Katarina
(Kat) -- or the Shrew -- in the modern retelling of Shakespeare's
The Taming of the Shrew.
Julia not only earned many
fans after her 10 Things I Hate About You starring role, but
she also earned a nomination for Young Star Award for Best
Performance by a Young Actress in a Comedy Film, and won the
MTV Movie Award for Best Breakthrough Female Performance and
the Best Promising Actress Award at the CFCA Awards.
Next for Julia came the college
romance, Down To You, co-starring the teen films' staple actor,
Freddie Prinze Jr. Julia took on a second Shakespeare inspired
movie, with a version of Hamlet set in corporate America rather
than Denmark, and since three's a charm, she also starred
in O, a film adaptation of Shakespeare's Othello.
Successfully avoiding being
pigeonholed into strictly teen films, Julia co-starred in
State and Main with Alec Baldwin and Sarah Jessica Parker,
and then used her love for hip-hop to star in 2001's Save
the Last Dance.
The Calvin Klein Jeans model
will next be seen in The Business of Strangers and The Bourne
Identity.
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