Julia Roberts is one of the world's most famous and highly paid actresses. She was born in the small town of Smyrna, Georgia, in 1967; her older brother is fellow actor Eric Roberts, who most recently appeared on the television show, Heroes. After attending college at the University of Georgia, Julia Roberts moved to New York City to pursue a modeling and acting career. Her first major film role was for the part of a sick young Southern woman in Steel Magnolias, for which she was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.
In 1990, Julia Roberts played the part of a beautiful prostitute who falls in love with a client, played by Richard Gere, in the hit movie, Pretty Woman. The role made Julia Roberts a household name and garnered her another Oscar nomination, this time for Best Actress. She played roles in many successful films throughout the rest of the 1990s, including My Best Friend's Wedding, Notting Hill, and The Runaway Bride. Julia Roberts also experimented with roles in more serious films, but these were not as successful. For better or worse, Julia Roberts was most loved by audiences as a female romantic lead.
In 2001, Julia Roberts pulled away from the romantic lead role that she was associated with to play a paralegal who helped bring down a large energy company in Erin Brokovich, for which she won a Best Actress Academy Award. In the years since, she has played a more diverse selection of roles in films such as Closer and Ocean's Eleven. In 2006, Julia Roberts made her Broadway debut in a play called Three Days of Rain, but her performance was heavily criticized.
Julia Roberts is as famous for her personal life as she is for her film performances. Over the years, she has dated a succession of famous men, including actors Kiefer Sutherland, Jason Patric, Liam Neeson, and Benjamin Bratt, and country singer Lyle Lovett, whom she was briefly married to. In 2002, Julia Roberts married cinematographer Danny Moder, whom she had met on the set of her film, The Mexican. In 2004, she gave birth to twins Hazel and Phinnaeus Moder; their third child is expected in July 2007.