Uma Thurman's Early Life
Uma Karuna Thurman was born on April 29, 1970 in Boston, Massachusetts to an author father and model mother. She spent most of her childhood in Massachusetts and discovered her love for acting as a teenager.
After switching to a prep school at age 14, she was scouted by agents who persuaded her to act professionally. As a result, she dropped out and began a career as a model at 15, appearing on the covers of British Vogue in 1985 and 1986.
Uma Thurman's Rise to Fame and Career
She made her screen debut in 1987's Kiss Daddy Goodnight, but rose to fame thanks to 1988's Dangerous Liaisons, a period drama that won three Oscars and won her acclaim. After a few more positive notices through the early '90s, she became a star thanks to her turn in Quentin Tarantino's 1994 classic Pulp Fiction. Still considered one of the greatest films ever made, her appearance as Mia Wallace, heavily featured on promotional material, won her Golden Globe and Oscar nominations.
Her performances from 1997-2003 were limited, with notable successes being Gattaca (1997), Batman & Robin (1997, a critical bomb but a commercial hit), Les Misérables (1998), and Tape (2001). She won a Golden Globe award for her performance in the 2002 HBO cable film Hysterical Blindness.
She achieved renewed fame when she starred as The Bride in Tarantino's Kill Bill films (2003-04), with her martial arts skills and heroics receiving critical and commercial acclaim, plus two more Golden Globe nominations. Since then, her most notable film projects have been The Producers (2005), Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief (2010), Nymphomaniac (2013), and Red, White & Royal Blue (2023). She was nominated also for a Primetime Emmy for her recurring turn in the TV drama series Smash (2012).
Uma Thurman's Personal Life
Thurman's first significant Hollywood relationship came in 1990, when she married English actor Gary Oldman, her co-star in State of Grace. They divorced in 1992. In 1998, she married her Gattaca co-star Ethan Hawke, and they welcomed two children, Maya (b. 1998) and Levon (b. 2002), both of whom are also actors. They separated in 2003 and were divorced in 2005.
In 2007, Thurman began dating French financier Arpad Busson, and in 2008, they announced their engagement. They called it off in 2009, but reconciled soon after. During that time, they welcomed their daughter, Luna (b. 2012), but called off their engagement once again in 2014.
