Julia Stiles
Birth name	Julia O'Hara Stiles
Born	March 28 1981 (1981--) (age 26) New York City, New York, United States
Official site	JuliaStiles.net

Julia O'Hara Stiles (born March 28, 1981) is an American stage and screen actress.

After beginning her theatre career in small parts in a New York City theatre troupe, she has moved on to leading roles in plays by writers as diverse as William Shakespeare and David Mamet. Her film career has included both commercial and critical successes, ranging from teen romantic comedies such as 10 Things I Hate About You (1999) to dark art house pictures such as The Business of Strangers (2001). Stiles also actively supports a variety of progressive causes.

Early life

Stiles was born in New York City to John O'Hara, a teacher and businessman who owns and operates a pottery business, and Judith Stiles, a potter.^[1] Her father is of Irish descent and her mother is of half Italian and half English ancestry.^[2][3][4] Stiles has two younger siblings, Jane and Johnny and a half sister Bridget O'Hara Koch, the first daugter of John O'Hara. She was raised in SoHo by liberal, lapsed Catholic parents. She started acting at age eleven, performing with New York's La MaMa Theatre Company and securing work by submitting photographs of herself in costume to the company and asking that she be kept in mind for juvenile roles.^[5]

Career

Television career

Stiles began her acting career in television roles. After two appearances as the computer punk "Erica Dansby" on the PBS series Ghostwriter in 1993 and 1994, she appeared as a guest star on the medical drama Chicago Hope. She has been seen in two made-for-TV movies: in Before Women Had Wings (1997) on CBS, she played opposite Ellen Burstyn and Oprah Winfrey in an adaptation of the novel by Connie May Fowler; and she played a teenage girl who finds herself pregnant and runs away from her unforgiving father (Bill Smitrovich) in NBC's miniseries The '60's (1999), a film Caryn James of The New York Times dismissed as "conspicuously idiotic."^[6] Stiles was the public face of the film, with NBC using her face, painted with a peace sign and the American flag, both in its advertising and on the cover of the soundtrack album.

Film career

Stiles' first film was a non-speaking part in I Love You, I Love You Not (1996), with Claire Danes and Jude Law. She also had small roles as Harrison Ford's daughter in Alan J. Pakula's The Devil's Own (1997) and in M. Night Shyamalan's Wide Awake (1998). Her first lead was in Wicked (1998), playing a teenage girl who murders her mother so she can have her father all to herself. Critic Joe Balthai wrote she was "the darling of the 1998 Sundance Film Festival"^[7] and Internet movie writer Harry Knowles said she was the "discovery of the fest," but the film was not commercially released in the U.S. and went direct-to-video in 2001, after Stiles had become better known.

The role that gained Stiles renown was Kat Stratford, opposite Heath Ledger, in Gil Junger's 10 Things I Hate About You (1999), an adaptation of The Taming of the Shrew set in a high school near Tacoma. She won an MTV Movie Award for "Breakthrough Female Performance" for the role, and the Chicago Film Critics voted her the most promising new actress of the year. Foreign critics applauded her work as well, including Adina Hoffman, who praised her as "a young, serious looking Diane Lane"^[8] and Martin Hoyle, who commented that Stiles played Kat "with bloody-minded independent charm from the beginning with hints of wistfulness beneath the determination."^[9]

Her next starring role was in Down to You (2000), which was heavily panned by critics, but earned Stiles and her co-star Freddie Prinze, Jr. a Teen Choice Award nomination for their on-screen chemistry. She subsequently appeared in two more Shakespearean adaptations. The first was as the Ophelia in Michael Almerayda's Hamlet (2000), with Ethan Hawke in the lead. The second was in the Desdemona role, opposite Mekhi Phifer in Tim Blake Nelson's O (2001), a version of Othello set in a private boarding school. Neither film was a great success; O had been subjected to many delays and a change of distributors and Hamlet was an art house film shot on a minimal budget.

Stiles' next commercial success was in Save the Last Dance (2001), as an aspiring ballerina forced to leave her small town in downstate Illinois to live with her struggling musician father in Chicago, after her mother is killed. At her new, nearly all-black school, she falls in love with the character played by Sean Patrick Thomas, who teaches her hip-hop dance steps that get her into The Juilliard School. The role won her two more MTV awards for "Best Kiss" and "Best Female Performance", and a Teen Choice Award for best fight scene, for her battle with Bianca Lawson. Rolling Stone pronounced her "the coolest co-ed", putting her on the cover of its April 12, 2001 issue. She told Rolling Stone that she performed all her own dancing in the film, though the way the film was shot and edited might have made it appear otherwise.^[10]

In David Mamet's State and Main (2000), about a film shooting on location in a small town in Vermont, she played a teenage girl who seduces a film actor (Alec Baldwin) with a weakness for young girls. Stiles also played opposite Stockard Channing in the dark art house film The Business of Strangers (2001) as a conniving, amoral secretary who exacts revenge on her cold boss. Channing was impressed by her co-star: "In addition to her talent, she has a quality that is almost feral, something that can make people uneasy. She has an effect on people."^[11] Stiles also had small, but crucial roles as Treadstone operative Nicolette Parsons in The Bourne Identity (2002) and its sequel The Bourne Supremacy (2004).

Between the Bourne films, she appeared in Mona Lisa Smile (2003) as Joan, a student at Wellesley College in 1953, whose art professor (Julia Roberts) encourages her to pursue a career in law rather than becoming a wife and mother. Critic Stephen Holden referred to her as one of cinema's "brightest young stars,"^[12] but the film met with generally unfavorable reviews.

Stiles played a Wisconsin college student who is swept off her feet by a Danish prince in The Prince and Me (2004), directed by Martha Coolidge. Stiles told an interview that she was very similar to the character, Paige Morgan, but critic Scott Foundas said while she was, as always, "irrepressibly engaging" the film was a "strange career choice for Stiles".^[13] This echoed criticism in reviews of A Guy Thing (2003), a romantic comedy with Jason Lee and Selma Blair; critic Dennis Harvey wrote that Stiles was "wasted,"^[14] and Stephen Holden called her "a serious actress from whom comedy does not seem to flow naturally".^[15]

In 2005, Stiles was cast opposite her Hamlet co-star Liev Schreiber in The Omen, a remake of the 1976 horror film. The film was released on June 6, 2006.

Julia returned to the Bourne series with a much larger role inThe Bourne Ultimatum (2007). Producer Lynda Obst was quoted as saying that Stiles was "turning into the next Meryl Streep".^[16] The movie was a summer blockbuster, and will serve as prelude to her self-written and directed "Raving" ^[17], and her turn in the lead role in The Bell Jar.

Stage career

Stiles' first theatrical roles were in works by author/composer John Moran with the group Ridge Theater, in Manhattan's lower East side from 1993-1998. She later performed on stage in Eve Ensler's The Vagina Monologues, in the summer of 2002, and appeared as Viola, the lead role in Shakespeare in the Park's production of Twelfth Night with Jimmy Smits. Reviewing the production, Ben Brantley of The New York Times saluted Stiles as "the thinking teenagers' movie goddess" who put him in mind of a "young Jane Fonda".^[18]

In the spring of 2004, she made her London stage debut opposite Aaron Eckhart in a revival of David Mamet's play Oleanna at the Garrick Theatre.^[19]

Other work

On March 17 2001, Stiles hosted Saturday Night Live and eight days later introduced a music nominee at the 73rd Academy Awards. She returned to Saturday Night Live on May 5 in a cameo as President George W. Bush's daughter Jenna Bush in a skit that poked fun at the two first daughters being arrested for underage drinking. MTV profiled her in its Diary series in 2003, and she was "Punk'd" by Ashton Kutcher at a Washington DC museum in the spring of 2004.

In 2007 Stiles made her writing and directoral debut with Elle magazine's Raving starring Zooey Deschanel. The film will premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival.

Personal life

Stiles attended Friends Seminary, a Quaker prep school in Manhattan, and graduated from the Professional Children's School in New York in 1999. She then was an English major at Columbia University, though she had several times interrupted her studies to pursue her career. During her first year (2000-2001), Stiles caused a minor uproar on campus when she mocked cafeteria workers in Columbia's dining halls while appearing on Late Night with Conan O'Brien. Stiles later apologized for her comments in the campus newspaper, the Columbia Daily Spectator. She graduated in May 2005, five years after entering.

Stiles is a Democrat and supported John Kerry's candidacy for President of the United States.^[20] Her official site, which her mother helps to maintain, provides a link to Moveon.org.

Stiles has also worked for Habitat for Humanity, building housing in Costa Rica,^[21] and has worked with Amnesty International to try to raise awareness of the harsh conditions of immigration detention of unaccompanied juveniles; Marie Claire magazine, in January 2004, featured Stiles' trip to see conditions at the Berks County Youth Center in Leesport, Pennsylvania.^[22][23] Additionally, Stiles serves on the Board of Directors of Amend.org, a New York-based nonprofit that implements childhood injury prevention programs in Africa.

Stiles is also an ex-vegan. When interviewed by Conan O'Brien, she said the word "orgasm" came to mind when she had her first cheeseburger after giving up veganism - although she has said in an interview for tiscali that this was a joke. She gave up being vegan because it wasn't healthy whilst travelling. The actress has described herself as a feminist and wrote on the subject in The Guardian.^[19] Stiles told Gotham Magazine in 2005 that "I'd never be in Playboy or anything close to that, not that anyone would ask" and in fact hates being photographed.

Stiles has dated actors Joseph Gordon-Levitt (in 1999) and Joshua Jackson (in 2000).

Stiles is also an avid baseball fan. Her favorite team is the New York Mets.^[24] She threw the ceremonial first pitch before their May 29, 2006 game.^[25]

On August 17th 2007, Julia joined Prince on stage at the O2 in London. Prince then handed her a mic and got her to sing Wild Cherry's Play That Funky Music in front of a 20,000 strong crowd.

Filmography

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1996	I Love You, I Love You Not	Young Nana's Friend	Non-speaking role
1997	The Devil's Own	Bridget O'Meara
1998	Wide Awake	Neena Beal
1999	10 Things I Hate About You	Katarina "Kat" Stratford
	The 60's	Katie Herlihy	Made for T.V. Movie
2000	Down to You	Imogen
	Hamlet	Ophelia
	State and Main	Carla
2001	Save the Last Dance	Sara Johnson
	Wicked	Ellie Christianson	filmed in 1998; direct-to-video in 2001
	O	Desi Brable
	The Business of Strangers	Paula Murphy
2002	The Bourne Identity	Nicolette 'Nicky' Parsons
2003	A Guy Thing	Becky
	Mona Lisa Smile	Joan Brandwyn
	Carolina	Carolina	Direct-to-video
2004	The Prince and Me	Paige Morgan
	The Bourne Supremacy	Nicolette 'Nicky' Parsons
2005	Edmond	Glenna	limited release
	A Little Trip to Heaven	Isold
2006	The Omen	Katherine Thorn
2007	Raving	(Writer & Director)
	The Bourne Ultimatum	Nicolette 'Nicky' Parsons
	Gospel Hill	Rosie	pre-production
2008	The Bell Jar	Esther Greenwood

Notes

References

• Aimee Agresti. "Type A Student". Premiere. v. 15, n. 12. August 2002. 74-6. (Lynda Obst)
• John Andrews. "Prince Charming isn't her crowning achievement". Newsday (Long Island, N.Y.) April 2, 2004. B5. (The Prince and Me)
• Joe Balthai. "Screen Idol-escents". The Arizona Republic. October 28, 1999. (General material, Sundance)
• John Bankston. Julia Stiles. Bear, Delaware: Mitchell Lane, 2003. (General material; biography for younger readers)
• Sara Bliss. "Julia's Style." Gotham Magazine. September 2005. 198-203.
• Ben Brantley. "Wayward Currents in Uncharted Waters". The New York Times. July 22, 2002. (Twelfth Night)
• Jancee Dunn. "Is Julia Stiles too cool for school?". Rolling Stone. Issue 866. April 12, 2001. (General material, college career)
• Alec Foege. "Stiles and Substance". Biography. v. 6, n. 7 July 2002. 74.
• Scott Foundas. "Not a Fresh 'Prince'". Variety. March 29, 2004. 80, 86. (The Prince and Me)
• Leslie Goober. "The Hottest Chicks in Hollywood". Cosmopolitan. v. 231, n.6. December 2001. 192. (General material)
• Dennis Harvey. Review of A Guy Thing. Variety. January 20, 2003.
• Adina Hoffman. "Good teen fun". The Jerusalem Post. July 26, 1999. 7. (10 Things)
• Stephen Holden. "A Hangover Is the Least of His Problems". The New York Times. January 17, 2003. B31. (A Guy Thing)
• Stephen Holden. "Creeping 1953 Feminism Without Quite Dispelling Dreams of Prince Charming". The New York Times. December 19, 2003. B8. (Mona Lisa Smile)
• Martin Hoyle. "Martin Hoyle enjoys a film that turns the Bard's almost unplayable comedy into a teenage coup". Financial Times. July 8, 1999. 18. (10 Things)
• Dave Kehr. "At the Movies: Understanding a Dragon Lady". The New York Times. December 7, 2001. E8. (Stockard Channing and The Business of Strangers)
• Caryn James. "This Time, Man, The 60's Go, Like Faster". The New York Times. February 5, 1999. E30. (The 60's)
• Gia Kourlas. "Julia speaks her mind". Glamour. v. 100, n. 11. January 2003. 92-3, 155. (General material)
• Sarah Partin. "Julia Stiles". In Newsmakers 2002. Detroit, Michigan: Gale, 2002. 415-7. (General material)
• Charlotte O'Sullivan. "Shakespeare goes to the prom". The Independent (London). July 9, 1999. 11. (10 Things)
• Jeffrey Ressner. "10 Things About Her: Julia Stiles' career is a class in teen stardom". Time. v. 153, n. 14. April 12, 1999. (General material, Sundance)
• Katrina "The Hurricane" Riley. "How the West was Fun"."Riley House Dabloon: June 15, 2006. 23
• Jennifer L. Smith. "Julia Stiles gets real". Teen People. v. 7, n. 3. April 2004. 112-5. (General material)
• Julia Stiles. "No one can shut me up". YM. v. 51, n. 2. February 2003. 74-7. (General material)
• Julia Stiles. "Who's afraid of the 1950s?" The Guardian (London). June 17, 2004. http://film.guardian.co.uk/features/featurepages/0,4120,1240843,00.html (Mona Lisa Smile, Oleanna and feminism)

External links

• http://www.juliastiles.net – Official site (requires Macromedia Flash)
• Raving Movie Trailer directed by Julia Stiles
• Julia Stiles at the Internet Movie Database
• Icons of Fright interview (June 1, 2006)
• Guardian Unlimited interview (April 3, 2004)
• Tiscali.uk interview (2004)
• Julia Stiles interview for Omen