Julia Stiles - Columbia University, Birthday and Childhood

She was born on March 28, 1981 in New York City to John O'Hara and Judith Newcomb Stiles as the eldest of three children. Her mother is a potter and her parents owned a pottery business in Greenwich Village.

She was a bright child and at the age of six she served at her family business handling the register while interacting with customers. Her love for theatre developed as a child while she accompanied her parents to watch different plays and was especially fascinated by the Shakespearean plays.

Her love for writing also happened during her childhood when she developed a habit of writing letters to her parents for any of her requirements. Moving forward she wrote a letter to Ed Koch, the then mayor of New York City, when she was eleven, proposing him to keep more dustbins in the streets. She also wrote a letter to the director of ‘La MaMa Theatre Company’ that fetched her first stage work within months, when she was only eleven years of age.

Though she did not take her academic education forward she joined ‘New York's Professional Children School’ and took modern dance lessons to develop herself in the field of arts so as to pursue a career in the entertainment business.

Her journey in acting started with theatres working with the ‘La MaMa Theatre Company’ at eleven years of age. While she was twelve, she worked with ‘Kitchen Theatre’ and performed in the plays ‘The Sandlewood Box’ and ‘Matthew: School of Life’ and also did several commercials.

Her initial works during 1993 to 1998 include plays with the ‘Ridge Theatre’ group enacting the works of John Moran.

She made her television debut in 1993 with the series ‘Ghostwriter’ where she essayed the role of Erica Dansby in six episodes. During mid 1990s to 2000s she did single episodes of other TV series including ‘Promised Land’ (1996), ‘Chicago Hope’ (1997), ‘Punk’d’ (2004) and ‘The City’ (2009) and two episodes of ‘Saturday Night Live’ (2001).

She treaded the big screen after the mid-90s with a small part in the film ‘I Love You, I Love You Not’ (1996). Moving on she played Bridget O'Meara in ‘The Devil’s Own’ (1997) starring along with Harrison Ford.

After a couple of films she landed up the lead role of Ellie Christianson in the 1998 film ‘Wicked’ and earned the ‘Best Actress Award’ at the ‘Karlovy Vary International Film Festival’. Although the film was never screened in any theatre, she received positive response from critics and was noticed by the casting agents.

After appearing in several films, her real breakthrough came in 1999 with ‘10 Things I Hate About You’, a film adapted from Shakespeare's ‘The Taming of the Shrew’. The film became a hit while Stiles won the ‘MTV Movie Award’ and the ‘Chicago Film Critics Association Award’ apart from several other nominations.

Her next big screen flick, a comedy ‘Down To You’ (2000) could not garner success but fetched her the ‘Teen Choice Award for Choice Movie Chemistry’ along with her co-star Freddie Prinze Junior.

Her next significant movie was ‘Save the Last Dance’ in 2001 where she essayed the part of Sara Johnson, her most remarkable performance till date. The film was a box-office success and won her two ‘Teen Choice Award’ and a ‘MTV Movie Award for Best Kiss’ which she shared with Sean Patrick Thomas.

Her other film in 2001, ‘The Business of Strangers’ where she played a more challenging role of Paula Murphy with a more darker shade earned her a nomination for the ‘Satellite Award for Best Supporting Actress’.

Her performances in theatre continued along with films and TV that include the July to August shows of 2002 in Eve Ensler’s play, ‘The Vagina Monologues’. She also essayed the lead role of Viola in ‘Twelfth Night’, a production by ‘Shakespeare in the Park’.

In 2002 Julia Stiles played a small but significant role as Nicky Parsons in ‘The Bourne Identity’, first of the ‘Bourne’ series movies. Moving forward with the sequels ‘The Bourne Supremacy’ (2004) and ‘The Bourne Ultimatum’ (2007), her role expanded each time from the earlier. The latter remained her highest grossing film till date.

Her career line progressed further in 2000s when she offered a diverse platter showcasing her versatility with films such as ‘Mona Lisa Smile’ (2003), ‘The Prince and Me’ (2004), ‘The Omen’ (2006) and ‘’The Cry of the Owl’(2009).

In 2004 she performed as Carol in ‘Oleanna’, a play by David Mamet at the ‘Garrick Theatre’, her first ever stage performance in London. In 2009 the role was reprised by her at the ‘Mark Taper Forum’, under the direction of Doug Hughes.

She wrote and directed a short film ‘Raving’ (2007) making her debut in direction. The ‘Plum Pictures’ film starring Zooey Deschanel and Bill Irwin was premiered at the ‘Tribeca Film Festival’ and is available at the website of ‘Elle Magazine’.

She was nominated for the ‘Primetime Emmy Award’ and the ‘Golden Globe Award’ for her 2010 performance in ten episodes of the TV series ‘Dexter’ as Lumen Pierce.

From 2012 till present she stars in the web drama series ‘Blue’ produced by ‘WIGS’.

In 2014 she essayed the character of Jessica Lieberstein in the television comedy series ‘The Mindy Project’.

Other movies of Julia Stiles include ‘Silver Linings Playbook’ (2012), ‘Between Us’ (2013), ‘Out of the Dark’ (2014) and ‘Go with Me’ (2015) among others.

In 2000 she joined the ‘Columbia University’ and in 2005 she earned a bachelor’s degree in English. In 2010 the ‘Columbia College Alumni Association’ honoured her along with four other alumni with the ‘John Jay Award’ for their professional achievements.

She dated actor, director and filmmaker, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and also artist Jonathan Cramer and from July 2011 she started dating actor David Harbour.

She is a self proclaimed feminist and has penned down several essays on the subject for ‘The Guardian’, a British newspaper.

Julia Stiles announce in January 2016 that she is engaged to her camera assistant boyfriend Preston J. Cook.

She has been active regarding several social and political causes. She is a proponent of the ‘Habitat for Humanity and Amnesty International’ and worked for it while the construction of housing in Costa Rica was conducted.

She was also involved with the ‘Amnesty International’ in increasing awareness of the hard situation of the unaccompanied juveniles who face immigration detention. Her trip to Leesport, Pennsylvania, to witness the situation at the ‘Berks County Youth Center’ was shown by Marie Claire in January 2004.