Natalie Portman — actress with roots in the Russian Empire
Natalie Portman is an Academy Award-winning actress and filmmaker whose career spans prestige drama, blockbuster franchises, and activist causes. Born in Jerusalem, raised in the U.S., she debuted at 13 in Léon: The Professional.
"Maternal grandparents emigrated from Russia to the United States"
Migration storyTracing the roots — Russia
The Russian line is maternal: Portman's mother, Shelley Stevens, is the daughter of Jewish immigrants to the United States from Russia and Austria. Her paternal grandparents came from Poland and Romania and settled in Mandatory Palestine in the late 1930s; her paternal great-grandparents were murdered at Auschwitz. Romania was never part of the Russian Empire and is recorded here separately.
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Russia. At the time, this region lay within the Russian Empire, which spanned from Poland to the Pacific.