Uma Thurman has performed in a variety of films, from romantic comedies and dramas to science fiction and action films.
77 Facts About Uma Thurman
2.
Uma Thurman rose to international prominence with her performance as Mia Wallace in Quentin Tarantino's 1994 film Pulp Fiction, for which she was nominated for the Academy Award, the BAFTA Award, the Golden Globe Award, and the Screen Actors Guild Award for Best Supporting Actress.
3.
Uma Thurman made her Broadway debut in The Parisian Woman.
4.
Uma Thurman won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Television Film for her performance in the made-for-HBO film Hysterical Blindness and received a Primetime Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series for her five-episode role in the NBC musical series Smash.
5.
Uma Thurman has starred in the miniseries The Slap and the series Imposters, Chambers and Super Pumped.
6.
Uma Karuna Thurman was born on April 29,1970, in Boston, Massachusetts.
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Uma Thurman's father, Robert Thurman, is a professor of Indo-Tibetan Buddhist Studies and an author, who lived as an ordained Buddhist monk for three years.
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Uma Thurman's mother, Nena von Schlebrugge, a high-fashion model, was born in Mexico City to a German nobleman and a Swedish model Birgit Holmquist.
9.
Uma Thurman received a Buddhist upbringing, and spent altogether around two years in Almora, a town in the Northern-Indian state of Uttarakhand.
10.
Uma Thurman grew up mostly in Amherst, Massachusetts, where she went to Amherst Regional Junior High School, then moved to Woodstock, New York.
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Uma Thurman is described, in a 2004 biography, as having been an awkward and introverted girl who was teased for her appearance and unusual name.
12.
When Uma Thurman was ten years old, a friend's mother suggested a nose job.
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Uma Thurman attended Amherst Public Schools, where in eighth grade she discovered her love of acting.
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Uma Thurman began her career as a fashion model at age 15, and signed with the agency Click Models.
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Uma Thurman made the transition to acting with her film debut, the teen thriller Kiss Daddy Goodnight, which was released in 1987.
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Uma Thurman went on to star as the patient of a San Francisco psychiatrist in the neo-noir drama Final Analysis, opposite Richard Gere and Kim Basinger, and as a blind woman romantically involved with a former policeman in the thriller Jennifer 8, with Andy Garcia.
17.
Uma Thurman portrayed a young woman with unusually big thumbs in Gus Van Sant's 1993 adaptation of Tom Robbins' novel Even Cowgirls Get the Blues.
18.
In Quentin Tarantino's neo-noir black comedy Pulp Fiction, Uma Thurman played Mia Wallace, the wife of a Los Angeles mobster.
19.
Uma Thurman dominated most of the movie's promotional material; Mia is considered one of the most iconic female film characters of the 1990s.
20.
The Washington Post asserted that Uma Thurman was "serenely unrecognizable in a black wig, [and] is marvelous as a zoned-out gangster's girlfriend".
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Uma Thurman took little advantage of her new-found fame by choosing not to do any big-budget films for the next three years.
22.
In 1997, Uma Thurman starred opposite Ethan Hawke in Gattaca, a science fiction film set in a future society driven by eugenics where potential children are conceived through genetic manipulation.
23.
Uma Thurman obtained a Blockbuster Entertainment Award for Best Sci-fi Actress and was nominated for Favourite Movie Actress at the Kids' Choice Awards.
24.
Uma Thurman took on the role of Fantine in Les Miserables, the 1998 film version of Victor Hugo's novel of the same name, directed by Bille August.
25.
The film was considered an "intelligent, handsomely crafted adaptation" of the classic novel, according to Rotten Tomatoes, and on his review of the film, Roger Ebert expressed that "Uma Thurman's performance is the best element" of the story.
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Uma Thurman was in a hiatus from acting at the time as she had her daughter in 1998, doing only a few small, low-budget projects after giving birth; she eventually turned down the role of Eowyn in Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings film trilogy, which she considers "one of the worst decisions [she] ever made".
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Uma Thurman headlined the period drama The Golden Bowl, based on the 1904 novel of the same name by Henry James.
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Uma Thurman was nominated for the Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Female for her part in Tape.
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Uma Thurman played a New Jersey woman in the 1980s searching for romance.
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Uma Thurman reunited with Quentin Tarantino for the two-part martial arts action film Kill Bill, portraying assassin Beatrix Kiddo, out for revenge against her former lover.
31.
Uma Thurman cited Thurman as his muse while writing the film, and gave her joint credit for the character, whom the two conceived on the set of Pulp Fiction from the sole image of a bride covered in blood.
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Uma Thurman said that both of them are "two of the only women I've ever seen be truly women [while] holding a weapon".
33.
Production was delayed for several months after Uma Thurman became pregnant and Tarantino refused to recast the part.
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Uma Thurman was nominated for two Golden Globes for both entries, plus three MTV Movie Awards for Best Female Performance and two for Best Fight.
35.
Besides the children's film The Naked Brothers Band: The Movie, in which Uma Thurman had a cameo, she had three other major film releases throughout 2005.
36.
Uma Thurman next starred in the romantic comedy Prime with Meryl Streep, playing a divorced and lonesome business-woman who enters a relationship with a much younger man.
37.
The producers of the film originally planned to have another singer dub in her musical numbers, but Uma Thurman was eager to do her own vocals; she is credited for her songs in the film.
38.
In 2006, Uma Thurman starred opposite Luke Wilson in My Super Ex-Girlfriend, playing a superhero who is dumped by her boyfriend and then takes her revenge upon him.
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In 2008, Uma Thurman starred with Colin Firth and Jeffrey Dean Morgan in The Accidental Husband, a romantic comedy where she played a woman who finds herself married while engaged to another man.
40.
Uma Thurman took on the role of a cocaine addict in the British television drama My Zinc Bed, which garnered what was considered poor ratings, especially given her involvement.
41.
Uma Thurman ventured into television in 2012, when she joined the cast of the drama series Smash in its first season, portraying the five-episode role of Rebecca Duvall, a Hollywood actress who wants to star in a new Broadway musical, despite having limited musical ability.
42.
Uma Thurman earned a Primetime Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series.
43.
Uma Thurman appeared in the Volume I of Lars von Trier's two-part ensemble art drama Nymphomaniac as Mrs H, a rejected wife who confronts her estranged husband.
44.
In 2015, Uma Thurman starred on the NBC miniseries The Slap, the American adaptation of the Australian series of the same name about the fallout after a man slaps another couple's misbehaving child, and played a famed restaurant critic named Simone in the drama Burnt, starring Bradley Cooper.
45.
In 2017, Uma Thurman took on the recurring role of a fixer on the Bravo dark comedy series Imposters, which ran for two seasons, and was named president of Cannes Film Festival "Un Certain Regard" jury for "works which offer a unique perspective and aesthetic".
46.
Uma Thurman made her Broadway debut in The Parisian Woman, a play written by Beau Willimon.
47.
The Con Is On, an independent heist comedy Uma Thurman filmed in 2015, opposite Tim Roth, was released on May 4,2018.
48.
Uma Thurman reunited with director Lars von Trier to play the first victim of a serial killer during the 1980s in his psychological horror film The House That Jack Built, which premiered on May 14,2018, at the Cannes Film Festival.
49.
Uma Thurman played a grieving mother in the Netflix supernatural horror series Chambers, which was released on April 26,2019.
50.
In 2019, Uma Thurman received a career honorary award at the David di Donatello Film Awards in Italy, and performed the role of Helene Alving in a revival of Henrik Ibsen's Ghosts at the Williamstown Theatre Festival.
51.
Uma Thurman reunited with Robert DeNiro, her co-star in Mad Dog and Glory, for the family comedy The War with Grandpa, in which she portrayed the daughter of his recently widowed character.
52.
Uma Thurman served as the narrator of The Age of Nature, a three-part documentary series, which aired on PBS in October 2020.
53.
Uma Thurman next portrayed Arianna Huffington, the co-founder of The Huffington Post, in The Battle For Uber, the first season of Super Pumped, an anthology drama television series created by Brian Koppelman and David Levien, which debuted on Showtime on February 27,2022.
54.
Uma Thurman appeared as Roxanne Martel in the coming-of-age film Hollywood Stargirl, which was released on June 3,2022, on Disney+.
55.
Uma Thurman joined the cast of the sequel to The Old Guard, alongside Charlize Theron.
56.
In 2013, Uma Thurman was named one of the "100 Hottest Women of the 21st Century" by GQ.
57.
On February 7,2006, Uma Thurman was awarded and named a knight of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres of France for outstanding achievement in the field of art and literature, and for her work and importance as an actress.
58.
The lavender Prada dress Uma Thurman wore to the 67th Academy Awards on March 27,1995, was admired by the media.
59.
Uma Thurman has been a face and spokeswoman of Lancome, TAG Heuer, Louis Vuitton, and Parfums Givenchy.
60.
Uma Thurman posed for the 2014 Campari Calendar and was among the actresses photographed by Peter Lindbergh for the 2017 Pirelli Calendar.
61.
Uma Thurman met English actor Gary Oldman on the set of State of Grace; they married in 1990 and divorced in 1992.
62.
Uma Thurman began dating London-based French financier Arpad Busson in 2007, and they announced their engagement in June 2008.
63.
Uma Thurman and Busson have a daughter, Luna Uma Thurman-Busson, born in July 2012.
64.
Uma Thurman was the target of a stalker, Jack Jordan, from about 2004 to 2011.
65.
Uma Thurman was arrested in October 2007 and, following a trial in which Thurman testified as a witness, was convicted of stalking and harassment charges the following May Sentenced to three years' probation, Jordan was arrested again in 2010 on charges of violating a restraining order by attempting to contact her.
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Uma Thurman pleaded guilty in November 2011 after spending 11 months in jail in lieu of bail, and was released with time served.
67.
Uma Thurman stated that Miramax would only agree to show her the footage if she signed a contract "releasing them of any consequences of my future pain and suffering", which she refused.
68.
Uma Thurman later clarified on Instagram that Tarantino had apologized to her for the incident and that she has since forgiven him, being open to working with him again.
69.
Uma Thurman has been involved in various philanthropic and activist causes.
70.
Uma Thurman is a supporter of the Democratic Party, and has given money to the campaigns of John Kerry, Hillary Clinton, and Joseph R Driscoll.
71.
Uma Thurman is a member of the board of Room to Grow, a charitable organization providing aid to families and children suffering poverty.
72.
Uma Thurman serves on the board of the Tibet House US.
73.
In February 2008, ahead of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, China, Thurman talked about human rights in China alongside Steven Spielberg and others, describing actions and policies carried out by the government of China as "horrible" and "unspeakable crimes against humanity".
74.
In 2011, Uma Thurman was one of several celebrities associated with the USAID and Ad Council's FWD campaign, an awareness initiative tied to that year's East Africa drought.
75.
Uma Thurman joined Geena Davis, Chanel Iman and Josh Hartnett in TV and internet ads to "forward the facts" about the crisis.
76.
In 2015, Uma Thurman joined "Rhino Rescue Project" and traveled to Southern Africa to assist and help relocate the threatened species of black rhinoceros; being in close contact with rhinos, Uma Thurman defined her experience with those animals to be "spiritual, surreal".
77.
Uma Thurman was critical of the Texas Heartbeat Act, an abortion ban that went into effect in September 2021.