Throughout her career, Louis-Dreyfus has received three Emmy Awards, a Golden Globe Award and five Screen Actors Guild Awards. Louis-Dreyfus was born Julia Scarlett Elizabeth Louis-Dreyfus in New York City on January 13, 1961. After relocating to Washington, D.C. when Julia was eight, her mother married L. Thompson Bowles, Dean of the George Washington University Medical School. It was her performance with the the Practical Theatre Group at their “Golden 50th Anniversary Jubilee” that led to her being asked to join the cast of Saturday Night Live at the age of just 21. More recently Louis-Dreyfus has commented that her casting on SNL was a “Cinderella-getting-to-go-to-the-ball kind of experience”, however, she has also admitted that at times it was often quite tense, stating that she “didn’t know how to navigate the waters of show business in general and specifically doing a live sketch-comedy show.” Following her 1985 departure from SNL, Louis-Dreyfus appeared in several films, including Hannah and Her Sisters which was directed by Woody Allen, and the cult classic National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation in which she starred alongside Chevy Chase. One of the episodes that she did not appear in was the inaugural pilot episode, due to the fact that her character was not initially intended to be a part of the series. in 1996 she received the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series, an award she was nominated for on seven occasions. The series finale aired on May 14 and was one of the most watched TV events, with over 76 million people tuning in.
