Julianna Margulies

Julianna Margulies (born June 8, 1966) is an American actress.

Margulies made her feature film debut in Steven Seagal's action film Out for Justice (1991), playing a prostitute.

After several small television roles, Margulies received wide recognition for her starring role as Carol Hathaway in the NBC medical drama series ER (1994–2009), for which she received a Primetime Emmy Award and six Screen Actors Guild Awards, in addition to four Golden Globe Award nominations.

In 1994, Margulies was cast in the pilot episode of the NBC medical drama ER as Carol Hathaway, an emergency care nurse who attempts suicide.

Her character was originally intended to die; however, test audiences overwhelmingly wanted her to survive, so the producers changed the plot.

At the time she was offered ER, Margulies had also been offered an extended role on NBC's Homicide: Life on the Street, after a two-episode appearance earlier in the year.

Then-unknown actor George Clooney, who had filmed the pilot episode with Margulies, called her to let her know that he had overheard producers saying that her character might become a series regular.

He encouraged her to consider waiting for ER producers to call her and not take another job.

Clooney was right, and Margulies accepted the role on ER in 1994.

She won a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series in 1994, and was nominated for an Emmy Award every year during her tenure on ER.

She was the only series regular cast member to win a Primetime Emmy Award.

She was also nominated four times for a Golden Globe Award during the show's tenure.

Originally, Margulies had signed a five-year contract to work on ER.

She starred in the adventure film Dinosaur (2000), the drama film Evelyn (2002), the supernatural horror film Ghost Ship (2002), the action horror film Snakes on a Plane (2006), the comedy drama film City Island (2009), the crime comedy film Stand Up Guys (2012), and the comedy drama film The Upside (2017).

Margulies has received one Golden Globe Award, three Primetime Emmy Awards, and eight Screen Actor Guild Awards, making her the second most awarded woman ever within SAG after Julia Louis-Dreyfus.

She is also the recipient of a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

She remained on the show as a series regular for six seasons until 2000 and returned to the show for one episode during its final season in 2009.

Margulies also had roles in the TNT miniseries The Mists of Avalon (2001), the HBO crime drama series The Sopranos (2006–2007), the National Geographic miniseries The Hot Zone (2019), and currently stars as Laura Peterson in the Apple TV+ drama series The Morning Show (2021–present).

In 2009, she took on the lead role of Alicia Florrick in the CBS legal drama series The Good Wife (2009–2016).

Her performance garnered critical acclaim, winning a further two Primetime Emmy Awards, two Screen Actors Guild Awards, a Golden Globe Award, and a Television Critics Association Award.

In a 2013 interview, she said, "I would say if I had a religion, it would be gratitude…I love the tradition of Judaism that on Friday nights, Shabbat means 'Goodbye to the workweek; hello to family and the weekend.'"

In her memoir, Margulies also wrote about her difficult, nomadic childhood.

She is from New York City, but she moved with her mother to different countries and states throughout her youth, including Sussex, England, and Paris, France.

As a result, French was Margulies' first language.

She has since lost the ability to speak it fluently.

In the book, Margulies described her childhood as ultimately loving, but unpredictable and unstable.

She detailed many emotionally traumatic experiences.

Margulies attended many different schools as a child, including Green Meadow Waldorf School and High Mowing School.

She graduated with a degree in art history and English from Sarah Lawrence College, where she appeared in several campus plays.

At Sarah Lawrence College, students select three areas of focus for coursework.

Margulies focused on art history, English, and theatre.

She originally enrolled in college with the goal of becoming a lawyer, like her grandmother, or a psychologist, but fell in love with the craft of acting.

In 2015, Time magazine named her one of the 100 most influential people in the world.

Julianna Margulies was born in Spring Valley, New York, the youngest of three daughters.

Her mother Francesca ( Goldberg, later Gardner) was a ballet dancer and eurythmy teacher.

Her father Paul Margulies was a writer, philosopher, and Madison Avenue advertising executive.

Her parents were both Jewish, descendants of Ashkenazi Jewish immigrants from Austria, Hungary, Romania, and Russia.

They divorced when she was a year old.

In her memoir, Sunshine Girl, Margulies wrote that her parents both adhered to the teachings of anthroposophy.

Margulies, herself, has said that she does not hold religious beliefs, although she is ethnically Jewish and teaches the traditions to her son.