Newest cast member of Saturday Night Live, Julia Louis-Drefus is shown at a breakfast at the Plaza Hotel on September 12, 1982.
Louis-Dreyfus was born in New York City, the daughter of the French billionaire Gérard Louis-Dreyfus, and entered comedy as a performer with the Practical Theatre Company in Chicago. She was a cast member on the sketch comedy series Saturday Night Live from 1982 to 1985. Her breakthrough came from 1990 to 1998 playing Elaine Benes on the NBC sitcom Seinfeld, which became one of the most critically and commercially successful sitcoms. She earned acclaim for her roles as Christine Campbell on The New Adventures of Old Christine (2006–2010), and Selina Meyer on Veep (2012–2019). She has also guest starred on shows such as Arrested Development, Curb Your Enthusiasm, and 30 Rock.
On film, Louis-Dreyfus has had leading film roles in the independent dramedies Enough Said (2013), Downhill (2020), You Hurt My Feelings (2023), and Tuesday (2023) with supporting film roles in comedy films such as Hannah and Her Sisters (1986), National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation (1989), Deconstructing Harry (1997), and You People (2023). Her voice acting work includes roles in the Disney Animated films A Bug's Life (1998), Planes (2013), and Onward (2020). Since 2021, she has played Valentina Allegra de Fontaine in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
She is one of the most award-winning actors in American television history. She received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2010 and was inducted into the Television Academy Hall of Fame in 2014. She was named as one of Time magazine's 100 most influential people in the world in 2016. She also received the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor in 2018 and the National Medal of Arts in 2021.