Who Is Julia Louis Dreyfus?
Julia Louis-Dreyfus is an actress that rose to prominence thanks to her portrayal of the character Elaine Benes on the massively successful 1990s series Seinfeld. Since her days on Seinfeld, Julia has maintained success in the entertainment industry with various other starring vehicles. including the recent HBO series Veep. Although Julia is still a big star, her personal life has been rife with tragedy as of late, starting with the death of her beloved father in 2016. Join Facts Verse as we take a look at how Julia Louis-Dreyfus’ family is hiding some dark secrets.
Julia Louis-Dreyfus was born in Manhattan on January 13, 1961, to parents William and Judith. When Julia was only one year old, her parents separated. They would later divorce and go on to marry other people when Julia was still very young. Despite a year-long period where Julia lived with her mom and stepfather in Sri Lanka so that the latter figure could fulfill his work with the international healthcare organization Project HOPE, Julia spent the majority of her early childhood years divided up between her mother and stepfather’s household in Washington, DC, and her father and stepmother’s household in Mount Kisco, New York.
Both of Julia’s parents went on to have children with their respective new spouses, and Julia had a hard time fitting in fully within either of her households. Her father was much wealthier than her mother, leading Julia to feel as if she didn’t quite belong with her less-wealthy stepsiblings. She would often hide her gifts when she came home from visits so that they wouldn’t become jealous.
Her Childhood Life:
Another thing that made Julia feel separate from her stepsiblings on her mother and stepfather’s side was the fact that she has always looked a good deal different than them. Her stepsiblings on her mother and stepfather’s side include two sisters with straight blond hair, while Julia has always had chaotic black curls. Julia’s looks come predominantly from her father’s side of the family. Julia’s father was Jewish, and his family actually suffered from persecution during World War II before fleeing to the United States.
Julia Louis-Dreyfus father, William, was born in France in 1932. Growing up, William’s father worked for the French Resistance during the days of World War II. The religious persecution in the Nazi-occupied area became too much for the family and they forced to flee to America. There, William found immense professional success. He started his career as a lawyer before eventually becoming the chairman of their family business. As the head of the Louis Dreyfus Company, William became a billionaire. He began serving as the head of the company in the 1960s, when Julia was still very young.
During her childhood, She began attending an independent all-girls college-preparatory school in Holton-Arms School. It was here that the young girl got her first taste for performing. During her time, she found that she greatly enjoyed making people laugh and chose to participate in every activity at school .
After graduating from the college-preparatory school, Julia went on to enroll in college at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. She began attending the school in 1979, all the while auditioning for whatever acting roles she could find. The most promising role that Julia could find at the time was in a musical-comedy revue put on at the college by the name of the Mee-Ow Show. It was essentially the college’s improvisational comedy troupe, and Julia had hopes that her time with the troupe would lead towards bigger and better things,
Julia Louis Dreyfus Career Journey :
Upon receiving her role on Saturday Night Live, Julia decided that she no longer needed to further her education. She ended up dropping out of Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, to move to New York City. However, Julia didn’t end up having a very good time performing on the seminal comedy sketch series. If you’re enjoying this video so far, be sure to hit the like button to show your support! Also, subscribe to the channel if you’d like to be among the first to know when more Facts Verse videos!
Julia Louis-Dreyfus thought that her time on Saturday Night Live was going to play out much differently than it did. According to Julia, she felt that she was drastically underutilized on the series as a result of on-set misogyny and politics. However, performing on the series did allow her to meet Larry David, who would go on to create Seinfeld with comedian Jerry Seinfeld several years later. Julia didn’t know it at the time, but her time on Saturday Night Live would end up meaning big things for her career just for the fact that it allowed her to meet Larry David.
Personal Life:
Both Julia and her future husband was fired from Saturday Night Live, when they had decided to become involved romantically. Together, the two made the decision to move out to California and attempt to make it as stars in Hollywood. The couple tied the knot in 1987, and continued to be actively in the entertainment industry. After several years, Julia received a call from her old friend inviting her to join the cast of Seinfeld.
Julia was initially hesitant to join onto Seinfeld because she didn’t want to be a supporting player. However, she eventually decided to sign on because she had a feeling that the show was going to become huge. Julia’s intuition proved correct, as Seinfeld arguably became the biggest sitcom of the 1990s! During Julia’s time on the series, she gave birth to two children, fathered by husband Brad Hall. She gave birth to first son Henry in 1992, followed by second son Charlie in 1997. Following Seinfeld’s end in 1998, Julia decided to take a break from acting to focus on her family.
After several years focusing on her family, In the mid-2000s, She decided to go back to work. After the failure of 2002’s Watching Ellie, Julia managed to break the supposed “Seinfeld curse” through the her 2006 sitcom. The supposed Seinfeld curse dictates that none of the main cast members have managed to have successful follow-up projects. For Jason Alexander and Michael Richards, this has certainly proved true. However, The New Adventures of Old Christine broke the curse for Julia, and she has found even more success in recent years. Meanwhile, Jerry Seinfeld never managed to find a successful follow-up series to Seinfeld.
Julia Louis-Dreyfus Success Career Years
Although Julia Louis-Dreyfus has managed to find continued career success in recent years, her personal life has been filled with numerous tragedies. In 2016, her father passed away. She announced his death while accepting an award for her performance on the series Veep. Just over a year later, Julia was diagnosed with cancer and had to take a break from her continued filming of the series so that she could undergo chemotherapy. During her chemotherapy , Julia has claimed that she found solace in company and shared laughter of her family.
In early 2018, Julia’s cancer went into remission. Thanks to the shared laughter and company of her family during her painful chemotherapy. Julia continued her break from performing for a period of time in order to go on vacation to Hawaii. After this vacation came to an end, Julia returned to filming Veep as if nothing had happened. However, less than a month into her resumed tenure on the successful series, Julia received some devastating news.
After the death of her father, her battle with cancer, Julia assumed that she was in for comparatively clear waters. But, another tragedy happened, as Julia’s younger sister Emma passed away in August of 2018. It was later determined that Emma had cocaine and alcohol in her system during her death. In response to the suggestion that they had an estranged relationship before death, Julia responded that the notion was untrue. Julia laid her sister to rest, and continued performing on Veep until it’s end in 2019. Julia is now 61 years old, and hopefully her dark days are behind her!
The fact that She become the only one of Seinfeld’s supporting main cast to have broken the Seinfeld curse. The comedic actress hasn’t had quite as easy of a time in her personal life and on her career. Like this video, subscribe and hit the notification bell to know when more Facts Verse videos!
