When she was 11, Portman was discovered in a New York pizza joint by a modeling scout, but her true passion was acting, a love affair she developed while attending the exclusive Stagedoor Manor Performing Camp for three summers.

As soon as Portman walked into the frame of the slick urban thriller The Professional a star was born.

Her unusual maturity helped Portman land roles in Michael Mann’s Heat, Ted Demme’s Beautiful Girls, Woody Allen’s Everyone Says I Love You, and Tim Burton’s Mars Attacks! Not too shabby for the start of a career!

Multi linguistic Portman can speak two languages, Hebrew and English (her native languages), fluently. Also knows some conversational French, German, and Japanese and Spanish.

The makeup brand Stila has a lip gloss named after her.

Beauty with brains Portman graduated from Harvard College, in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 2003 with a Artium Baccalaureus degree in Psychology.

Fashion designer Zac Posen refers to the actress as his "muse." and Portman is seen wearing several of his outfits.

Portman has revealed her passion for travel and has travelled alone to Morocco and Guatemala.

She hesitantly shot an explicit nude scene for Closer (2004/I), in the scene where Alice (Portman) strips for Larry (Clive Owen). Ultimately, Portman and director Mike Nichols agreed not to use it, as the scene was effective enough without it.

Named #42 on the Maxim magazine Hot 100 of 2005 list.

Was briefly referenced in The Social Network (2010). Portman was approached by writer Aaron Sorkin when writing the screenplay to the film to get insider information on Harvard University at that time because she was a fellow student of Facebook co-founders Mark Zuckerberg and Eduardo Saverin, and also Divya Narendra and Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss.

Apart from her acting, Portman's ballet skills were also higly appreciated in the Oscar winning film Black Swan. Apparently she paid for all of her own ballet training to prepare for the role of Nina.

"No, but I've been thinking about it a lot. I love acting, but I don't know if there's something out there that I love more. That's what college is going to be about for me - checking things out." (Interview October 1999)

Was a vegetarian from 1989 until 2009 when after reading the book 'Eating Animals' she opted to become a vegan. However she resumed vegetarianism after falling pregnant with her son Aleph to give him the necessary supplements and also due to her insatiable craving for eggs and cheese. Following her son's birth she resumed veganism once again.

She's also going to be adding "producer" to her resume, with upcoming films Best Buds (2014) and Booksmart (2015).