Best known for playing Elaine on the sitcom Seinfeld, Julia Louis-Dreyfus is one of the most fruitful runs in American comedy history. Most recently, she served up her acting talent as the Vice President you would hate to love on the HBO TV series Veep and for her comic roles, this comedic actress was presented with the Mark Twain Prize, comedy’s top honor, at a ceremony in New York. That, of course, is just among many awards she has won for herself.
Unfortunately, news that the beloved actress was fighting breast cancer broke at the tail end of 2017. After her announcement on Twitter, responses wishing her well poured in and showed the incredible amount of goodwill that the actress had been able to amass in her life. While you may think you know Julia Louis-Dreyfus that well, after seeing her on your TV screen for decades, but did you know that the award-winning actress got her first taste of comedy at age 3? The success she currently enjoys is undoubtedly a reward for her dedication.
How Julia Louis-Dreyfus’ Journey To Stardom Began
Quick-witted Louis-Dreyfus was born on January 13, 1961, as Julia Scarlett Elizabeth Louis-Dreyfus. Although she came from an affluent family (Julia is the great-great-granddaughter of businessman Leopold Louis-Dreyfus, who founded the international Louis Dreyfus Group), she pursued the limelight of acting glory doggedly. She studied drama at Northwestern University where she was a member of the Delta Gamma sorority but dropped out when she got a professional acting job to perform as the only female member of a comedy troupe under the direction of Brad Hall, who later became her husband as well as her Saturday Night Live costar.
Julia then began to work with the Practical Theater Company in Chicago, a company that her husband had helped to start. Her performance at their 50th anniversary Jubilee resulted in a role on Saturday Night Live’s cast in 1982. After about three years of playing a memorably loopy female televangelist, she got a chance to make a handful of features before landing her breakout role on the lauded sitcom Seinfeld. She was also part of the Second City comedy troupe. Her film career was launched with her appearance in Hannah and Her Sisters and Soul Man.
With publications such as Rolling Stone, and TV Guide recognizing Seinfeld as one of the greatest and most influential sitcoms of all time, Julia’s emergence to stardom became more pronounced. What could be more honorable than the seven Emmy nods and one statuette her role as Elaine Benes earned her? She shared the screen with comedians like Jerry Seinfeld, Jason Alexander, and Michael Richards. Her role in the American sitcom TV series went on to amass her an amazing body of work including Watching Ellie, The New Adventures of Old Christine, and Veep.
Julia made a number of special guest appearances on Larry David’s show, Curb your Enthusiasm in 2001. Between 2004 and 2005, she had a guest role in four episodes of the TV sitcom Arrested Development.
More to that, Julia has voiced roles in animated films, including A Bug’s Life, Dinosaurs, Animal Farm, The Fairly OddParents, and Planes. Beyond that, she has appeared in various movies including, Father’s Day, Troll, Deconstructing Harry, Enough Said, and National Lampoon’s Christmas.
In the course of her career, she has won a total of eleven Emmy awards for her television works, six of which were for lead actress in a comedy series, making her a record-setter.
Now that she has completed chemotherapy after being diagnosed with breast cancer on September 28, 2017, she will hopefully still be around for a longer time. The actress is 1.6 m tall and her feet have been a subject of interest for one or two reasons ranging from the talks about how attractive/ugly it is to how it pleased the foot fetish guys when she slapped a man’s face with it in a Seinfeld scene.
How Much Is She Really Worth and How Did She Achieve It?
You may have heard rumors about Julia Louis-Dreyfus being one of the richest actors in the entertainment industry and must have wondered how much she has earned from the industry to gain such honor. Well, there is no doubt that the American actress has dedicated a huge part of her life to the industry which is why she is considered one of the most popular actresses in the world. Her complete dedication to show business should fetch her a decent net worth but like other stars, Julia had other sources of income.
The New York City-based American actress, comedian, producer, and singer has a total net worth of $250 million. With Seinfeld, she appeared in 178 episodes of the show which ran from 1989-1998 and reportedly received $600,000 per episode in the show’s final season. The show is currently syndicated all over the world and Julia continues to receive royalties. The New Adventures of Old Christine series which debuted with an audience of 15 million also became hugely successful and ran for 5 seasons.
Moreso, her role as US Vice president/President in HBO’s political satire comedy series Veep has in addition to earnings her huge income, earned her 6 Emmys for the most outstanding lead actress in a comedy series. She also has 3 Screen Actors Guild Awards, 2Critics’ Choice Television Awards, 1 Television Critics Association Award, and 5 consecutive Golden Globe nominations.
In sum, Julia’s awards and accolades also include; 11 Primetime Emmy Awards, 6 SAGs, 1 Golden Globe, 5 American Comedy Awards, and 2 Critics Choice TV Awards. In 2010, she received her star in Hollywood’s Walk of Fame, and in 2014, she was inducted into the TV Academy Hall of Fame.
Together with her husband, Julia developed a show ‘Watching Ellie’ in 2002 which debuted strongly pulling in 16 million viewers and maintaining an average of 10 million viewers every week. It lasted for 2 seasons.
Outside her very successful career, one other reason why people consider her an extremely wealthy person roots in her relationship with a popular and highly successful financier. In fact, the entire Louis-Dreyfus family has been well-off for many decades.
Julia is Gerard Louis-Dreyfus’ eldest daughter. He is a financier and former chairman of the Loius-Dreyfus Energy Services with earnings in the range of $4 billion. The actress’s great-great-grandfather, Leopold Louis-Dreyfus was also popular for founding the Louis Dreyfus Group – a company that made fortune in commodities trading and shipping. Even today, the Louis Dreyfus Company is known as the world’s largest trader of rice, cotton and sugar.
In a recent interview, her father said that Julia never showed any signs of becoming a star. He did acknowledge that she was fun to be around. Julia has earned her father’s respect for charting her own career path. Julia’s father died in 2016 and at the time of his death, he was worth $4 billion.
Julia may not be a billionaire now but she will be at some point in her life. This is when you factor in her income from acting and future royalties, as well as her inheritance.
Julia Louis-Dreyfus Has Impressively Won 11 Primetime Emmy Awards So Far
As earlier mentioned, Julia Louis-Dreyfus has had an enviable career and has won a sea of awards in the process.
For her role on Seinfeld, she notably won the ‘Funniest Supporting Female Performer in a TV Series’ category at the American Comedy Awards in the years 1993, 1994, 1995, 1997, 1998. Though she did not take home the award in 1996, she was still nominated in the category.
In 1994, Julia Louis-Dreyfus bagged the Golden Globe for the ‘Best Supporting Actress – Series, Miniseries, or Television Film’ for her role in Seinfeld. In subsequent years, she has been nominated eight times for her roles in Veep, Enough Said, and The New Adventures Of Old Christine; however, she has not taken home the Golden Globe again since her 1994 win.
At the Critics’ Choice Award, she won the ‘Best Actress in a Comedy Series ‘award both in 2013 and 2014 for her role on Veep. She was also nominated for the award in 2012, 2015 and 2016.
Unsurprisingly, due to her talent and the critical acclaim she has received, the actress has been nominated for a Primtetime Emmy Award a whopping 26 times so far, going home with the award 11 times. She won her first Primetime Emmy in 1996 in the ‘Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series’ category for her role on Seinfeld. She then took home the ‘Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series’ Emmy in 2006 for her role in The New Adventures Of Old Christine; she would win this category six more times for her role as Selina Meyer in Veep. She also took home three more Emmys as a producer for Veep in the ‘Outstanding Comedy Series’ category, this time sharing the award with the show’s creator – Armando Iannucci, and other executive producers of the show.
Though she has been nominated for a People’s choice award six times, a Producers Guild of America Award four times, and a Satellite Award ten times, she has yet to take any of these awards home.
At the Television Critics Award, the actress has received one award from seven nominations. She took home the award in 2014 in the ‘Outstanding Individual Achievement in Comedy’ category for her role on Veep.
Julia Louis-Dreyfus has also received nine awards from twenty-one nominations at the Screen Actors Guild Award. She notably won the award in 1994, 1996 and 1997 for her role in Seinfeld; and again in 2013, 2016 and 2017 for her work on Veep. Though she was nominated twice for her role on The New Adventures of Old Christine in 2006 and 2009, she didn’t go home with the award any of these times.
So far, the actress has landed most of her nominations and wins for her iconic roles on Veep, Seinfeld and The New Adventures of Old Christine. Considering how talented the actress is, more wins are expected for her in the future as she remains active in the entertainment industry.
To recap, here is a list of the awards Julia Louis-Dreyfus has won over the course of her career.
Award Body | Year | Work | Category | Number of Awards |
America Comedy Awards
|
1993-1995;
1997-1998 |
Seinfeld | Funniest Supporting Female Performer in a TV Series | 5 |
Critics’ Choice Award | 2013 – 2014 | Veep | Best Actress In A Comedy Series | 2 |
Golden Globe Award | 1994 | Seinfeld | Best Supporting Actress – Series, Miniseries, or Television Film | 1 |
Primetime Emmy Award | 1996 | Seinfeld | Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series | 1 |
Primetime Emmy Award | 2006 | The New Adventures of Old Christine | Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series | 1 |
Primetime Emmy Award | 2012 – 2017 | Veep | Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series | 6 |
Primetime Emmy Award | 2015 – 2017 | Veep | Outstanding Comedy Series (as producer) | 3 |
Screen Actors Guild Awards | 1994; 1996 – 1997 | Seinfeld | Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series | 3 |
Screen Actors Guild Awards | 1996 – 1997 | Seinfeld | Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Comedy Series | 2 |
Screen Actors Guild Awards | 2013; 2016 – 2017 | Veep | Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Comedy Series | 3 |
Screen Actors Guild Awards | 2017 | Veep | Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series | 1 |
Television Critics Association Awards | 2014 | Veep | Outstanding Individual Achievement in Comedy | 1 |
Julia Louis Dreyfus Has Been Married To Brad Hall Since 1987
The star has one of the longest marriages in Hollywood, now clocking over 30 years. She is married to William Brad Hall an American actor, comedian, director, and writer. He is best known for creating the sitcoms – The Single Guy and ‘Watching Ellie.
Julia is actually one of the many celebrities who met their partner during college. The actress met her husband while at Northwestern and although there was no further detail to buttress how exactly they met, it is assumed that the pair met while on the set of SNL and the actress confessed to knowing almost immediately that they were meant for each other.
Both she and Hall starred in the live sketch-comedy show from 1982 to 1984, and they married on June 25, 1987. Since then, the couple has remained together supporting each other’s career and collaborating professionally from time to time.
Julia And Brad Have Two Sons Together
Julia Louis-Dreyfus has two sons named Charlie and Henry Hall. Julia’s oldest son, Henry, was born the 1st of July 1992 while her second son, Charles ‘Charlie’ Hall, was born on the 30th of May 1997. From all indications, Charlie and Henry will follow their parents’ paths and build careers in the entertainment industry
Though Charlie was initially sports inclined, having played basketball as a walk-on for the men’s basketball team at Northwestern University – his mother’s alma mater, he eventually turned to acting for his career aspirations. He starred in the comedy web-series, Sorry, Charlie which he co wrote and co-created. The web show, which was a hit with critics, won the approval of his parents who helped by providing notes and suggestions.
Henry, on the other hand, has turned to music for his entertainment career. He has successfully established himself as a singer-songwriter and there is no denying that his career is thriving. He initially performed as a part of Grand Cousin, one of the most popular bands at Wesleyan University, but has since found success as a solo artist.
Both Charlie and Henry share their parents’ sense of humor which was on full display when the two made a sweet and hilarious video to Michael Jackson’s ‘Beat It’ in honor of Julia’s last day of chemotherapy.