Julia Stiles was born March 28, 1981, in New York, NY. While growing up in Soho, where her parents ran a pottery business, Julia was encouraged to take on a different kind of art -- drama.

When she was 11 years old, she took matters into her own hands and wrote a letter to the director of La Mama Theater, in hopes of getting an audition. It worked, and she had the chance to expand her resume with roles in "Matthew: School of Life" and "The Sandalwood Box", both at the Kitchen Theater.

Julia moved up the ranks by working in television, with a recurring guest-appearance on the series, "Ghostwriter", and a bit part in the 1996 film "I Love You, I Love You Not", starring Claire Danes and Jude Law. She then had the chance to appear as Harrison Ford's daughter in the disappointing film, "The Devil's Own".

It took roles in the made-for-TV movie Oprah Winfrey Presents: Before Women Had Wings, as well as Wicked (which garnered her the Best Actress Award at the KVI Film Festival) and Wide Awake, for Julia to land the role that would gain her the recognition she deserved, and it was on TV nonetheless. She starred in NBC's miniseries, The '60s, in 1999.

In the tradition of summer teenybopper films, "10 Things I Hate About You" was released in 1999 and became a hit, not only among moviegoers, but also with critics. Julia starred as the feisty and sarcastic Katarina (Kat) -- or the Shrew -- in the modern retelling of Shakespeare's "The Taming of the Shrew".

Julia not only earned many fans after her "10 Things I Hate About You" starring role, but she also earned a nomination for Young Star Award for Best Performance by a Young Actress in a Comedy Film, and won the MTV Movie Award for Best Breakthrough Female Performance and the Best Promising Actress Award at the CFCA Awards.

Next for Julia came the college romance, "Down To You", co-starring the teen films' staple actor, Freddie Prinze Jr. Julia took on a second Shakespeare inspired movie, with a version of Hamlet set in corporate America rather than Denmark, and since three's a charm, she also starred in O, a film adaptation of Shakespeare's "Othello".

Successfully avoiding being pigeonholed into strictly teen films, Julia co-starred in State and Main with Alec Baldwin and Sarah Jessica Parker, and then used her love for hip-hop to star in 2001's "Save the Last Dance".