In a variety of juvenile movies, Julia O’Hara Stiles is well recognized for her appearances. In fact, she is not only a movie star, but also a stage actress and a talented writer whose script entitled “The Anarchist’s Daughter” has been selected to be included in the Writers Lab of the Sundance Institute. Being mostly seen in adolescent movies does not mean that she is simply an average actress since she has been lauded by many, such as Stephen Holden of The Washington Post who claimed her as “One of the brightest young stars in Hollywood.” In comparison, New York reviewer Ben Brantley perceived her as “The goddess of the movie of the thinking teenager,” while The Jerusalem Post described her as “A young, serious looooo goddess,” while The Jerusalem Post described her as “A young, serious looooo goddess.”
Julia was born in New York City on March 28, 1981, and was the oldest of the three daughters of John O’Hara and Judith Stiles. They all stayed in a loft apartment in Soho, where it functioned as the home and workshop for the pottery company of the parents. At her very young age, Julia Stiles’ curiosity in acting started, evidenced by her eagerness to perform “The Honeymooners” roles after seeing the television series. Her parents knew this, so Julia was allowed to take acting classes and contemporary dance courses, in addition to sometimes introducing her to the theaters.
At the age of 11, she appeared with New York’s La MaMa Theatre Company after sending a letter to the director demanding an audition in which she was approved. Until starting to feature in several advertisements when she was twelve, she also entered “Kitchen Theater” to perform parts in the plays “Matthew: School of Life” and “The Sandalwood Box” Julia, though, could not put aside her schooling because she attended the Professional Children School of New York that trains children to grow their careers in the arts.
Together with Jude Law and Claire Danes, Julia’s first movie performance was in ‘I Love You, I Love You Not’ (1996), playing a minor part in a non-speaking role. She appeared as the daughter of Harrison Ford in “The Devil’s Own” the next year, in which Brad Pitt was also cast as an IRA terrorist. Julia made her debut and also her breakout on television in the same year, acting in the production entitled “Before Women Had Wings” by Oprah Winfrey that dealt with child violence. This led her to gain her first leading role in “Wicked” (1998), portraying Ellie Christianson as an evil teenage girl,
preceded by a minor role in M. Night Shyamalan’s “Wide Awake.” By “Wicked,” Julia won her first award at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival for best actress (1998). Despite the fact that the film was also praised at the Sundance Film Festival in 1998, it went straight to home video without ever being commercially distributed in the United States. Nevertheless, Julia managed to give her another success in the TV miniseries ” The 60’s” in which as a young girl who finds herself swept up in the societal upheaval of the moment, she had an influential role.