Uma Karuna Thurman is an American actress, writer, producer and model. She has acted in a variety of films, from romantic comedies and dramas to science fiction and action films. Following her appearances on the December 1985 and May 1986 covers of British Vogue, Thurman's breakthrough role was Dangerous Liaisons (1988) in which she starred. She rose to international prominence with her role as Mia Wallace in Quentin Tarantino's 1994 film Pulp Fiction, for which she was nominated for the Academy Award, the BAFTA Award, and the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress. Often hailed as Tarantino's muse, she reunited with the director to play the main role of The Bride in Kill Bill: Volume 1 and 2 (2003, 2004), which brought her two additional Golden Globe Award nominations.

Early Life

Uma Karuna Thurman was born on April 29, 1970, in Boston, Massachusetts. Her father, Robert Thurman, is a professor of Indo-Tibetan Buddhist Studies and an author, who lived as an ordained Buddhist monk for three years. Her mother, Nena von Schlebrügge, a high-fashion model, was born in Mexico City to a German nobleman and a Swedish model, Birgit Holmquist.

Thurman received a Buddhist upbringing, and spent altogether around two years in Almora, Uttarakhand, India. She grew up mostly in Amherst, Massachusetts, where she went to Amherst Regional Junior High School, then moved to Woodstock, New York. She has three brothers, Ganden (b. 1967), Dechen Karl (b. 1973), and Mipam (b. 1978), and a half-sister named Taya (b. 1961), from her father's previous marriage. Thurman's first cousin once removed is Swedish football player Max von Schlebrügge.

She is described, in a 2004 biography, as having been an awkward and introverted girl who was teased for her appearance and unusual name (sometimes using the name "Uma Karen" instead of her birth name). When Thurman was ten years old, a friend's mother suggested a nose job. As a child, she suffered bouts of body dysmorphic disorder. She attended Amherst Public Schools, where in eighth grade she discovered her love of acting. At age 14 she attended Northfield Mount Hermon School, a preparatory school in Massachusetts, where talent scouts noticed her performance as Abigail in a production of The Crucible and offered her the chance to act professionally; she then dropped out to pursue an acting career.

Personal Life

Relationships

Thurman met English actor Gary Oldman on the set of State of Grace; they married in 1990 and divorced in 1992. On May 1, 1998, she married American actor Ethan Hawke, whom she met on the set of the 1997 film Gattaca. Hawke's novel Ash Wednesday is dedicated to "Karuna", Thurman's middle name. Together, Thurman and Hawke have two children, a daughter, Maya (born in 1998), and a son, Levon (born in 2002).The couple separated in 2003, and the divorce was finalized in August 2005.

Thurman began dating London-based French financier Arpad Busson in 2007, and they announced their engagement in June 2008. In late 2009, they called off their engagement, but reconciled soon after. The couple called off the engagement for the second time in April 2014. Thurman and Busson have a daughter, Luna Thurman-Busson, born in July 2012. In January 2017, Thurman and Busson began child custody negotiations in relation to their daughter, which resulted in Thurman receiving primary physical custody later that month.

Stalking Incidents and Sexual Assaults

Thurman was the target of a stalker, Jack Jordan, from about 2004 to 2011. He was arrested in October 2007 and, following a trial in which Thurman testified as a witness, was convicted of stalking and harassment charges the following May. Sentenced to three years' probation, Jordan was arrested again in 2010 on charges of violating a restraining order by attempting to contact her. He pleaded guilty in November 2011 after spending 11 months in jail in lieu of bail, and was released with time served.

In 2017, in the wake of the Harvey Weinstein sexual abuse allegations, Thurman was interviewed, and, when asked about the scandal, she replied, "no comment," stating she was too angry to talk about the case. A few weeks later, through an Instagram post, she joined the "Me Too" hashtag, confirming that she had suffered sexual harassment and expressing disgust for Harvey Weinstein. In a 2018 interview with The New York Times, Thurman revealed that Weinstein had sexually assaulted her in 1994 at the Savoy Hotel in London. She also revealed that she had been sexually assaulted at age 16 by an actor nearly 20 years her senior.

Kill Bill Car Crash

In the same 2018 New York Times interview, Thurman described how she had been in a serious car accident back in 2003 on the set of Kill Bill, because Tarantino had insisted she perform her own driving stunts. Two weeks after the crash, she tried to see footage of the incident. Thurman stated that Miramax would only agree to show her the footage if she signed a contract "releasing them of any consequences of my future pain and suffering", which she refused. As a result of the crash, she sustained permanent injuries to her neck and knees. Tarantino later called this incident "the biggest regret of his life". Thurman later clarified on Instagram that Tarantino had apologized to her for the incident and that she has since forgiven him, being open to working with him again.