Natalie Portman's parents are an Israeli doctor and an American artist
Natalie Portman's parents are Avner Hershlag, a medical professor, and Shelley Stevens, a talent manager. Natalie's parents have been key figures in her career and legacy development. Her mother, Shelley Stevens, has been her manager since the early stages of her career.
Source: Facebook
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Key takeaways
- Natalie Portman's father, Avner Hershlag, is a professor of obstetrics, gynaecology, and reproductive medicine at Stony Brook University and Hofstra University.
- Portman's mother, Shelley Stevens, was a housewife and later helped manage her career.
- Natalie Portman's parents met at Ohio State University.
- Natalie Portman and her parents are of Ashkenazi Jewish descent.
Meet Natalie Portman's parents
Natalie Portman was born Natalie Hershlag (Neta-Lee Hershlag) on 9 June 1981 in Jerusalem, Israel, to Shelley and Avner Hershlag. The Hershlags lived in Israel until their daughter was three or four years old and then moved to Maryland, United States.
The Star Wars actress is an only child and credits this as the reason she has excelled in Hollywood. In an interview for Rolling Stone's 2002 cover story, she said;
I would never have been an actress if I weren’t an only child, because my parents would never have let me be the star of the family at the expense of another child.
Shelley and Avner Hershlag met at the Jewish student centre at Ohio State University during the 1970s. When Avner Hershlag returned to Israel, the couple continued to date long-distance. In an interview with the New York Post, he reminisced over their dating days and eventual marriage.
We corresponded and talked on the phone, and when I say ‘we’, it was more me than her.
Avner Hershlag
Source: Getty Images
- Full name: Avner Hershlag
- Date of birth: June 1951
- Age: 73 years as of May 2026
- Place of birth: Israel
- Profession: Reproductive specialist, professor, author
Avner Hershlag's parents immigrated from Poland and Romania in the 1930s. Mania (née Portman) and Zvi Yehuda Hershlag made aliyah, the Jewish immigration back to Israel.
Some of the talented Hollywood actress' paternal relatives who remained in Europe were killed in the Auschwitz gas chambers. During a 2019 interview with Harper's BAZAAR, she gave a brief history of her family and the horror of the concentration camps.
My great-grandparents were killed in the camps, and my grandfather’s younger brother was shot in Poland during the war.
In an excerpt from her book, Natalie Portman: A Biography (as recorded by the Jewish Journal), she said,
I grew up with the Holocaust, because my grandparents lost their entire families... My grandfather’s 14-year-old brother was also hidden, but one day, he couldn’t take it anymore, and he ran outside and was shot.
Source: Instagram
Natalie Portman's father completed his undergraduate and graduate education training at the Hadassah Medical School in Jerusalem. He then completed three years of a general surgery residency at Hadassah before moving to the United States in 1984.
In the United States, he completed his obstetrics and gynaecology residency at the George Washington University Medical Centre, followed by a fellowship in reproductive endocrinology at Yale School of Medicine.
As per Avner Hershlag's LinkedIn profile, his work experience in obstetrics and gynaecology began as early as 1976 at the Hadassah University Department of Surgery. During his residency at George Washington University, he served as the administrative chief resident in 1984.
For nearly three decades, from 1990 to 2018, Avner Hershlag worked at the North Shore University Hospital Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology. During the same period, he was also an attending physician at the Northwell Health Facility.
For a year between 2018 and 2019, Dr. Hershlag served as the program director for the REI Fellowship. In 2019, he was the Chief Medical Officer at Modern Fertility. Until 2020, he worked as the attending physician at New York Reproductive Wellness and Plainview and Syosset Hospitals.
At present, Natalie Portman's father works as the attending physician at Stony Brook Medicine's Island Fertility. He is also a professor of obstetrics, gynaecology, and reproductive medicine at the Zucker School of Medicine, Hofstra University. From 2021 to the time of this writing, Dr. Hershlag also works as a professor at the Renaissance School of Medicine, Stony Brook University.
Shelley Stevens
Source: Getty Images
- Full name: Shelley Stevens Hershlag
- Date of birth: 9 June
- Place of birth: Cincinnati, Ohio, United States
- Profession: Artist, talent agent
Natalie Portman's mother, Shelley Stevens Hershlag, was born on 9 June, on her daughter's birthday. She was born and raised in Cincinnati, Ohio, in the United States.
According to the Jewish Press, Shelley Stevens' parents, Bernice and Arthur 'Art' Stevens (formerly known as Edelstein), moved to the United States from Austria and Russia. Her parents and maternal grandparents migrated to the United States before the persecution and atrocities of World War II and the Holocaust.
According to the Jewish Women's Archive, Shelley Stevens became her daughter's talent manager early in her career. Portman has credited both parents with keeping her career grounded. In a 2016 interview with The Hollywood Reporter, she said,
I’ve never seen disappointing behaviour from them ... Neither of my parents was ever involved financially at all in my career, at all. They were just very much parents, protective parents who didn’t want me exploited.
FAQs
- Is Natalie Portman American or Israeli? The famous Gemini holds dual citizenship and is Israeli-American.
- Is Natalie Portman close to her parents? Portman has maintained closeness with her parents, both personally and professionally.
- Are Natalie Portman's parents still alive? Avner and Shelley Hershlag are alive at the time of this writing.
- Where are Natalie Portman's parents from? Natalie's father, Aver Hershlag, was born and raised in Israel, while her mother was born in Cincinnati, in the United States.
- Are Natalie Portman's parents still married? Avner Hershlag and Shelley Stevens have been married since before Natalie was born in 1981.
- Can Natalie Portman speak Arabic? The multilingual actress speaks English, Japanese, German, French, Spanish, and Hebrew and is reported to have studied spoken Arabic.
- Does Natalie Portman have any siblings? The Avengers: Endgame actress who has worked alongside Chris Evans and Mark Ruffalo is an only child.
- Is Natalie Portman's father a doctor? Avner Hershlag is a fertility specialist.
- What is Avner Hershlag's educational background? He went to the Hadassah Medical School in Jerusalem and later completed his studies at the George Washington University Medical Centre and at Yale School of Medicine.
Natalie Portman's parents, Avner Hershlag and Shelley Stevens, are known for their steadfast support and dedication to their daughter. This can be seen through Portman's success as an A-list actress, filmmaker, advocate, model, and psychologist. Avner Hershlag is a fertility expert, and Shelley is an artist and Portman's manager.
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Proofreading by Kola Muhammed, copy editor at Legit.ng.
Source: Legit.ng
