OurBiography

Julianna Margulies is an American actress famous for starring on the hit shows ‘ER’ and ‘The Good Wife.’

Who Is Julianna Margulies?

Emmy Award- and Golden Globe–winning actress Julianna Margulies has created powerful female characters throughout her TV career. Margulies, born June 8, 1966, in Spring Valley, New York, received Emmy Awards for her roles playing nurse Carol Hathaway on ER and Alicia Florrick, the wife of an adulterous politician, on the popular drama The Good Wife.

Carol Hathaway on 'ER'

The aspiring actress landed bit parts on TV series like Law and Order, Murder She Wrote and Homicide: Life on the Street. In 1991 she made her movie debut playing a prostitute in Out for Justice, starring Steven Seagal. But it would be another three years before she achieved stardom, portraying nurse Carol Hathaway on NBC's medical drama ER. Her character was supposed to die of a suicidal overdose in the pilot, but Margulies continued on the show for six seasons, acting opposite George Clooney, who played her love interest Dr. Doug Ross. In 1994 she earned an Emmy Award for Best Supporting Actress for the role. She left the show in 2000 but returned for one episode in its final season. 

Net Worth

As of 2016, Julianna Margulies has a net worth of $22 million.

Movies and TV Shows

After ER, Margulies appeared in various stage productions and in films including Evelyn (2002), starring Pierce Brosnan, Ghost Ship (2002) with Gabriel Byrne and Searching for Debra Winger (2002), a documentary directed by Rosanna Arquette about women in Hollywood. In 2006, Margulies portrayed a flight attendant in the thriller Snakes on a Plane. She also returned to television, appearing in the TNT miniseries The Mists of Avalon (2001) and The Grid (2004), Scrubs (2004) on NBC and the last season of HBO's The Sopranos (2006).

'The Good Wife'

Margulies returned to a lead TV role as a defense attorney on the legal drama Canterbury's Law in 2008. The show lasted only one season, but Margulies was cast as a lawyer again on the television hit The Good Wife, which premiered a year later. Margulies portrayed Alicia Florrick whose politician husband, played by Chris Noth, gets caught in an adulterous scandal with a prostitute; Alicia then joins a law firm run by an old flame. Margulies won SAG and Golden Globe awards for her work on the series, as well as Emmys in 2011 and 2014.

'Dietland'

Slated for 2018, Margulies will star as savvy magazine editor Kitty Montgomery in AMC's comedic drama Dietland, which is based on Sarai Walker’s novel by the same name.

Husband & Son

Margulies married attorney Keith Lieberthal on November 10, 2007 when the actress was seven months pregnant. Their son, Kieran Lindsay Lieberthal, was born on January 17, 2008. Margulies described her family life in a Good Housekeeping interview: "I married a rock, who understands what I do without any resentment. And I've got a joyful, easy kid."

Early Years

Julianna Luisa Margulies was born to parents Paul and Francesca Margulies on June 8, 1966, in Spring Valley, New York. Her mother was a former dancer with American Ballet Theater. Her father worked in advertising and wrote the jingle for Alka-Seltzer with the lyrics, "Plop, plop, fizz, fizz, oh what a relief it is." Margulies's family relocated to Paris, France, when she was two years old, and to England when she was four. At the age of 14, she attended High Mowing School, a boarding school in New Hampshire. After graduating, Margulies studied art history at Sarah Lawrence College, but participating in the school's theater productions altered her ambitions. After graduating from college, she moved to New York to pursue acting while paying the bills as a waitress, coat check girl and bartender.