Julianna Luisa Margulies (born June 8, 1966) is an Emmy award winning American actress whose role on the NBC medical drama ER brought her recognition and fame.
Margulies was born in Spring Valley, New York, the youngest of three daughters. Her father is an advertising writer, and her mother is a former dancer with the American Ballet Theatre. As a child, she lived in New York, France, and England. Although her parents were Jewish, Margulies's mother converted to Roman Catholicism at some point in her life and raised Julianna in the Catholic faith as well.
She obtained a B.A. from Sarah Lawrence College, where she appeared on campus in several plays. Her first movie role was as a prostitute looking to go straight in the Steven Seagal film Out for Justice.
In 1994, Margulies was cast in a role in the pilot episode of ER as a character who, despondent over her relationship with George Clooney's character, attempted suicide. Her character was originally supposed to die due to the suicide attempt. Due to positive audience response to her character, however, the plot was changed, and she went on to play the role of Nurse Carol Hathaway for six years, winning an Emmy nomination for every year that she was on the show, and the award itself for her first year's performance.
She turned down a $27 million offer to stay on the hit show, which would have made her one of the best-paid actresses on television. Since her departure, she has worked regularly on stage and screen. On stage she has appeared in Kate Robin's Intrigue With Faye, a Lincoln Center production of Jon Robin Baitz's Ten Unknowns, and The Vagina Monologues. Her film work since ER includes Evelyn with Pierce Brosnan and Ghost Ship with Gabriel Byrne and Ron Eldard, with whom she was romantically involved. She starred as the protagonist and narrator (Morgaine) in the 2001 TNT miniseries The Mists of Avalon. In 2004, she guest-starred in a 2 episode arc in season 4 of the hit TV show Scrubs. She starred in another miniseries on TNT The Grid in 2004. In April 2006 she appeared in three episodes of the sixth season of The Sopranos, portraying realtor Julianna Skiff. In 2006, she appeared in Snakes on a Plane, as flight attendant Claire Miller.
In an August 2006 interview with tvguide.com, Margulies admitted that she was close to accepting an offer to return to ER for a 4-epsiode arc with Noah Wyle that filmed in Hawaii during the 2005-2006 season. However, she decided against it at the last minute. The interview went on to say that she appreciates the fact that the ER producers ask her back each and every year, she "love(s) that they do."
