Julia Louis-Dreyfus (born January 13, 1961) is an American actress and comedian of French Jewish descent. Born in New York City, Louis-Dreyfus was a cast member on NBC's Saturday Night Live from 1982 to 1985. She has also appeared in quite a few sitcoms and films over the years but is best known for her nine-season role as "Elaine Benes" on NBC's Seinfeld from 1990 to 1998. After Seinfeld, Louis-Dreyfus began a new NBC sitcom, Watching Ellie, which was soon cancelled. She had a notable recurring guest role as the compulsively lying prosecutor Maggie Lizer on Arrested Development. She will star in the CBS sitcom Old Christine in the spring of 2006. She is a member of the famous New York financial Dreyfus family. Her father is French billionaire Gerard Louis-Dreyfus (who changed his name to William in the 1940s); her grandfather Pierre Louis-Dreyfus fought for the French Resistance during World War II. Her cousin Robert Louis-Dreyfus is the former owner of Adidas(1993-2001) and the current owner of the French football club Olympique de Marseille. Some biographies claim she is related to the late Alfred Dreyfus, a French military officer best known for being the focus of the Dreyfus affair. She is married to actor/writer Brad Hall since 1987, whom she met while they were students at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. The couple has two sons. Since May 2005 she's been a contributing blogger at The Huffington Post.
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