Uma Karuna Thurman (born April 29, 1970) is an American model and Academy Award nominated film actor. Thurman began modeling professionally in the late 1980s before moving to acting in 1988, and is best known for her films released in the 1990s and 2000s, specifically those with director Quentin Tarantino.

Thurman was born in Boston, Massachusetts. Her half-Swedish, half-German mother Nena von Schlebrugg (b. 8 January 1941) was briefly married to Timothy Leary after the two were introduced by Salvador Dalí before marrying Thurman's father Robert Thurman (b. 14 October 1932), a professor at Amherst College of Indo-Tibetan Buddhist studies of British ancestry. Thurman and her siblings were given a Buddhist upbringing by her father, and she is named after a Hindu goddess. She has three brothers, named Ganden, Dechen and Mipam. Thurman and her siblings also spent extended amounts of time in India as children, and the Dalai Lama would sometimes visit their home.