Julia Elizabeth Scarlett Louis-Dreyfus, was born on January 13, 1961 in New York City to a wealthy Franco-American family. They own the Louis Dreyfus Group, an international investment and banking firm. She was raised in Bethesda, Maryland, and was educated in the Holton-Arms School and Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, where she studied theater. Her first appearance was on NBC's Saturday Night Live. Dreyfus is best known for her role as Elaine Benes in
Seinfeld , and has received numerous nominations and award for this role. She was nominated more than a dozen times for the Emmys, Golden Globes and Screen Actors Guild awards, collectively and has won an Emmy for Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series in 1996 and Best Actress in a Comedy Series in 2000. She won a Golden Globe award for Best Supporting Actress in a TV production in 1994 and two Screen Actors Guild Awards for Outstanding Performance by an Actress in a Comedy Series in 1997 and 1998. After Seinfeld, Louis-Dreyfus appeared in the short-lived Watching Ellie, Arrested Development, and in 2006, she starred in
The New Adventures of Old Christine .
Elaine Marie Benes is played by Julia Louis-Dreyfus in
Seinfeld . Elaine Benes is Jerry Seinfeld's ex-girlfriend and close friend. She is also close with Seinfeld's friends, George Costanza and Cosmo Kramer. Her first appearance was in the second episode of Seinfeld. Her job was a writer and editor and among the characters in the show, she has the most stable career of all of them. Her romantic relationships involved Jerry Seinfeld at one point, whom she dated for a while even before the show began. David Puddy was another of her boyfriends. They dated longer than Jerry and she did.
(Photos courtesy of NBC via Seinfeld-Fan.net)