Uma Karuna Thurman was born on April 29, 1970 in Boston, Massachusetts, USA. She is the daughter of professor Robert F. A. Thurman and Nena von Schlebrugge.

Encouraged to think for herself and to be independent, Uma, who had been interested in acting from an early age, left her Massachusetts boarding school at the age of 15 to pursue an acting career. Moving to New York, she earned a living by washing dishes and modeling, though the latter means of support never agreed with her. She made her debut in "Kiss Daddy Goodnight" (1987), a forgettable film that cast her as a teen vamp who seduces and robs unsuspecting men. Uma also had a starring role in the teen comedy "Johnny Be Good" (1988), but it was with her casting in Stephen Frears' "Dangerous Liaisons" (1988) as Cecile de Volanges, the impressionable convent girl deflowered by John Malkovich's slimy Vicomte de Valmont, that Uma first gained recognition. Her scenes with Malkovich, particularly the one in which he offered to teach her a few bedroom terms in Latin, proved to be some of the most memorable of the year, resulting in a sizable helping of fame for the young actress.
Further recognition followed with Uma's portrayal of Henry Miller's wife in "Henry and June" (1990). Uma's role required her to take part in explicit love scenes with Maria de Medeiros, and inspired a great deal of unwelcome, stalker-like attention from any number of "fans", causing her to shy away from doing a subsequent number of films. The projects she did take part in, "Robin Hood" (1991), "Final Analysis" (1992), "Jennifer 8" (1992), "Mad Dog and Glory" (1993) and "Even Cowgirls Get the Blues" (1994), all proved to be forgettable affairs.

By the time she received the script for Quentin Tarantino's "Pulp Fiction", Uma's career was in great need of resuscitation. Fortunately, "Pulp Fiction" provided just that. A huge, unanticipated success, "Pulp Fiction" was the most talked-about film of the year, eventually becoming recognized as one of the most influential films of the decade. For her part, Uma gave a sly, smoldering performance as Mia Wallace, the coke-snorting wife of gangster Marsellus Wallace, and soon found herself enjoying both a Best Supporting Actress Oscar nomination and an accompanying resurgence in Hollywood popularity. She followed the success of "Pulp Fiction" with three relatively modest romantic comedies, "A Month by the Lake" (1995), "The Truth About Cats and Dogs" (1996), and "Beautiful Girls" (1996). The 1997 future dystopia "Gattaca" did little for Uma but introduce her to co-star and future husband Ethan Hawke. 1998 proved to be similarly disappointing, with both "The Avengers", which cast her as the cat-suited Emma Peel opposite Ralph Fiennes, and "Les Miserables" experiencing swift deaths at the box office.
Uma Thurman resurfaced in 1999 in Woody Allen's widely acclaimed "Sweet and Lowdown". The story of a famed jazz guitarist whose talent is inversely proportional to his merits as a human being, it cast Uma as his brilliant but unfaithful wife.
Misspellings & aliases:
Oma, Ooma, Umah, Umma, Uhma, Omma, Urma, Turman, Thurmann, Turmann, Turhman, Tuhrman, Tuhrmann, Thurmen, Thorman.