Uma Karuna Thurman (born April 29, 1970), is an American film actress.
Born in Boston, Massachusetts, she was given a Buddhist upbringing. Her Swedish mother, Nena, was briefly married to Timothy Leary (to whom she was introduced by Salvador Dalם) before marrying Uma's father, Robert Thurman, a professor of Indo-Tibetan Buddhist studies at Columbia University. "Uma" is the name of a Hindu goddess of light and beauty. She has 3 brothers, named Ganden, Dechen and Mipam. Her height is 1.83m. She is a spokesmodel for cosmetics company Lancome which has shades of lipstick named after her. She wears size 11 in shoes. In Portuguese, her name means "one" and in Polynesian, it means "kiss". Ethan Hawke's book For Karuna was dedicated to her. She shares her birthday with actress Michelle Pfeiffer, Daniel Day-Lewis and tennis player Andre Agassi.
Uma Thurman left her high school, Northfield Mount Hermon, at the age of 15 to pursue an acting career in New York City. In 1990 she married actor Gary Oldman but divorced him two years later. On May 1, 1998, she married actor Ethan Hawke, whom she had met at the set of Gattaca, and gave birth to a daughter Maya Ray and later on, son Roan.
Thurman became a pop culture legend when, at an Oscar Awards ceremony, comedian David Letterman lampooned her name by pretending to introduce her to talk show host Oprah Winfrey (both were in the audience). As a result, "Uma...Oprah. Oprah...Uma." became a heavily repeated catch phrase over the next year, inciting various spinoffs.
In 2003, Thurman and Hawke split, and in 2004, the couple filed for divorce. She now resides in Hyde Park, New York.
A Russian rock band, Ne Nashego Mira, renamed itself UmaThurman, hoping to capitalize on her popularity.
