Julianne Moore (born Julie Anne Smith; December 3, 1960) is an American actress and children's author. Prolific in cinema since the early 1990s, Moore is particularly known for her portrayals of emotionally troubled women. Her career has involved both art house and Hollywood films, and she has received five Academy Award nominations.After studying theatre at Boston University, Moore began her career with a series of television roles. From 1985 to 1988, she was a regular in the soap opera As the World Turns, earning a Daytime Emmy for her performance. Her film debut was in 1990, and she continued to play supporting roles throughout the early 1990s. Moore made her breakthrough with Robert Altman's Short Cuts (1993), followed by critically acclaimed performances in Vanya on 42nd Street (1994), and Safe (1995). Starring roles in the blockbusters Nine Months (1995) and The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997) established her as a leading Hollywood actress.

Moore received considerable recognition in the late 1990s and early 2000s, earning Oscar nominations for Boogie Nights (1997), The End of the Affair (1999), Far from Heaven (2002), and The Hours (2002). Other notable film appearances include The Big Lebowski (1998), Magnolia (1999), Hannibal (2001), Children of Men (2006) and A Single Man (2009). She has continued to work regularly in the 2010s, appearing in the commercially successful The Hunger Games film series and receiving praise for her performances in The Kids Are All Right (2010), Maps to the Stars (2014) and Still Alice (2014), for which she won a Golden Globe Award and received her fifth Oscar nomination. In the television film Game Change (2012), she portrayed Sarah Palin and received the Emmy Award, Golden Globe Award, and Screen Actors Guild Award for Best Actress. In addition to acting, Moore has written a successful series of children's books. She is married to the director Bart Freundlich, with whom she has two children.