Jodie Foster is a two-time Academy Award-winning American actress and filmmaker with a six-decade career spanning from child stardom to adult acclaim. She has won two Oscars, three BAFTAs, five Golden Globes, and an Emmy, earning recognition for roles in Taxi Driver, The Accused, The Silence of the Lambs, and True Detective: Night Country.
Who Is Jodie Foster?
Alicia Christian “Jodie” Foster was born on November 19, 1962, in Los Angeles, California. At 62, she represents a rare success story in Hollywood—a child actor who not only survived the transition to adult roles but became one of the most respected actresses and filmmakers of her generation.
Foster was a gifted child who learned to read at age three and attended the Lycée Français de Los Angeles, a French-language prep school where her fluency in French has enabled her to act in French films throughout her career. She graduated magna cum laude from Yale University in 1985, where she majored in African-American literature and wrote her thesis on Toni Morrison under the guidance of Henry Louis Gates Jr.
Her career spans over 50 feature films and 30 television shows. She’s known for playing intellectually complex, strong-willed female characters who face intimidating challenges. What sets Foster apart is her selectivity—she’s famously picky about her projects, often going years between roles to find material that speaks to her.
Early Career: The Coppertone Girl to Teen Star
Foster’s career began with an appearance in a Coppertone television advertisement in 1965, when she was three years old. Her mother had intended only for Jodie’s older brother Buddy to audition, but had taken Jodie with them to the casting call, where she was noticed by the casting agents.
The television spot led to more advertising work and, in 1968, to a minor appearance in the sitcom Mayberry R.F.D., in which her brother starred. In the following years, Foster continued working in advertising and appeared in over 50 television shows, including Gunsmoke, The Doris Day Show, My Three Sons, Bonanza, and Kung Fu. She and her brother became the family breadwinners during this time.
Disney Years and Breakthrough
Foster gained recognition as a teen idol through Disney films, including Napoleon and Samantha (1972), Freaky Friday (1976), and Candleshoe (1977). Her work in family-friendly entertainment established her as a bankable young star, but it was her collaboration with director Martin Scorsese that changed everything.
Scorsese cast her in the role of a child prostitute in Taxi Driver (1976). To be able to do the film, Foster had to undergo a psychiatric assessment and was accompanied by a social worker on set. Her older sister Connie acted as her stand-in in sexually suggestive scenes.
During the filming, Foster developed a bond with co-star Robert De Niro, who saw “serious potential” in her and dedicated time to rehearsing scenes with her. Foster called Taxi Driver a life-changing experience and said it was “the first time anyone asked me to create a character that wasn’t myself.”
The performance earned her first Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress at age 14. She also won two BAFTA Awards that year—for Taxi Driver and Bugsy Malone—becoming the youngest BAFTA recipient at 13.
Education and Career Struggles
A child prodigy, Foster decided to take a sabbatical from acting at the height of her teenage stardom for four years to attend Yale University. This decision proved pivotal for her personal development, though it temporarily stalled her career.
During her time at Yale, Foster maintained a low profile, but one tragic event shattered that privacy. On March 30, 1981, John Warnock Hinckley Jr. attempted to assassinate President Ronald Reagan in an effort to impress Foster, whom he was obsessed with after watching Taxi Driver.
Foster hired bodyguards and went into hiding, but remained on campus to continue acting in a student play. “It was a trial by fire,” she reflected. “I became an adult really quickly.” The experience led her to begin fiercely protecting her private life. “I looked at the kind of career that I wanted to have, and I really understood that I did not want to be famous, that I did not want to be a celebrity,” she said.
After graduating in 1985, Foster struggled to find substantial work. She made a series of independent films, including the experimental film Siesta (1987), and the crime-drama Five Corners (1988), before having her adult breakthrough with the legal drama The Accused (1988).
Oscar Wins and Career Peak
The Accused (1988)
Foster had to audition twice for the role and was cast only after several more established actors turned it down, as the film’s producers were wary of her due to her previous failures and because she was still remembered as a “chubby teenager.”
Due to the subject matter, the filming was a difficult experience for the cast and crew, especially the shooting of the rape scene, which took five days. Foster was unhappy with her performance and feared that it would end her career.
Instead, The Accused received positive reviews. Her portrayal of rape survivor Sarah Tobias earned her the Academy Award for Best Actress, Golden Globe, and National Board of Review awards. Foster holds the distinction of being the second person to win multiple Oscars before the age of 30 and the youngest person to win two acting Oscars.
The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
Foster’s first film release after the success of The Accused was the thriller The Silence of the Lambs (1991). She portrayed FBI trainee Clarice Starling, who is sent to interview incarcerated serial killer Hannibal Lecter (Anthony Hopkins) in order to hunt another serial killer.
The film became a cultural phenomenon. Released in February 1991, it earned rave reviews and remained in theaters for almost the entire year. It became one of only three films to win the Big Five at the Academy Awards: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Actor, and Best Actress.
Foster’s second Oscar win cemented her status as one of the finest actresses of her generation. She was 29 years old.
Filmmaking and Production Career
Foster didn’t limit herself to acting. Foster made her debut as a director at age 14, when she directed a short film for the BBC. Her first major directorial work came with a 1988 episode of the horror anthology series Tales from the Darkside.
She made her big screen directorial debut with the drama Little Man Tate (1991), in which she also costarred, and she later directed the ensemble film Home for the Holidays (1995).
In 1992, she founded her own production company, Egg Pictures. She earned two Primetime Emmy Awards for producing The Baby Dance (1999), and directing the Orange Is the New Black episode “Lesbian Request Denied” in 2014.
Her directorial filmography includes:
- Little Man Tate (1991)
- Home for the Holidays (1995)
- The Beaver (2011)
- Money Monster (2016)
She has also directed episodes for Tales from the Darkside, House of Cards, Black Mirror, and Tales from the Loop.
Notable Films Through the Decades
1990s Success
Other successful films in the 1990s were Sommersby (1993), Maverick (1994), Nell (1994), Contact (1997), and Anna and the King (1999).
Contact (1997) marked her first science fiction role. She starred as a scientist searching for extraterrestrial life in the SETI project. The film was a commercial success and earned Foster a Saturn Award and a nomination for a Golden Globe.
Her performance in Nell (1994) earned her another Oscar nomination for Best Actress and a Screen Actors Guild Award.
2000s Thrillers
During the 2000s, Foster starred in Panic Room (2002), The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys (2002), A Very Long Engagement (2004), Flightplan (2005), Inside Man (2006), The Brave One (2007), and Nim’s Island (2008). By 2005, Foster was named the world’s highest-paid actress.
Panic Room reunited her with director David Fincher. The Brave One earned her another Golden Globe nomination. Inside Man, directed by Spike Lee, was a box office hit.
2010s Selective Approach
During the 2010s, Foster focused more on directing and made her acting appearances intermittent, starring in just three films: Carnage (2011), Elysium (2013), and Hotel Artemis (2018).
She appeared in Roman Polanski’s Carnage (2011), earning another Golden Globe nomination. Elysium (2013) paired her with Matt Damon in a dystopian thriller.
Career Renaissance: 2020s
The Mauritanian (2021)
In The Mauritanian (2021), which was based on the memoir of a man held at the Guantánamo Bay detention camp for 14 years, Foster played attorney Nancy Hollander. The film earned her a Golden Globe Award for best supporting actress.
Nyad (2023)
In 2023, Foster appeared in the Netflix biopic Nyad as Bonnie Stoll. Her performance earned her a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.
The film told the story of marathon swimmer Diana Nyad’s historic swim from Cuba to Florida. Diana Nyad, the record-breaking endurance swimmer who inspired Nyad, spoke about Foster’s meticulousness as an actor.
At age 60, Foster received her fifth Oscar nomination—a remarkable achievement spanning nearly five decades.
True Detective: Night Country (2024)
Foster secured the Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Limited/Anthology Series or TV movie at the 82nd awards ceremony on January 5, 2025, for her role as detective Liz Danvers in the HBO series True Detective: Night Country.
Foster appeared in her first starring role on television and her first acting appearance in the medium in five decades as Chief Liz Danvers in the fourth season of HBO’s crime anthology series True Detective, winning the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie.
Creator and director Issa López said True Detective: Night Country was indirectly influenced by The Silence of the Lambs and Foster’s Oscar-winning performance in it.
2025: A Private Life and New Recognition
French-Language Starring Role
In her latest film, the two-time Oscar winner does one of the few things she’s never dared try onscreen: speak French for an entire movie. A Private Life (Vie Privée), directed by Rebecca Zlotowski, premiered at the Cannes and Toronto film festivals.
The renowned psychiatrist Lilian Steiner mounts a private investigation into the death of one of her patients, whom she is convinced has been murdered.
“I feel freer now,” Foster says. “For so long, I was obsessed with being taken seriously, with carrying the whole film on my shoulders. The last few things I’ve done have had so much more humor. I don’t know what I was protecting before.”
Jodie Foster, an American actress who was born and raised in Los Angeles in a non-French-speaking family, is nonetheless quite fluent in French. At age 9, she started attending the Lycée Français de Los Angeles, a private school devoted to bilingual education.
Radcliffe Medal Honors
At Friday afternoon’s rain-soaked Radcliffe Day celebration in May 2025, Oscar-winning actress and filmmaker Jodie Foster received the 2025 Radcliffe Medal.
Foster was on hand at the Harvard Radcliffe Institute to receive the 2025 Radcliffe Medal, presented by Dean Tomiko Brown-Nagin, for her accomplishments over a six-decade career as an actor and filmmaker, and her advocacy for suicide prevention among LGBT youth.
Foster sat down for a conversation with Fletcher University Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr., her undergraduate adviser at Yale. She graduated magna cum laude in 1985.
Complete Awards Record
Foster’s trophy case is one of the most impressive in Hollywood:
Academy Awards:
- 5 nominations, 2 wins (The Accused, The Silence of the Lambs)
Golden Globe Awards:
- 5 wins, including the 2013 Cecil B. DeMille Award for lifetime achievement
- Most recent win: True Detective: Night Country (2025)
BAFTA Awards:
- 3 wins, 6 nominations total
- Youngest BAFTA recipient at age 13
Emmy Awards:
- 1 win (True Detective: Night Country)
- Multiple nominations as producer and director
Other Honors:
- Honorary Palme d’Or at Cannes Film Festival (2021)
- Screen Actors Guild Award
- Independent Spirit Award
- Hollywood Walk of Fame star (2016)
- Asteroid 17744 Jodiefoster was named in her honor (1998)
Personal Life
Foster met producer Cydney Bernard on the set of Sommersby (1993). They were in a relationship from 1993 until 2008 and had two sons together: actor Charles (“Charlie”), born in 1998, and scientist Christopher (“Kit”), born in 2001. Foster is their biological mother.
Jodie shares Kit and her older son, Charlie Bernard Foster, 26, with her former partner, Cydney Bernard.
In 2014, Foster married actress and photographer Alexandra Hedison after a year of dating.
At the 2025 Golden Globes, Foster made a rare public appearance with her 23-year-old son, Kit. During her acceptance speech, she dedicated her win to her sons, telling them: “Hopefully you understand the joy that comes from doing really hard, meaningful, good work.”
Coming Out and LGBTQ+ Advocacy
Foster said she feels proud that people say she helped facilitate greater acceptance of LGBTQ people in the film industry, but she wishes she “could have done more” to be an outspoken leader.
“My No. 1 concern was surviving intact, emotionally and intellectually,” she said. “What I didn’t want to do was end up dead in a hotel room with a needle in my arm.” Accomplishing that required “a kind of emotional safety and privacy that was unusual for the film business.”
At her 2013 Golden Globes acceptance speech for the Cecil B. DeMille Award, Foster addressed her sexuality in her own way, stepping up to the line of making a public declaration before stepping back—a characteristically private approach from someone who has always guarded her personal life.
Career Philosophy and Working Style
“I’m picky,” Foster admits. “I’m not really interested in acting just for the sake of acting. It has to really speak to me.”
Foster took a long hiatus from acting in the aughts to focus on raising her kids. But she’s been on screen more frequently as of late. It’s part of a new perspective she discovered after she turned 60, one that found her focusing more on ensemble movies and shows and less on star turns.
“A lifetime of very small microaggressions and having to bend myself into a pretzel to accommodate in spaces where normally I wouldn’t be welcome has allowed me to be a leader,” Foster said during her Radcliffe Day conversation.
On Female Directors
When asked about the progress of women directors in Hollywood, Foster reflected: “When I started acting, the only woman I ever saw on set was a makeup artist or script supervisor. Then I started seeing some more female technicians. But the last bastion has always been directors.”
“As an actor, before my last three projects, I had only made one movie with a woman director. That’s over 50 years,” she noted.
Language Skills and International Work
One of Foster’s unique talents is her multilingual ability. Fluent in French by age 14, she spoke her own lines in the film Stop Calling Me Baby! (1977), the film A Very Long Engagement (2004), and the film The Brave One (2007). She learned Spanish at a young age. She was also fluent in Italian by age 18.
She dubs herself in French-language versions of most of her English-language films. This skill has allowed her to work in French cinema throughout her career, including recent work in A Private Life.
Impact and Legacy
Foster represents something increasingly rare in Hollywood: a child star who successfully transitioned to adult roles, maintained artistic integrity, and expanded into directing and producing. She’s accomplished this while fiercely protecting her privacy and raising a family.
Foster always thought she’d become a writer. “I didn’t really think I wanted to be an actor when I grew up because it seemed like kind of a dumb job,” she said. Acting seemed too superficial to be intellectually satisfying as a career.
But Robert De Niro changed her perspective during Taxi Driver, teaching her about improvisation and the craft of acting. That mentorship shaped her approach to the profession—treating it as serious work deserving of intellectual respect.
At 62, Foster continues to surprise audiences. Her recent Emmy and Golden Globe wins for True Detective prove she’s still at the top of her game. Her French-language starring role in A Private Life shows she’s still willing to take risks and explore new territory.
She’s built a career on being selective, protecting her privacy, and doing meaningful work. Her awards shelf tells the story: two Oscars before age 30, five Golden Globe wins across four decades, an Emmy at 62, and recognition from Harvard, Cannes, and BAFTA.
Few actors can claim such sustained excellence across six decades. Fewer still have done it while maintaining dignity, privacy, and artistic control in an industry that demands constant exposure.
FAQs
How many Oscars has Jodie Foster won?
Jodie Foster has won two Academy Awards for Best Actress—for The Accused (1988) and The Silence of the Lambs (1991). She has been nominated five times total, with her most recent nomination for Nyad (2023).
What languages does Jodie Foster speak?
Foster is fluent in French, Spanish, and Italian in addition to English. She learned French at the Lycée Français de Los Angeles starting at age 9 and was fluent by age 14.
Is Jodie Foster married?
Yes, Jodie Foster married actress and photographer Alexandra Hedison in 2014 after a year of dating. She was previously in a relationship with producer Cydney Bernard from 1993 to 2008, with whom she has two sons.
What is Jodie Foster’s most recent project?
Foster’s most recent project is the French-language psychological thriller A Private Life (Vie Privée), directed by Rebecca Zlotowski, which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in 2025. It marks her first French-speaking lead role.
Did Jodie Foster go to college?
Yes, Foster attended Yale University, where she majored in African-American literature and graduated magna cum laude in 1985. She wrote her thesis on Toni Morrison under the guidance of Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr.
What films has Jodie Foster directed?
Foster has directed four feature films: Little Man Tate (1991), Home for the Holidays (1995), The Beaver (2011), and Money Monster (2016). She has also directed episodes of television shows, including Orange Is the New Black, House of Cards, and Black Mirror.
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