Julia Fox Bio
Julia Francesca Fox (born February 2, 1990) is an American actress, model, and media personality. Her debut performance was in the 2019 film Uncut Gems, for which she was nominated for the Breakthrough Actor Award at the 2019 Gotham Awards. She is also known for her eccentric style and online presence. In October 2023, Fox released her debut book, a memoir titled Down The Drain. She has since released a single by the same name. She also hosts a Spotify podcast with Niki Takesh, titled Forbidden Fruits.
Early Life and Background
Julia Fox was born in Milan, Lombardy, Italy, to Gracie and Thomas Fox, an Italian mother and an American father who worked as a contractor. The couple split up when Julia and her two siblings were children. Until Julia was six, she was raised by her grandfather in the small town of Saronno, outside of Milan, while her mother finished college. They lived in a one-bedroom apartment with her mother’s family, a Catholic household. During this time, Fox’s father lived on a boat docked off New York City. At age six, Julia moved to New York City to live with him in Manhattan’s Yorkville neighborhood, but continued to visit her mother regularly in Italy. At age 14, Fox moved back to Italy to stay with a host family near her mother’s hometown and attend a private Catholic school. However, she was asked to leave the host family due to smoking and skipping school, and then lived alone in her mother’s empty apartment for some time before returning to New York. While growing up, Fox experienced periods of relative homelessness and had difficult relationships with her parents. Her father was volatile and verbally abusive, and her mother was absent for long stretches when Fox visited her. At age 15, Julia left home to live with her boyfriend, a drug dealer. After he was imprisoned, she moved into a friend’s home. She ended their relationship after he sent her a death threat that also targeted her family.
Path to Hollywood
Fox worked several retail jobs as a teenager, including at a shoe store, ice cream shop, and pastry bakery. While attending City-As-School High School, she worked as a dominatrix for six months in the East Village, after discovering the job in a Craigslist “adult gigs” section. Fox also drank, partied, went clubbing, and underwent arrest several times. At age 15, she was caught shoplifting from Bloomingdale’s and banned from the store. She was put on probation for three years for stealing and grand larceny for credit card fraud. After a suicide attempt at age 16, she was placed in a psychiatric ward, where she was diagnosed with borderline personality disorder. Fox also developed a heroin addiction and, at age 17, she overdosed and had a near-death experience. Fox briefly attended the New School in New York City as a media studies major but later dropped out.
Julia Fox Career
Early Career (2015–2019)
Julia Fox started her career as a clothing designer and launched a successful women’s knitwear luxury line, Franziska Fox, with her friend Briana Andalore. She also worked as a model, posing for the last nude edition of Playboy in 2015, and as an exhibiting painter and photographer. She self-published two books of photography, Symptomatic of a Relationship Gone Sour: Heartburn/Nausea, published in 2015, and PTSD, published in 2016. In 2017, Fox hosted an art exhibit titled “R.I.P. Julia Fox”, which featured silk canvases painted with her own blood. She has since appeared in campaigns for Tiffany & Co., Diesel, Coach New York, and Supreme, and in editorials for various fashion magazines.
Breakthrough (2019–Present)
Fox made her feature film debut in the 2019 Safdie brothers A24 film Uncut Gems, playing a showroom saleswoman and mistress of the film’s protagonist Howard Ratner, played by Adam Sandler. Fox had known the Safdie brothers for almost a decade after meeting Josh Safdie through a chance encounter at a café in SoHo, Manhattan. She was subsequently nominated for Breakthrough Actor in the 2019 Gotham Awards. Following her debut, she starred in Ben Hozie’s PVT Chat, playing a cam girl named Scarlet, which was released in the United States on February 5, 2021. She also starred in No Sudden Move, which released in the United States on July 1, 2021, and in the drama movie Puppet, released in late 2022. In 2024, Fox starred in the dark comedy The Trainer opposite Vito Schnabel and Steven Van Zandt, led by director Tony Kaye. She is set to star in the action-thriller The Deputy alongside Tiffany Haddish and William H. Macy, and in the film HIM directed by Justin Tipping, co-produced by Jordan Peele, scheduled for release in September 2025. Additionally, she will appear in Night Always Comes, a Netflix ensemble film, and Northbound, a road trip comedy with Bruce Dern, Hunter Parrish, and Joanna Cassidy.
Notable Works and Milestones
Julia Fox’s signature work includes her role in Uncut Gems, which earned her critical acclaim and a nomination for the Gotham Awards. She has continued to build her career with various notable projects and has established herself as a prominent figure in Hollywood.
Julia Fox Award Nominations
Throughout her career, Julia Fox has received nominations for prestigious awards, including the Breakthrough Actor Award at the 2019 Gotham Awards for her performance in Uncut Gems.
Julia Fox Awards Won
Julia Fox has not yet won any major awards but has been recognized for her work with nominations, particularly for her role in Uncut Gems.
Julia Fox Family
Julia Fox was born to Gracie and Thomas Fox. She has two siblings and is a mother to one son, born in 2021.
Personal Life
In November 2018, Fox married Peter Artemiev, and they resided together in Yorkville, Manhattan. Their divorce was finalized in July 2020. Fox has publicly shared her experiences with mental health, including postpartum depression, bipolar disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and attention deficit hyperactive disorder. In 2024, she publicly identified herself as a lesbian and later stated that she is pansexual. Julia Fox’s personal life has often been in the spotlight, including her brief relationship with rapper Kanye West in early 2022.
