Julia Fox Bio
Julia Francesca Fox (born February 2, 1990) is an American actress, model, and media personality. She first gained widespread attention for her debut performance in the 2019 film Uncut Gems, for which she received a Gotham Award nomination for Breakthrough Actor. Beyond acting, Fox is recognized for her work as a fashion designer, her modeling career, and her candid online presence. She has continued to build a varied career across film, television, literature, and music.
Born in Milan and raised between Italy and New York City, Fox built a creative path that led her from art, photography, and fashion design to a leading role in one of the most discussed independent films of the late 2010s. Over the following years, she expanded her filmography, released a memoir, and became a notable figure in contemporary pop culture.
Early Life and Background
Fox was born in Milan, Lombardy, Italy, to Gracie and Thomas Fox. Her mother is Italian and her father is American, and the couple separated when Julia and her two siblings were children. Until the age of six, she was raised by her grandfather in the small town of Saronno, outside of Milan, while her mother finished college. The family lived in a one-bedroom apartment within a Catholic household, and her father lived on a boat docked off New York City during this period.
At age six, Fox moved to New York City to live with her father in Manhattan’s Yorkville neighborhood, though she continued to visit her mother in Italy. At fourteen, she returned to Italy to stay with a host family near her mother’s hometown and attend a private Catholic school. She was eventually asked to leave the host family and lived alone in her mother’s empty apartment for a time before returning to New York. During her teenage years, Fox experienced periods of relative homelessness, worked several retail jobs, and faced significant personal challenges.
Fox attended City-As-School High School in New York City and briefly enrolled at the New School as a media studies major before dropping out. As a teenager, she worked in various retail positions and engaged in a number of creative pursuits that would later shape her artistic career.
Path to Celebrity
Before entering the film industry, Fox built a creative foundation through fashion, art, and modeling. She launched a women’s knitwear luxury line called Franziska Fox with her friend Briana Andalore and posed for the final nude edition of Playboy in 2015. She also worked as an exhibiting painter and photographer, self-publishing two photography books, Symptomatic of a Relationship Gone Sour: Heartburn/Nausea in 2015 and PTSD in 2016. In 2017, she hosted an art exhibit titled R.I.P. Julia Fox, which featured silk canvases painted with her own blood.
Fox had known the Safdie brothers for almost a decade after meeting Josh Safdie through a chance encounter at a café in SoHo, Manhattan. This long-standing connection eventually led to her casting in their 2019 film. Her entry into the entertainment industry came through this relationship, marking a turning point in her creative career.
Julia Fox Career
Early Career (2015–2018)
Fox’s early professional years were centered on modeling, fashion design, and photography. She appeared in campaigns for brands including Diesel, Tiffany & Co., Coach New York, and Supreme, and was featured in editorials for Vogue, Vogue Italia, CR Fashion Book, The Face, Paper, and Interview. She also appeared on the covers of Vogue Czechoslovakia, Elle Brasil, and New York Magazine.
She was previously a co-owner and investor of a nightclub on the Lower East Side named Happy Ending, which closed in 2013. In 2021, Fox wrote and directed the short film Fantasy Girls, about a group of teenage girls involved in sex work living in Reno, Nevada. These early projects established her as a creative force in multiple artistic disciplines.
Breakthrough (2019–2021)
Fox made her feature film debut in the 2019 Safdie brothers A24 film Uncut Gems, playing a showroom saleswoman and the mistress of the film’s protagonist, Howard Ratner, an erratic jewelry dealer and gambling addict played by Adam Sandler. Her performance earned her a nomination for Breakthrough Actor at the 2019 Gotham Awards, establishing her as a notable new talent in American cinema.
Following her breakthrough, Fox starred in Ben Hozie’s PVT Chat, playing a cam girl named Scarlet, released in the United States on February 5, 2021. She also appeared in No Sudden Move, released on July 1, 2021, and starred in the drama movie Puppet, released in late 2022. In 2022, Fox served as an executive producer on the Canadian film Something You Said Last Night.
Notable Works and Milestones
Fox’s most recognized work remains her debut in Uncut Gems, which brought her critical attention and award recognition. Her subsequent roles in PVT Chat, No Sudden Move, and Puppet demonstrated her range as an actress. In October 2023, she published her memoir Down the Drain through Simon & Schuster, and she later co-starred in the 2024 dark comedy The Trainer opposite Vito Schnabel and Steven Van Zandt, directed by Tony Kaye. The memoir is set to be developed into a TV series by Joey Soloway.
Julia Fox Award Nominations
Fox received one verified award nomination in her career to date. In 2019, she was nominated for the Breakthrough Actor Award at the Gotham Awards for her performance in Uncut Gems. This nomination recognized her as a rising talent in the film industry and remains a defining moment in her early career.
Julia Fox Awards Won
No verified award wins are currently documented in the available sources. Fox’s career has been marked by critical recognition and nominations rather than confirmed award victories at the time of available data.
Julia Fox Family
Fox was born to Gracie and Thomas Fox. Her mother is Italian and her father is American, and the couple separated when Julia and her siblings were young. She has two siblings. Her father worked as a contractor, and during her early years in Milan, she was raised by her grandfather in Saronno while her mother completed college.
In November 2018, Fox married Peter Artemiev, and they resided together in Yorkville, Manhattan. Their son was born in 2021. The couple’s divorce was finalized in July 2020. In October 2022, Fox shared that she had experienced postpartum depression following the birth of her son.
Personal Life
Fox has been open about several personal topics throughout her public life. In January 2022, she confirmed in an article for Interview that she was dating rapper Kanye West, though the two broke up the following month. In 2019, a close friend of Fox died of a fentanyl overdose, an event she has cited as influencing her commitment to sobriety. She has also spoken about living with borderline personality disorder, bipolar disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and being autistic.
In late 2021 or early 2022, Fox became celibate, a decision she first publicly revealed in May 2024. In July 2024, she publicly identified herself as a lesbian in a TikTok video, and later stated in an August 2025 Allure profile that she is pansexual. Fox resides in Yorkville, Manhattan.
