Possessing porcelain skin, long dark curls and classical, yet exotic, features, Julianna Margulies shot to stardom as the capable yet caring head nurse Carol Hathaway on the hit NBC medical series "ER". Her character was supposed to be killed off by a drug overdose in the 1994 pilot episode but the actress had proven so likable she won not only a permanent spot on the show but also a 1995 Best Supporting Actress Emmy. Margulies remained with the show through the 1999-2000 season while Hathaway not only faced professional challenges as well as personal ones (broken romances, giving birth to twins). The actress turned down a contract valued at a reported $27 million to extend her stay on the hit series, choosing instead to seek different and challenging roles. The youngest of three daughters of an advertising executive and a dancer-turned-therapist, Margulies spent a somewhat nomadic childhood. After her parents divorced, she and her sisters shuttled between Europe and the USA. Opting to attend a boarding school in New Hampshire in her teens, she later earned an art history degree from Sarah Lawrence, where she gained her first stage acting experience. Settling in NYC, the fledgling thespian supported herself as a waitress and bartender while battling the prejudices of casting directors who found her unusual looks difficult to typecast. Eventually, she landed the role of a prostitute opposite Steven Seagal in "Out For Justice" (1991). Regional theater work, commercials (including one for McDonald's) and guest appearances in series like "Law & Order" followed. After appearing in a failed pilot produced by Tom Fontana, Margulies was tapped by Fontana for a recurring role as a waitress with musical ambitions who became a romantic interest for Ned Beatty's Detective Bolander on the NBC police drama "Homicide: Life on the Streets" in 1994. Following her success on "ER", the actress resumed her feature career, appearing as a spoiled American interned in a woman's camp in Asia during WWII in Bruce Beresford's "Paradise Road" (1997). That same year, she brought strength and sensuality to her portrayal of a single mother romanced by a grifter (Bill Paxton in "Traveller". Margulies followed with turns as a traditional Hasidic wife in "A Price Above Rubies" and as a gun moll involved with bank robber Matthew McConaughey in "The Newton Boys" (both 1998). Margulies starred as a harried bride facing a series of crises before her wedding in the festival-screened romantic comedy "The Big Day/We Met on the Vineyard" (1999). She switched gears to play Kyra Sedgwick's lesbian lover in the ensemble comedy "What's Cooking", which was screened at the 2000 Sundance Film Festival. Following her departure from "ER", the actress accepted the role of Morgaine in the feminist re-telling of the Arthurian myths, "The Mists of Avalon" (TNT, 2001). She then returned to the NYC stage, first as part of the endless procession of female actors delivering "The Vagina Monologues" (2000) and then as the lover of an elderly artist in Jon Robin Baitz's "Ten Unknowns" (2001). In 2002, she made her way back to the big screen co-starring with Andy Garciaand Mick Jagger in "The Man From Elysian Fields". She also starred in the Steve Beck action thriller feature "Ghost Ship" (2002), playing salvage team leader Maureen Eps, whose crew discovers a long-lost ocean liner. She ended the year costarring in the true-to-life drama "Evelyn" (2002), playing a barmaid who attracts the attention of an out-of-work house painter (Pierce Brosnan) battling the Irish courts and Catholic Church who have taken away his children because he has been deemed an unfit parent thanks to his inability to hold down a job. After returning to television for a two show arc on “Scrubs” (NBC, 2001- ) as a malpractice lawyer with a crush on JD (Zach Braff, Margulies starred as a counterterrorism director for the National Security Council who tries to get disparate personalities from the FBI, CIA, MI5 and MI6 to work together following a terrorist attack in London. Her strong performance earned the actress a nomination by the Hollywood Foreign Press for the 2004 Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role – Miniseries or Television Movie. She next appeared as a flight attendant making her last trip in “Snakes on a Plane” (2006), easily the most hyped and highly anticipated movie since “The Blair Witch Project” (1998). Just as it promised, “Snakes on a Plane” starred hundreds of slithering reptiles released onto an airliner carrying a witness to a brutal mob murder who is under the protection of an FBI agent (Samuel L. Jackson). Thrills and chills at thirty-six thousand feet ensue. Meanwhile, Margulies nabbed a role on an episode of “The Sopranos” (HBO, 1998-2007) set to air in early 2007 when the series returns for its last hoorah.