Julia Fox

Julia Francesca Fox (born February 2, 1990 in Milan, Lombardy, Italy) is an American actress, model, and media personality whose life reads like a modern‑day novel of turbulence and reinvention. Raised by an Italian mother, Gracie, and an American contractor father, Thomas, she spent her earliest years in the small town of Saronno under the care of her grandfather before shuttling between Italy and Manhattan’s Yorkville neighborhood. From the chaotic streets of New York to the Catholic boarding schools of Italy, Fox endured periods of homelessness, volatile parental relationships, and a series of legal brushes that included shoplifting, a probation for grand larceny, and a brief stint as a dominatrix discovered through a Craigslist ad. A suicide attempt at sixteen led to a psychiatric diagnosis of borderline personality disorder, and a near‑fatal heroin overdose at seventeen cemented her resolve to survive. Despite these hardships, she briefly attended The New School for media studies before dropping out to pursue a career that would blend fashion, art, and performance.

Fox first entered the public eye as a clothing designer, launching the luxury knitwear line Franziska Fox with friend Briana Andalore, and later making headlines by posing for the final nude edition of Playboy in 2015. Her relentless self‑promotion continued through self‑published photography books Symptomatic of a Relationship Gone Sour (2015) and PTSD (2016), as well as a blood‑painted art exhibit titled “R.I.P. Julia Fox.” The breakout moment arrived with her role as Julia, the fierce showroom saleswoman in the Safdie brothers’ Uncut Gems (2019), earning a Gotham Award nomination for Breakthrough Actor. Since then she has amassed a diverse filmography—including PVT Chat (2021), No Sudden Move (2021), Puppet (2022), and the dark comedy The Trainer (2024)—and expanded into music, releasing the single “Down the Drain” to accompany her memoir of the same name, published in October 2023. In addition to hosting the Spotify podcast Forbidden Fruits with Niki Takesh, she has acted as exclusive producer on several indie projects and has been a vocal advocate for mental‑health awareness, openly discussing postpartum depression, bipolar disorder, OCD, ADHD, and her autistic identity. Her personal narrative continues to evolve, marked by a brief marriage to Peter Artemiev (2018‑2020), the birth of her son in 2021, and a public identification as pan‑sexual in 2025.