Julia Garner is an American actress and model. She has appeared in the films
Martha Marcy May Marlene (2011),
The Perks of Being a Wallflower (2012),
Sin City: A Dame to Kill For (2014), and played leading roles in
Electrick Children (2012),
We Are What We Are (2013) and
Grandma (2015). She also plays Ruth Langmore in the Netflix original series
Ozark (2017) and in several episodes of the television series
The Americans (2013).
Garner was born in the Riverdale neighborhood of the Bronx, New York. Her mother, Tami Gingold, a therapist, had a successful career in Israel as a comedian. Her father, Thomas Garner, is a painter and an art teacher, originally from Shaker Heights, Ohio. She has an older sister, Anna (Ani), who is a writer, producer and an artist. Garner is Jewish. Garner resides with her parents in their house in New York City. She considers Italian actress
Monica Vitti and especially
Bette Davis to be major influences on her acting style, having cited Davis's performance in
What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962) She started taking acting lessons at the age of 15 to overcome her shyness. She had her theatrical debut at the age of 17 in
Sean Durkin's
Martha Marcy May Marlene (2011), playing the role of Sarah. In 2012, director
David Chase invited her to play a small role which he wrote specifically for her in
Not Fade Away (2012). Her first starring role was in the 2012 movie,
Electrick Children (2012).
In 2013, she starred alongside
Ashley Bell in the horror film
The Last Exorcism Part II (2013), and played the lead in the American remake of the Mexican horror film
We Are What We Are (2013). Garner co-starred in
Sin City: A Dame to Kill For (2014) as new character Marcy, a young stripper who crosses paths with another new character, Johnny (
Joseph Gordon-Levitt). This marked the first time she acted against a green screen. In 2015, Garner had a recurring role on the third season of FX's
The Americans (2013). She continued the role on a recurring basis periodically through seasons 4 through 6. She was to have made her off-Broadway debut in
Noah Haidle's play Smokefall at MCC Theater in 2016, but had to drop out during rehearsals because of scheduling conflicts.
In 2017, she began starring in the Netflix series
Ozark (2017) as Ruth Langmore opposite
Jason Bateman and
Laura Linney.