Julia Roberts is the defining American movie star of the 1990s, a performer whose smile became one of the most recognizable images in Hollywood before she had collected half her best work. She broke through with Steel Magnolias (1989) and Pretty Woman (1990), then built a career that includes My Best Friend’s Wedding (1997), Notting Hill (1999), Erin Brockovich (2000), and Ocean’s Eleven (2001), winning the Academy Award for the first of those last four. For a solid decade, she was the most bankable actress in the world, and the films from that run still hold audiences twenty years on.

On screen, Roberts commands through a warmth that feels immediate and personal, as though the camera collapses the distance between her and whoever is watching. Her wide mouth, dark eyes, and laugh that takes over her entire face gave her an approachability that no amount of star power ever cooled, and directors have used that openness to disarming effect across drama and comedy alike. She has slowed her output in recent years without losing any of her grip on the audience, and when she does appear, as in Ticket to Paradise (2022), the room still lights up the moment she walks in.