1994–present
Latest News: Julia Garner Stars in Wolf Man
The design of the titular monster in the new horror movie Wolf Man was a little too lifelike for star Julia Garner’s comfort. “I saw some photos beforehand, but seeing it in real life is a totally different experience. It was really shocking and actually really scary, and I felt a little awkward because I couldn’t stop studying his face,” Garner said in an interview with Empire before the movie’s release on January 17.
Produced by Blumhouse and Ryan Gosling, the movie is a reboot of the 1941 creature feature The Wolf Man starring Lon Chaney Jr. In the new version, Garner plays Charlotte, a young mother whose husband (played by Christopher Abbott) transforms after an attack by a mysterious animal. It marks a reunion for Garner and Abbott, who both appeared in the 2011 drama Martha Marcy May Marlene.
Who Is Julia Garner?
Actor Julia Garner is known for her role as Ruth Langmore in the Netflix crime drama Ozark, for which she won three Primetime Emmys and a Golden Globe. After taking up acting to overcome a learning disability and childhood shyness, Garner made her movie debut in 2011’s Martha Marcy May Marlene and has since appeared in popular TV series including The Americans, Waco, and Inventing Anna. She stars in the 2025 horror reboot Wolf Man and will play the Silver Surfer in the upcoming superhero movie The Fantastic Four: First Steps.
Quick Facts
FULL NAME: Julia Garner
BORN: February 1, 1994
BIRTHPLACE: New York, New York
SPOUSE: Mark Foster (2019–present)
ASTROLOGICAL SIGN: Aquarius
Early Life and Family
Julia Garner was born on February 1, 1994, in in New York City. She grew up in Riverdale, an affluent neighborhood in the Bronx, with her parents, Tamar Gingold and Thomas Garner, as well as her older sister, Anna.
Her mother, Tamar, was an actor and comedian in Israel before relocating to the United States in her 20s. She now works as a therapist, while Thomas is an artist and teacher originally from Shaker Heights, Ohio. The couple raised both of their daughters in the Jewish faith.
Unlike her “very academic,” parents, Julia struggled in school. She suffered from epilepsy and, because of a severe learning disability, couldn’t read until she was 10 years old. “If you can’t read, there’s not a lot you can do. Reading is everything. It was like, ‘What’s Julia going to do?’” she told The Gentlewoman in 2019, adding that she still has difficulty reading as an adult. “The best way to put it is, it’s very surprising that I’m doing this profession because so much of it is language.”
While written works were a source of anxiety, Garner became passionate about movies and famous directors including Martin Scorsese, Billy Wilder, and Federico Fellini. Seeing this, her parents enrolled her in acting classes at age 14 to help build her confidence. Garner trained at the T. Schreiber Studio in New York and began auditioning for student movies at Columbia University’s film school.
As for her education, Garner attended the private Eagle Hill School just outside of New York City in Greenwich, Connecticut. She later earned a psychology degree from Indiana University in 2015. But by that point, it was clear she had a promising future as an actor.
Movies and TV Shows: Ozark and More
Around age 16, Garner had her first professional audition for the U.S. remake of the British TV show Skins. She nearly beat out a field of 1,500 actors hoping to portray one of the show’s struggling teens but, ultimately, finished runner-up. Still, she grabbed the attention of casting coordinator Susan Shopmaker, who helped give Garner her first movie role only months later in the 2011 thriller Martha Marcy May Marlene, featuring Elizabeth Olsen and Sarah Paulson. A year later, Garner earned her first starring role in the independent drama Electrick Children.
Garner continued to build her range in the following years with movie roles in the coming-of-age drama The Perks of Being a Wallflower (2012), the horror sequel The Last Exorcism Part II (2013), the action spectacle Sin City: A Dame to Kill For (2014), and the dramedy Grandma (2015) with Lily Tomlin. Elsewhere, she had a one-time appearance in the HBO series Girls and began a recurring role on the FX drama The Americans. However, it was an award-winning Netflix series that soon propelled Garner into star status.
Emmy Awards for Ozark
In July 2017, then-23-year-old Garner made her debut as foul-mouthed teenage criminal Ruth Langmore in Ozark. The Netflix drama series starred Jason Bateman and Laura Linney as a married couple laundering money for a Mexican drug cartel from the Lake of the Ozarks in Missouri.
Garner told W Magazine she auditioned for the part in May 2016 and thought her scene read was “terrible,” but she received a callback with Bateman and showrunner Chris Mundy. To prepare for the role, she spoke in a Missouri accent for an entire month before filming, worked with an acting coach, and kept an acting journal where she wrote down thoughts in character. “The thing that drew me was the dialogue, and how I got a sense of the character through what she was saying,” Garner explained. “It was very complex—even though I didn’t know the context of what happened in the show apart from the pilot, I figured out quickly, this girl is this, and this, and this. It was very clear.”
Ozark proved massively popular and, by February 2022, was one of only two shows—along with Tiger King—to reach more than 4 billion minutes streamed in one week. The series received 45 Primetime Emmy nominations during its four-season run, with Garner a big part of the acclaim. She won Emmys for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series after the second, third, and fourth seasons, as well as a 2023 Golden Globe Award in a comparable category.
Inventing Anna
Now a bona fide TV star, Garner showcased her skills over a string of miniseries from 2018 through 2019. This included Waco, about David Koresh and the siege of the Branch Dividians compound; Maniac; Dirty John; and Modern Love.
In 2022, Garner received a fourth Emmy nomination, for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited or Anthology Series, for her portrayal of real-life con artist Anna Delvey in the Netflix miniseries Inventing Anna. The actor had three weeks to prepare Delvey’s peculiar accent, a mix of German, Russian and American intonations.
While filming the limited series, Garner met the con artist who was then still in prison. “I wanted to know if she had any remorse for what she did. I don’t think she did. No,” the actor told Glamour. “The thing that I was most surprised by was how funny she is. She’s funny and she knows it, which makes it even more funny. She’s very likable, but that’s also very scary at the same time.”
Most recently, Garner starred in the movies The Royal Hotel (2023) and Apartment 7A (2024).
New Projects: Wolf Man and The Fantastic Four
Garner is now one of Hollywood’s most in-demand actors and has multiple big-budget projects lined up for 2025 and beyond. She plays a protective wife and mother in the horror movie Wolf Man, which arrived in theaters January 17.
Later in the year, Garner will make her Marvel Cinematic Universe debut as the Silver Surfer in The Fantastic Four: First Steps. Scheduled for release on July 25, the blockbuster also stars Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Joseph Quinn, and Ebon Moss-Bachrach as the titular superheroes.
The Emmy winner has even more projects in the pipeline. Deadline has reported Garner will appear alongside Josh Brolin in Weapons, a horror-thriller movie with an anticipated release date of 2026. She is also rumored to play pop star Madonna in a future biopic, but few details are known about the project’s status.
Husband Mark Foster
Garner married Grammy-nominated musician Mark Foster, the frontman for indie pop band Foster the People, in December 2019. The couple doesn’t have any children.
Garner and Foster first met at the Sundance Film Festival in 2013. They bonded over family connections near Cleveland but didn’t begin dating until years later when Foster, now 40, reached out to Garner via Instagram. “I was like, ‘Who’s this guy liking all my photos? Is this a stalker? I clicked on him, and I was like, ‘Oh, Mark. Oh, he’s cute. I’m going to follow him back,’” she explained to The Hollywood Reporter.
The couple became engaged in 2019 and wed later that year at City Hall in New York City. Foster wrote, produced, and sang “Lovers in a Stream,” a new track he created for their first dance as a married couple.
Foster has frequently supported Garner at high-profile events, including the 2019 Emmys where she received her first win for Ozark. “I consider myself the luckiest guy on the planet to be able to watch whatever you do from the front row, with a bag of popcorn and your hand wrapped in mine,” Foster wrote on social media.
Net Worth
Celebrity Net Worth estimates Garner’s total fortune at around $4 million as of August 2024.
Quotes
- I don’t even like saying characters—I don’t like that word. They are people. I want to know them so well that I could be having a conversation with you and be worrying about something else as the person I’m playing.
- I try not to give too much of my personal opinion away, because I feel like that’s going to make my job harder. The whole point of my job is for people to relate to me and feel moved and escape.
- The thing I liked most about acting is that I was saying someone else’s words, but it was my emotions. I could just say it through someone else.
- I’m one of those people that once I make a friend, they don’t go anywhere.
Paramount Apartment 7A and Rosemary's Baby DVD Collection
Universal Pictures Home Entertainment Wolf Man Blu-ray + Digital
Marvel Studios The Fantastic Four: First Steps The Art Of The Movie Slipcase
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Tyler Piccotti joined the Biography.com staff as an Associate News Editor and is now the News and Culture Editor. He previously worked as a reporter and copy editor for a daily newspaper recognized by the Associated Press Sports Editors. In his current role, he shares the true stories behind your favorite movies and TV shows and profiles rising musicians, actors, and athletes. When he's not working, you can find him at the nearest amusement park or movie theater and cheering on his favorite teams.
![a teenage boy holds golden trophy above his head with one hand](https://hips.hearstapps.com/hmg-prod/images/owen-cooper-accepts-the-outstanding-supporting-actor-in-a-news-photo-1757950768.pjpeg?crop=0.651xw:0.875xh;0.0561xw,0.0517xh&resize=360:* "Owen Cooper accepts the Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie award for "Adolescence" during the 77th Primetime Emmy Awards on September 14, 2025")
