Julie Dreyfus

Julie Dreyfus (born January 24, 1966) is a French/Japanese actress. Fluent in French, Japanese and English, Dreyfus is well known in Japan where she made her TV debut on a French-language lesson program on NHK's educational channel in the late 1980s. She has appeared on the TV show Ryōri no Tetsujin (Iron Chef) as a guest and judge.

She is best known to western audiences for her appearances in the Quentin Tarantino films Kill Bill and Inglourious Basterds, in which she played Sofie Fatale and Francesca Mondino respectively.

Early life

Dreyfus was born and raised in Paris, the only child of French actress Pascale Audret and producer Francis Dreyfus. Her grandfather was a descendant of the famous Captain Alfred Dreyfus. She spent her summers in the U.K. She started learning Japanese in 1985 at the Institute for Oriental Languages and Civilization at the University of Paris, after studying interior design and becoming interested in Japanese architecture. She moved to Japan to study at the Osaka University of Foreign Studies for a six-month intensive Japanese course, thinking she would eventually land a job in interior design. After finishing the course, she moved to Tokyo working part-time in a design studio while continuing her private Japanese lessons. In 1988, she worked as a French language instructor on the NHK morning television educational program. Centering on a mystery drama, chief producer Motoyoshi Sei hired Dreyfus to increase ratings by changing the program into an episode-format. Eventually, she was cast by Japanese network executives as the 20-something beauty in several TV and film roles, leading her to become a gaijin tarento (foreign talent). She was also a judge on the cult-hit cooking show Ryōri no Tetsujin (Iron Chef).