Early life

Roberts was born in Atlanta, Georgia at Crawford Long Hospital. Her father, Walter Grady Roberts, was a vacuum cleaner salesman, and her Minneapolis, Minnesota-born mother, Betty Lou Motes (née Bredemus), was a one-time church secretary and real estate agent.

Her parents, one-time actors and playwrights, met while performing theatrical productions for the armed forces and later co-founded the Atlanta Actors and Writers Workshop in Atlanta, Georgia off of Juniper Street in Midtown; the two divorced in 1971. Her mother later married Michael Motes and had another daughter, named Nancy Motes who was born in 1976. Roberts’ father died of cancer when she was ten. Her older brother and sister, Eric Roberts (from whom she was once estranged but reconciled since 2004) and Lisa Roberts Gillan, are also actors.

Roberts moved to Smyrna, Georgia (a suburb of Atlanta) in 1972, where she attended Fitzhugh Lee Elementary School, Griffin Middle School and Campbell High School.

Roberts wanted to be a veterinarian as a child, but soon after graduating from Smyrna’s Campbell High School, she headed to New York to join her sister Lisa Roberts Gillan and pursue a career in acting. Once there, she signed with the Click modeling agency and enrolled in acting classes. She reverted to her original name “Julia Roberts” when she discovered that a “Julie Roberts” was already registered with the Screen Actors Guild.

Her niece, Emma Roberts, whom Julia used to take to movie sets when she was a young girl, has joined her father and aunts in the acting business.