Born in Boston, Massachusetts, she was given a Buddhist upbringing. Her half-Swedish, half-German mother, Nena, was briefly married to Timothy Leary (to whom she was introduced by Salvador Dal?) before marrying Uma's father, Robert Thurman, a professor of Indo-Tibetan Buddhist studies at Columbia University. "Uma" is the name of a Hindu goddess of light and beauty. She has three brothers, named Ganden, Dechen and Mipam. For a long time, she was a spokesmodel for cosmetics company Lanc?me which had shades of lipstick named after her. As of 2005, she is a spokesmodel for luxurious French fashion house Louis Vuitton. In Portuguese, her name means "one", in Polynesian, it means "kiss", in Japanese, it means "horse", and in Swahili it means "fork". Ethan Hawke's book For Karuna was dedicated to her.
Uma Thurman left her high school, Northfield Mount Hermon, at the age of 15 to pursue an acting career in New York City. In 1990 she married actor Gary Oldman but divorced him two years later. On May 1, 1998, she married actor Ethan Hawke, whom she had met at the set of Gattaca, and gave birth to a daughter Maya Ray and later on, son Roan.
In 2003, Thurman and Hawke split, and in 2004, the couple filed for divorce. She now resides in Hyde Park, New York.
A Russian rock band, Ne Nashego Mira, renamed itself UmaThurman (Уматурман), hoping to capitalize on her popularity.
