Alicia Christian Foster, better known as Jodie Foster (born November 19, 1962), is an American actor, director and producer.

Although Foster's first acting appearance was at three years old, her first significant role came in 1976's Taxi Driver as the preteen prostitute, Iris, for which she received an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress. She won an Oscar for Best Actress in 1989 for playing a rape survivor in The Accused. In 1991, she starred in The Silence of the Lambs as Clarice Starling, a gifted FBI trainee, assisting in a hunt for a serial killer. This performance received international acclaim and her second Oscar for Best Actress. She received her fourth Oscar nomination for playing a hermit in Nell (1994). Her films and roles have spanned a wide variety of genres, including thrillers, crime, horror, romance, comedy, children's films and science fiction. Popular later films include the box office successes Contact (1997), Panic Room (2002), Flightplan (2005), Inside Man (2006) and Nim's Island (2008). Foster has also won two Golden Globe Awards, a Screen Actors Guild Award, a People's Choice Award, and has received two Emmy nominations.