Born into an illustrious family of actors, Julie Depardieu studied philosophy, then did a number of internships in the film industry, without, however, pursuing a career as an actress. She made her big screen debut alongside her father in Le Colonel Chabert in 1994. She then appeared in several TV films by Josée Dayan.

Danièle Dubroux gave the actress her first major role in L'Examen de minuit in 1998. Her naturalness and imagination worked wonders in the director's zany world, and she directed her again in Eros thérapie in 2004.

She went on to play a series of roles, both in arthouse films and for a wider audience.

In 2003, Julie starred in Podium and A Very Long Engagement, both big box office hits.

In 2004, she achieved her first major accolade by becoming the first actress to win two Césars for the same role in Claude Miller's La Petite Lili (Best Newcomer and Best Supporting Actress).

Her collaboration with this filmmaker would be beneficial to her, as she would once again win the César for Best Supporting Actress for Un secret in 2008, the year in which she also played herself in Maïwenn's Le Bal des actrices.

After a successful period from 2009 to 2011, she could be heard in the animated film Ma maman est en Amérique by Marc Boreal and Thibaut Chatel, before appearing in the 2014 adaptation of Les yeux jaunes des crocodiles. Since then, she has appeared in two other feature films, Crash test Aglaé directed by Eric Gravel and C'est quoi cette famille?! by Gabriel Julien-Laferrière. In 2014, Julie Depardieu co-directed Guillaume D. with Pierre-Henri Gibert, a documentary in tribute to her brother Guillaume.

Julie Depardieu made her theatre debut in 2003 with a production of Honoré de Balzac's Memoirs of Two Brides, followed by Le Jardin aux Betteraves (The Beetroot Garden) by Roland Dubillard. In 2011, Julie Depardieu was nominated for a Molière award for her performance in Nono by Sacha Guitry, directed by Michel Fau, who also directed her in Le Misanthrope in 2014 and in Fric Frac in 2018.

A lover of classical music and opera, she directed Offenbach's The Tales of Hoffmann in 2008.

In 2015, she took part in a reading-concert at the Maeght Foundation for the inauguration of the exhibition ‘En chemin’ by Gérard Garouste based on his book L'Intranquille. She was also the narrator in Offenbach's Fantasio at the Radio France Montpellier Festival under the direction of Friedemann Layer.

She will repeat the experience at the Festival de Saint-Denis with Charles Berling and the Secession Orchestra conducted by Clément Mao-Takacs.

Julie Depardieu writes a weekly column for the Matinale programme on France Musique.