Where Is Erin Brockovich Now? All About the Former Paralegal’s Life 25 Years After Julia Roberts Brought Her Story to Life On-Screen

Erin Brockovich made history as an activist fighting for clean water, but it wasn’t until Julia Roberts starred in the eponymous movie about her life that she became a household name.

In 1993, the mom of three became a whistleblower when she noticed illnesses in Hinkley, Calif., may have been tied to a Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) plant. Three years later, the case was settled, breaking the record for the largest settlement in a direct-action lawsuit. Brockovich continued working in law and four years after the settlement, her story was immortalized in the award-winning film.

Since then, Brockovich has inspired new generations of advocates — many of them mothers — to fight against water contamination in their communities.

“I remember going to watch the film by myself and listening to comments as people walked out of the theater,” she recalled to PEOPLE in 2020. “[They said,] ‘I could do that.’ ‘Well, I wonder if our water is okay.’ ‘I wonder if that would happen to us. Maybe it already is us.’ “

Since winning one of the biggest direct-action lawsuits and inspiring an Oscar-winning film, Brockovich hasn’t taken a break from fighting for what she believes in.

Here is everything to know about where Erin Brockovich is now.

Who is Erin Brockovich?

Brockovich is a consumer advocate and environmental activist. She was born Erin Pattee on June 22, 1960, in Lawrence, Kan., and struggled academically as a child because of her dyslexia. After studying briefly at Kansas State University and eventually getting an associate’s degree from Wade College in Dallas, she worked pageant circuits. Brockovich also married and divorced twice during this time.

Her second husband, Steven Brockovich, lived in southern California, and after their split, Brockovich and her kids moved to Los Angeles, per The Gentlewoman.

Brockovich got involved in the legal profession after hiring attorney Ed Masry to represent her in a lawsuit over a car crash. They lost the case but Masry later hired Brockovich as a file clerk for his firm at her insistence.

Brockovich then started investigating PG&E for allegedly leaking toxic levels of the chemical hexavalent chromium (also called chromium-6) into the groundwater of the small town of Hinkley, she recalled on her website. Residents reportedly suffered from ailments ranging from rashes and nosebleeds to higher rates of cancer.

Masry teamed up with Brockovich to sue the utility company on behalf of Hinkley residents impacted by the contamination, winning a historic $333 million settlement in 1996.

What did Erin Brockovich discover?

While working through files for a pro bono real estate case in 1993, Brockovich found medical records that led her to launch an investigation into the Hinkley water supply. She discovered that a PG&E natural gas compressor leaked hexavalent chromium — an additive used to prevent metal from rusting in its cooling towers — into unlined wastewater ponds in the small San Bernardino County town from 1952 until 1966.

The Center for Public Integrity also alleged that PG&E didn’t inform local water boards about the dumping until 21 years later in 1987.

According to the Environmental Protection Agency, chromium-6 is a carcinogen, meaning it can cause mutations in cells, leading to cancer, especially if consumed in drinking water. In Brockovich’s findings, plaintiffs in the lawsuit also suffered from miscarriages, skin rashes and digestive issues, per The Guardian.

Why was Erin Brockovich’s story made into a movie?

Brockovich soared to fame when Roberts portrayed her in Steven Soderbergh’s 2000 biopic Erin Brockovich.

The movie came about through accidental networking: Brockovich told a chiropractor friend of hers about her work, who then shared it with another friend, Carla Shamberg, who was married to producer Michael Shamberg. At the time, the filmmaker was partnered with Danny DeVito on the Jersey Films production company.

Brockovich told Vulture in 2020 that she eventually met with Carla, Michael and DeVito about the movie rights to her story, but didn’t think it would necessarily go anywhere. In fact, she said the entire process didn’t even seem real to her until she saw the finished film — in which she cameos as a waitress named “Julia R.”

Brockovich said that the film was “98% accurate” and that she was thrilled with Soderbergh and Jersey Films’ work, but that she did wish more real-life players were featured.

“I did know that how the people of Hinkley were going to feel [about the movie] was important to us,” she told Vulture. “There were a lot of other people that were involved in this case, other firms, and everybody played a role. I wish they all could have just been seen in the movie. I did worry about how they would feel.”

Roberts, whom Brockovich described as “very warm,” won the 2001 Best Actress Oscar for her performance, but the film’s fame took a toll on Brockovich’s family life.

Brockovich said in a 20/20 primetime special The Real Rebel: The Erin Brockovich Story, that her three children struggled with her high profile.

“I mean, I had to work. I wasn’t making a fortune,” Brockovich said in 2021. “I didn’t see them as often. I think it was tough on them.”

What did Erin Brockovich get from the PG&E settlement?

Brockovich got a $2.5 million payout as a part of her fee in the PG&E settlement, per The Guardian. However, the paralegal said the money didn’t last long.

Brockovich said she paid $1 million in taxes and bought a $1 million mansion that needed extensive repairs due to toxic mold, per The New York Times. She also reportedly gave an ex a $40,000 settlement and spent $250,000 on rehabilitation services for her two older children, who struggled with substance abuse.

“My children weren’t used to this kind of home, it was like going from rags to riches overnight and I think it catapulted them into a faster lifestyle than they were used to,” she told The Guardian in 2001. “I was so guilt-ridden, having been gone and working, that I found myself going overboard and giving and giving and giving.”

Did Erin Brockovich actually get sick?

In a scene cut from the film, Brockovich was hospitalized. In reality, she did fall ill during her investigation into PG&E. Brockovich told The Hollywood Reporter in 2020 that she believes her illness was caused by the water in Hinkley.

“My white [blood cell] count was dropping dramatically. My immune system was failing,” she said, adding that she still regularly has her white blood cell counts monitored. “I still worry about it today.”

Are George and Erin Brockovich still together?

Brockovich and her then-boyfriend George (played in the film by Aaron Eckhart) split right around the time that Erin Brockovich premiered, and he’s since died.

“George had a brain tumor and there were a lot of things going on that I don’t think a lot of us understood,” Brockovich told Vulture in 2020. “George was a very unique man, and he was so great with my children.”

The activist went on, acknowledging how his help allowed her to play such a big role in the PG&E case. “I wouldn’t have really been able to, in my opinion, have given as much time as I did Hinkley — and I had become obsessed with these people in the situation of what was going on — had I not known that George was there for my kids,” Brockovich said.

Where is Erin Brockovich now?

In 2003, Brockovich hosted her own Lifetime series, Final Justice with Erin Brockovich, and has worked as a consultant on building safer communities for nearly 20 years.

The original film isn’t the only time her story has been fictionalized, either. In 2021, the ABC series Rebel, loosely inspired by Brockovich’s life, premiered with Katey Sagal in the starring role.

As a consumer health advocate, Brockovich has continued her activism for decades. She’s worked to raise awareness of water contamination (particularly in Flint, Mich.), harmful medical devices, climate change and corporations’ environmental and health impacts on communities, including the 2023 East Palestine train derailment and its aftermath.

Brockovich also told PEOPLE that becoming a grandmother in 2013 “reinvigorated” her urge to fight to leave a safer world for her grandchildren, as well as a legacy that would make them proud.

The activist’s book Superman’s Not Coming: Our National Water Crisis and What We the People Can Do About It was published in 2020.

“I want us to understand the importance of water,” Brockovich told PEOPLE at the time. “I don’t know that we understand the tipping point that we’re at, and what we can do in our own towns to empower ourselves so we have safer water.”

She added, “The hope is when people know better, they do better and they rise up. We can turn that tide. I’m going to believe that until the day I die.”