Olivia Wilde

Wilde's mother, Leslie Cockburn (née Redlich), is an American 60 Minutes producer and journalist. Her father, Andrew Cockburn, also a journalist, son of British novelist and journalist Claud Cockburn, was born in London, and raised in Ireland. For a short time Wilde's family also had a house in Guilford, Vermont. Wilde has a sister five years older and a brother nine years younger.[7] Wilde's grandfather Claud Cockburn and his sons Alexander and Patrick Cockburn also worked as journalists, and Wilde's aunt, Sarah Caudwell, was a writer. Writer Christopher Hitchens was the Cockburn family's tenant in Washington D.C., and served as her babysitter.[5]

Some of Wilde's paternal Scottish ancestors were upper-class and lived in many locations at the height of the British Empire, including Peking (where her paternal grandfather was born), Calcutta, Bombay, Cairo, and Tasmania. The Cockburns descend from the lawyer, judge, and literary figure Henry Cockburn, Lord Cockburn. One of Wilde's great-great-grandfathers, Henry Arthur Blake, was governor of Hong Kong.[10][11][12] Through her father's family Wilde is related to George Cockburn, who was responsible for burning down Washington, D.C. during the War of 1812.[13] Wilde's ancestry includes English, Irish, German, Manx, and Scottish; she is also of 1/64th Sephardic Jewish descent through her great-great-great-great grandfather, Ralph Bernal (1783–1854), a British Whig politician and actor.[14][15]

Wilde in 2007

Wilde appeared as "Jewel Goldman" on the short-lived television series Skin (2003–2004). She became known for her recurring role as Alex Kelly on the teen drama television series The O.C. (2004–2005). She was in the films The Girl Next Door (2004), Conversations with Other Women (2005), Bickford Shmeckler's Cool Ideas (2006), Turistas (2006) and Alpha Dog (2006).

In 2007, she appeared in the off-Broadway theatre production of Beauty on the Vine, a political thriller, playing three different characters. She was also in The Death and Life of Bobby Z (2007) and the short-lived drama television series The Black Donnellys (2007). In September 2007, Wilde joined the cast of the medical drama television series House. She played the character of Remy "Thirteen" Hadley, a bisexual internist with Huntington's disease, who was handpicked by House out of a number of applicants to join his medical team. Her first appearance was in the episode "The Right Stuff".

Wilde appeared in the comedy film Year One (2009) as Princess Inanna. She starred in Disney's Tron: Legacy (2010) as Quorra. Inspired by her award-winning journalist and documentary filmmaker parents, Wilde has served as executive producer on several documentary short films, such as Sun City Picture House (2010), which is about a community in Haiti that rallies to build a movie theater after the disastrous 2010 earthquake.

Wilde at the Tron: Legacy premiere, December 2010

In August 2011, it was announced Wilde would be leaving House to further pursue her film career; she left a few months later, in the episode "Charity Case".[16] Wilde starred in Cowboys & Aliens (2011) as Ella Swensen, who works with other characters to save the Earth from evil aliens, and also starred in the comedy The Change-Up (2011). She was also in the films In Time (2011), On the Inside (2011) and Butter (2011). In 2011, Wilde became a global brand ambassador for the cosmetic company Revlon, which featured her in their commercials. Wilde made her directing and screenwriting debut with the film Free Hugs (2011) for Glamour Magazine's short film series, which was screened at various festivals.

In May 2012, Wilde's character, Remy "Thirteen" Hadley, returned for the series finale of House for two episodes, "Holding On" and "Everybody Dies." She starred in the film People Like Us (2012), Third Person (2012), The Words (2012) and as Liza in Deadfall (2012), a thriller about two siblings who decide to fend for themselves in the wake of a botched casino heist, and their unlikely reunion during another family's Thanksgiving celebration. She had a supporting role as a blind date in the drama/romance/sci-fi film Her (2012).[17] In 2012, Wilde was featured in PBS docu-series Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide, which was inspired by Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn's book of the same name. The docu-series follows Wilde as she learns of the struggles women face in Nairobi, Kenya. She also produced the short film, Baseball in the Time of Cholera (2012), which explored the cholera epidemic in Haiti.

Wilde (right) with the cast of Her at the film's premiere in 2013

In 2013, Wilde wrote an article called the, "Do's and Don'ts of Turning 30," which was published in Glamour Magazine.[18] She starred in and executive produced Drinking Buddies (2013). She had a supporting role as Jane, a magician's assistant, in The Incredible Burt Wonderstone (2013). She also played Suzy Miller in the biographical drama Rush (2013), about James Hunt and Niki Lauda, and had a starring role in the film Her (2013), which was lauded by critics,[19][20] and received accolades from the Academy Awards and Golden Globe Awards.[21] She has served as executive producer for other documentary short films: The Rider and the Storm (2013), about Timmy Brennan, a New York ironworker from Breezy Point, Queens who lost everything he owned when Hurricane Sandy hit and Body Team 12 (2015), which follows the team tasked with collecting the dead at the height of the Ebola outbreak. The film went on to win Best Documentary Short at the 2015 Tribeca Film Festival,[22] and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Documentary (Short Subject) at the 88th Academy Awards.[23]

Wilde starred as Elizabeth Roberts, a trophy-wife customer who enters a strait-laced pharmacist's life and takes him on a joyride involving sex, drugs and possibly murder in Better Living Through Chemistry (2014). She starred as Beatrice Fairbanks in The Longest Week (2014), as the middle of a love triangle between an affluent drifter and his best friend.[24] In 2015, she was the brand ambassador of H&M's Conscious Exclusive campaign.[25] She starred in the thriller The Lazarus Effect (2015) as Zoe, a medical researcher who is accidentally killed, then revived with a miraculous serum with unfortunate side-effects.[26] Wilde also starred in and produced the drama Meadowland (2015), that premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York on April 17, 2015.[27][28] She played Eleanor in Love the Coopers (2015).

In 2016, Wilde directed a music video for Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros, teaming up with director of photography Reed Morano. She then worked with American rock band Red Hot Chili Peppers, directing the music video for their song "Dark Necessities". Wilde starred as Devon Finestra in HBO's rock 'n' roll drama television series Vinyl (2016). Also in 2016, Wilde also directed an acclaimed live table reading of Hannah and Her Sisters at The New York Times's Center Theatre.[29] The cast included Wilde as Hannah.[30] Wilde stated that Hannah and Her Sisters is "just a perfect script, and I knew an audience would enjoy having the chance to focus on the genius of the writing, which is what the Live Reads allow for".[31] Her brand ambassador partnership with Revlon ended in 2016.

In 2017, Wilde made her Broadway debut portraying the role of Julia in 1984.[32] It opened at the Hudson Theatre in New York City on June 22 (previews beginning May 18) for a limited run until October 8, 2017. In May 2017, Wilde became chief brand activist of True Botanicals, a cosmetics and skin care company.[33] Her documentary short Fear Us Women (2017) follows Canadian civilian Hanna Bohman, who has spent the last three years in Syria as a volunteer soldier battling ISIS. As a member of the YPJ, an all-female Kurdish army, Hanna gives an inside look at the women fighting for liberation in Syria.[34]

Wilde during the red carpet premiere of A Vigilante at SXSW 2018

In 2018, Wilde appeared in A Vigilante.[35] Its world premiere was at South by Southwest on March 10, 2018.[36] It was released March 29, 2019.[37] The same year, Wilde starred in the drama Life Itself.[38] The film was released on September 21, 2018, received negative reviews from critics, and performed poorly at the box office.[39][40]

Wilde made her directing debut with the high school comedy Booksmart,[41] which was released on May 24, 2019.[42] As of June 27, 2019, it was rated 97% "fresh" on Rotten Tomatoes, from 271 critics' reviews.[43] The Washington Post stated, "[as the film progresses,] Wilde's filmmaking skills become more and more evident, bursting forth in a third act that builds into something beautiful and even transcendent." The Los Angeles Times wrote that it "leaves you feeling unaccountably hopeful for the state of humanity – and the state of American screen comedy too", and The Wall Street Journal noted, "Nothing funnier, smarter, quicker or more joyous has graced the big screen in a long time."[43] The film won the Independent Spirit Award for Best First Feature at the 35th Independent Spirit Awards on February 8, 2020.[44]

Wilde next appeared in Richard Jewell in 2019, playing Atlanta-Journal Constitution reporter Kathy Scruggs who died in 2001.[45] The film was criticised for depicting Scruggs as offering to trade sex with an FBI agent in return for confidential information.[46] The editor-in-chief of The Atlanta-Journal Constitution wrote in an open letter that this depicted incident was "entirely false and malicious".[47] Employees of the newspaper demanded the film have a prominent disclaimer that "some events were imagined for dramatic purposes and artistic license."[48][49] The film was accused of perpetuating a sexist trope of women journalists exchanging sex for information.[50][51] Wilde defended her role and stated that there was a sexist double standard, in that Jon Hamm's FBI agent character was not held to the same scrutiny.[52] Commentators noted that Wilde's character was based on a real person, whereas the FBI agent was an amalgamation of multiple characters from the original script.[52] They also stated that the purpose of the film was to expose and condemn the character assassination of Jewell; however, in the process, the film commits the same character assassination of Scruggs.[50]

She also directed Wake Up, a short film starring Margaret Qualley.[53]

Wilde will direct and play a supporting role in Don't Worry Darling, a psychological thriller about a 1950s housewife, starring Florence Pugh, Harry Styles, Kiki Layne and Chris Pine, for New Line Cinema from a screenplay by Katie Silberman.[54][55] She is also attached to direct Perfect, a biopic about gymnast Kerri Strug for Searchlight Pictures,[56] an untitled holiday-comedy film for Universal Pictures,[57] and a female-centered superhero film as part of the Sony Pictures Universe of Marvel Characters franchise.[58]