Olivia Munn

Lisa Olivia Munn (born July 3, 1980) is an American actress. After an internship at a news station in Tulsa, she moved to Los Angeles where she began her professional career as a television host for the gaming network G4, and on the series Attack of the Show! (2006–2010) before appearing as a recurring correspondent on the Comedy Central late night series The Daily Show from 2010 to 2011.

On television, she has taken roles acting in both the Aaron Sorkin HBO political drama series The Newsroom (2012–2014) and the Jonathan Tropper Apple TV+ dark comedy crime series Your Friends and Neighbors (2025). On film, she has taken leading roles in The Predator (2018), Buddy Games (2019), Love Wedding Repeat (2020), and Violet (2021) with supporting roles in Big Stan (2007), Date Night (2010), Magic Mike (2012), Deliver Us from Evil (2014), Mortdecai (2015), Office Christmas Party (2016), and Ride Along 2 (2016). She portrayed Psylocke in the superhero film X-Men: Apocalypse (2016) and voiced a role in The Lego Ninjago Movie (2017).

She is a vocal advocate for women's rights and has used her platform to speak out against anti-Asian harassment. She was named one of Time magazine's Women of the Year for 2025.

Early life and education

Lisa Olivia Munn was born on July 3, 1980, in Oklahoma City to Kimberly Schmid and Winston Munn. Her father is of German, Irish, and English ancestry. Her mother, who is a Vietnamese woman of Chinese ancestry, arrived as a refugee in the United States in 1975 following the Vietnam War and settled in Oklahoma, where she met Munn's father. Munn has two brothers and two sisters.

When Munn was two years old, her parents divorced and her mother married a member of the United States Air Force. The family relocated to Utah, where they resided until 1986. Munn's stepfather transferred to Yokota Air Base near Tachikawa in Tokyo, Japan, where she spent her formative years. She has recalled how her stepfather was "verbally abusive" and demeaning:

When [he] would be screaming his head off in the living room, I would hustle everybody into my room and launch into imitations of teachers or do scenes from movies. And that would take their minds off of the hell that was happening down the hall.

When Munn was 16, her mother divorced her stepfather and moved with the children back to Oklahoma City. Munn attended Putnam City North High School for her junior and senior years, then attended the University of Oklahoma, where she earned a B.A. in journalism with a minor in Japanese and dramatic arts.

Career

2004–2009: Career beginnings and acting

Munn worked as an intern at NBC affiliate KJRH-TV in Tulsa before relocating to Los Angeles. In 2004, she interned at Fox Sports Networks and worked as a sideline reporter for college football and women's basketball. She said that she disliked the experience: "I was trying to be something I wasn't, and that made me really uncomfortable on live TV." She soon moved to Los Angeles, where she was cast in a small role in the direct-to-video horror film Scarecrow Gone Wild. She appeared in rock band Zebrahead's music video for their song "Hello Tomorrow" as the love interest of lead singer Justin Mauriello. She also appeared in National Lampoon's Strip Poker, filmed at Hedonism II, a naturist resort in Negril, Jamaica, with Kato Kaelin. The films aired on DirecTV and In Demand pay-per-view.

In late 2005, Munn began her role as teen surfer Mily Acuna over two seasons of the television drama Beyond the Break, which aired during Noggin's teen block, The N. She enjoys surfing and continues to practice the sport. She originally auditioned for the role of Kai Kealoha, but the producers wanted a "local girl". She also appeared in the film The Road to Canyon Lake.

In 2006, Munn won a contest put out to the public to find a replacement for departing co-host Kevin Rose on the popular G4 network program Attack of the Show! She then began co-hosting with Kevin Pereira on April 10. She replaced temporary co-host Sarah Lane. The network, devoted to the world of video games and the video games lifestyle, was at first hesitant to hire Munn. Although she admits video games were her "weak point", she was confident in her technical knowledge. On the show, she was featured with journalist Anna David in a segment called "In Your Pants", which deals with sex and relationship questions from viewers. While working on Attack of the Show!, she hosted Formula D, a now defunct program about American drift racing, and an online podcast called Around the Net, formerly known as The Daily Nut, for G4. She left Attack of the Show! in December 2010 and was replaced by Candace Bailey. She appeared in the Rob Schneider film Big Stan (2007), where she played Schneider's character's receptionist Maria. She had a significant role in the horror film Insanitarium, where she played a nurse at an asylum.

2010–2014: The Newsroom and breakthrough

She had roles in the films Date Night (2010) and Iron Man 2 (2010). Robert Downey Jr. praised Munn for her improvisation skills and led the crew in a round of applause. Munn hosted Microsoft's Bing-a-thon, an advertisement on Hulu for the Microsoft search-engine Bing, on June 8, 2009, alongside Jason Sudeikis. Munn appeared in ABC Family's Greek, portraying Cappie's love interest, Lana. In May 2010, NBC announced that Munn would star on the television series Perfect Couples. The half-hour romantic comedy premiered on January 20, 2011. The series was canceled before it completed its first season run.

On June 3, 2010, Munn debuted in her new role as a correspondent on Comedy Central's The Daily Show. Her credentials were questioned by Irin Carmon of the website Jezebel, who suggested that Munn was better known as a sex symbol than as a comedian. Carmon's column was denounced by Munn and the Daily Show's female writers, producers, and correspondents, 32 of whom posted a rebuttal on the show's website in which they asserted that the description of the Daily Show office given by the Jezebel piece was not accurate. She went on to appear in 16 more episodes as a correspondent from June 2010 to September 2011, with TV Guide naming her signature segment "Tiger Mothering", in which she mocked the high expectations of Chinese mothers, in part by interviewing her own mother. Her last episode as a correspondent aired September 2, 2011. She returned for a brief segment in host Jon Stewart's final show on August 6, 2015.

In 2010, Munn guest-starred on NBC's comedy-drama Chuck as a CIA agent. In 2011, Munn appeared in the comedy film I Don't Know How She Does It (2011) as Momo. In 2012, Munn had a leading role in The Babymakers, a minor role in Freeloaders, and appeared in Magic Mike, directed by Steven Soderbergh. She also appeared as Angie, Nick's stripper girlfriend, in three episodes in season two of FOX's sitcom New Girl.

Munn gained prominence in a lead role in Aaron Sorkin's drama series The Newsroom on HBO. In the series, she played Sloan Sabbith, an economist who worked on the show's fictional news network, ACN, alongside lead anchor Will McAvoy (Jeff Daniels). The series ran for three seasons from 2012 to 2015. Since then, Munn and her costar Thomas Sadoski have discussed with Sorkin their desire for the show to return.

Munn played a correspondent in "True Colors", the May 12, 2014 episode of the Showtime documentary series Years of Living Dangerously in which she interviewed Washington State Governor Jay Inslee about his efforts to reduce CO₂ emissions in his home state. As of June 2014, Munn has been hired as the main promoter of Proactiv acne cleanser products starring in several commercials and one infomercial for the product. The commercials show Munn experiencing acne herself.

2015–present

Beginning in January 2015, Munn voiced the character Phoebe Callisto on the Disney Junior animated series Miles from Tomorrowland. In 2016, Munn was cast as Elizabeth Braddock / Psylocke in X-Men: Apocalypse (for which she turned down an offer to appear in the Deadpool film of that same year). Though the film received mixed reviews, it was a financial success, grossing over $500 million worldwide. The same year, Munn had a leading role portraying a technical supervisor in the comedy film Office Christmas Party.