Olivia Wilde

Olivia Jane Cockburn (born March 10, 1984), known professionally as Olivia Wilde, is an American actress and filmmaker. She played Remy "Thirteen" Hadley on the medical-drama television series House (2007–2012), and appeared in the action films Tron: Legacy (2010) and Cowboys & Aliens (2011), the romantic drama film Her (2013), the comedy film The Incredible Burt Wonderstone (2013), and the horror film The Lazarus Effect (2015). She made her Broadway debut playing Julia in 1984 (2017).

Wilde made her directorial debut with the teen comedy film Booksmart (2019), which received critical acclaim and won the Independent Spirit Award for Best First Feature. She subsequently directed the thriller film Don't Worry Darling (2022) and The Invite (2026), both of which she also starred in.

Early life

Wilde was born Olivia Jane Cockburn in New York City on March 10, 1984. She grew up in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C., while spending summers at Ardmore in Ireland. She attended Georgetown Day School in Washington, D.C., and Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts, graduating in 2002. A dual citizen of the United States and Ireland, she derived her professional surname from Irish author Oscar Wilde, and began using it in high school to honor the writers in her family, many of whom used pen names. She was accepted to Bard College, but deferred her enrollment three times to pursue acting. She then studied at the Gaiety School of Acting in Dublin. 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. Her father, Andrew Cockburn, is a British journalist who was born in the London suburb of Willesden and raised in Ireland. Her mother, Leslie Cockburn (née Redlich), is an American producer on 60 Minutes and a journalist.

Writer Christopher Hitchens was the Cockburn family's tenant in Washington, D.C., and served as Wilde's babysitter. Her grandfather, British novelist Claud Cockburn, and his sons Alexander and Patrick Cockburn were also journalists, and her aunt, Sarah Caudwell, was a writer. The Cockburns are a family of the British landed gentry; they claim descent from the British admiral Sir George Cockburn, 10th Baronet, who ordered the Burning of Washington in 1814.

Career

2003–2012: Early work and House

Wilde appeared as Jewel Goldman on the short-lived television series Skin (2003). She gained attention for her recurring role as bisexual bar owner Alex Kelly, who dates both characters played by Adam Brody and Mischa Barton on the teen drama TV series The O.C. (2004–2005).

She appeared in 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 starred off-Broadway in political thriller Beauty on the Vine, playing three 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, she joined the cast of the medical drama TV series House as Remy "Thirteen" Hadley, a bisexual internist with Huntington's disease who is handpicked by House 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, and starred in Disney's Tron: Legacy (2010) as Quorra. Inspired by her award-winning journalist and documentary filmmaker parents, she has executive-produced several documentary short films, including Sun City Picture House (2010), about a community in Haiti that rallies to build a movie theater after the disastrous 2010 earthquake.

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". 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). In 2012, Wilde was featured as one of six celebrity advocates in the 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.

2013–2018: Films and Broadway debut

In 2013, Wilde wrote an article called the, "Do's and Don'ts of Turning 30," which was published in Glamour Magazine. 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, and received accolades from the Academy Awards and Golden Globe Awards. 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, and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Documentary (Short Subject) at the 88th Academy Awards.

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. In 2015, she was the brand ambassador of H&M's Conscious Exclusive campaign. 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. Wilde also starred in and produced the drama Meadowland (2015), that premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York on April 17, 2015. 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. The cast included Wilde as Hannah. 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". Her brand ambassador partnership with Revlon ended in 2016.

In 2017, Wilde made her Broadway debut portraying the role of Julia in 1984. 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. 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.

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