Olivia Thirlby

Early life

Thirlby was born in New York City, New York to an advertising executive mother and a contractor father. She was raised in Manhattan's East Village, attending school at Friends Seminary in the city's Gramercy neighborhood, where she graduated in a class of 57 students. She also attended French Woods Festival of the Performing Arts in upstate New York, and Usdan Center for the Creative and Performing Arts (the Long Island summer arts camp also attended by Natalie Portman and Mariah Carey). She took classes at the American Globe Theatre, and briefly at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London where she completed a stage combat course with the British Academy of Stage and Screen Combat (BASSC).

Career

While still in high school, Thirlby was offered a role in The Secret. In 2006, she made her film debut in United 93 and her television debut in Kidnapped.

In 2007, she played Leah in Juno. Around this time, she and her Juno co-star Ellen Page were slated to star as the respective title characters of Jack & Diane. The film is a tale of two young women who fall in love, the heat of the romance unlocking lycanthropy in Thirlby's character, Jack. Both dropped out before production, and the cast was replaced numerous times over. In the Sundance Audience Award-winning film The Wackness, a mid-1990s period piece, she plays Stephanie, a marijuana-smoking "popular girl" from New York City. Thirlby stars opposite Josh Peck, who plays a drug dealer. The film was released in the U.S. on July 3, 2008. Thirlby was cast in the Judd Apatow-produced, David Gordon Green-directed stoner comedy, Pineapple Express, as Seth Rogen's character's girlfriend, but was replaced by actress Amber Heard after rehearsing for the film. She reunited with David Gordon Green on the animated TV pilot Good Vibes.

She made her stage debut in Farragut North, a play by Beau Willimon at the Atlantic Theater Company in New York City. The Off-Broadway production ran from October 22, 2008 – November 29, 2008 with official opening on November 12 and transferred to the Geffen Playhouse in June 2009.

Thirlby appeared in the 2009 HBO series Bored to Death. She voices promotional video excerpts from the novel Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher which, since October 2008, have regularly been posted to YouTube. She also appeared in the 2011-released film Margaret. She is attached to star in Christmas in New York as well as For Ellen.

Thirlby starred in the Russian science-fiction film The Darkest Hour, released in 2011, directed by Chris Gorak, and produced by Timur Bekmambetov. Thirlby was also cast in the lead role of Max in the upcoming drama comedy The Other Side.

With Karl Urban in the title role, Thirlby starred as Judge Cassandra Anderson in the 2012 film adaptation of Judge Dredd. She next starred in the indie film Nobody Walks co-starring John Krasinski and Rosemarie DeWitt. She plays Martine, a young artist taken in a couple's home. It premiered at 2012 Sundance Film Festival. In 2016, Thirlby co-starred as the young attorney Lucy Kittridge in the Amazon Studios legal series Goliath

Personal life

Thirlby is a participant in iO Tillett Wright's Self-Evident Truths Project. In an interview with Brooklyn Magazine (with photos shot by iO) in 2011, Thirlby publicly came out as bisexual and stated why she decided to be a part of a photography project that focuses on people who are "anything but 100 percent straight."