Olivia Wilde

Early life

Wilde was born in New York City and grew up in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, DC. She spent her summers in Ardmore, County Waterford, a small seaside resort and fishing village in Ireland. For a short time, Wilde's family also had a house in Guilford, Vermont. Her mother, Leslie Cockburn (née Leslie Corkill Redlich), is an American-born 60 Minutes producer and journalist. Her father, Andrew Cockburn, is also a journalist who was born in London to an upper-class British family and was raised in Ireland. Wilde has an older sister, Chloe Cockburn, a civil rights attorney in New York City, and a younger brother, Charlie.

Wilde has said that as a result of her parents' occupations, she has a "strong journalistic streak" and is "really critical and analytical." Wilde's uncles, Alexander and Patrick Cockburn, also worked as journalists; her aunt, Sarah Caudwell, was a writer; her half-cousin, Stephanie Flanders, is a journalist; and her paternal grandfather, Claud Cockburn, was a novelist and journalist. She also had writer Christopher Hitchens as a babysitter. Wilde's ancestry includes English, Irish, German, Manx, and Scottish; she is also of 1/64th Sephardi Jewish descent through her ancestor, Ralph Bernal (1783–1854), a British Whig politician and actor.

Both of her parents were prominent in the Washington, D.C. social scene, hosting dinner parties. Her mother once recounted a story of a four-year-old Wilde eavesdropping one night on a conversation between diplomat Richard Holbrooke and rock singer Mick Jagger, until Jagger noticed her and shooed her to bed. She attended the prestigious Georgetown Day School in Washington, D.C., as well as, Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts, graduating in 2002. Wilde was accepted to Bard College, but deferred her enrollment three times in order to pursue acting. She then studied at the Gaiety School of Acting in Dublin, Ireland.

Wilde's paternal Scottish ancestors were upper-class and lived in several places at the height of the British Empire, including Peking (where her paternal grandfather was born), Kolkata, Mumbai, Cairo, and Tasmania; one of her paternal great-great-grandfathers, Henry Arthur Blake, was Governor of Hong Kong. Her other paternal ancestors include abolitionist and Anglican minister James Ramsay; politician George Arbuthnot; lawyer, judge, and literary figure Henry Cockburn, Lord Cockburn; Lord Provost of Edinburgh Sir William Arbuthnot; and Sir Thomas Osborne.

Career beginnings

During her early career, Wilde appeared as "Jewel Goldman" on the short-lived FOX television series, Skin (2003-2004), and became known for her recurring role as Alex Kelly on the teen-drama television series, The O.C. (2004–2005).

Wilde was also in The Girl Next Door (2004), Conversations with Other Women (2005), Alpha Dog (2006), Turistas (2006), Bickford Shmeckler's Cool Ideas (2006), and The Death and Life of Bobby Z (2007). She was also in the short-lived NBC drama television series, The Black Donnellys (2007).

In 2007, she appeared in the off-Broadway theatre production of Beauty on the Vine, a political thriller, playing three different characters.

House

In September 2007, Wilde joined the cast of the FOX medical-drama television series, House, and made her first appearance in the episode, "The Right Stuff." She played the character of Dr. Remy Hadley, nicknamed Thirteen, a secretive and bisexual young internist with Huntington's disease, who was handpicked by House out of a number of applicants to join his medical team.

In August 2011, it was announced Wilde would be leaving the show to further pursue her film career; she left a few months later, in the episode "Charity Case."

In May 2012, Wilde's character returned for the series final two episodes, "Holding On" and "Everybody Dies."

Film career

Wilde appeared in the comedy film Year One (2009) as Princess Inanna, alongside Jack Black and Michael Cera. She starred in Disney's Tron: Legacy (2010) as Quorra, the trusted friend and protector of Kevin Flynn (Jeff Bridges). Wilde appeared in the science fiction Western film Cowboys & Aliens (2011) as Ella Swensen, who works with Jake Lonergan (Daniel Craig) and Woodrow Dolarhyde (Harrison Ford) to save the Earth from evil aliens. Wilde also starred alongside Ryan Reynolds and Jason Bateman in the comedy The Change-Up (2011). Her additional films include In Time (2011), On the Inside (2011) and Butter (2011).

Wilde starred alongside Chris Pine in the film People Like Us (2012). She also starred 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. Wilde can be seen in 2012's The Words as a curious amateur reporter named Daniella who interviews the film's main character, played by Dennis Quaid.

She starred in and executive produced Drinking Buddies (2013), which co-starred Jake Johnson and Anna Kendrick. Wilde also starred in the multi-strand drama Third Person (2012) as Anna, an author's muse who begins to mercilessly complicate his life. Wilde had a supporting role as a blind date in the Spike Jonze drama/romance/sci-fi film Her (2012) as well as 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, about James Hunt and Niki Lauda.

Wilde starred as Elizabeth Roberts, a trophy-wife customer who enters a straight-laced pharmacists's life and takes him on a joyride involving sex, drugs and possibly murder in Better Living Through Chemistry (2014). She also starred as Beatrice Fairbanks in The Longest Week (2014), alongside Jason Bateman and Billy Crudup, as the middle of a love triangle between an affluent drifter and his best friend.

Wilde 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), directed by Reed Morano from a script by Chris Rossi. The film premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York on April 17, 2015.

Wilde's writing and directing debut was the film Free Hugs (2011) for Glamour Magazine's short film series. The short screened at various festivals across the country.

Documentaries

Inspired by her parents, who are award-winning journalists and documentary filmmakers, Wilde has served as executive producer on several documentary films. Her most recent documentary short, Body Team 12, 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. Wilde also executive produced The Rider and the Storm, a documentary short about Timmy Brennan, a New York iron worker from Breezy Point, Queens, who lost everything he owned when Hurricane Sandy hit; Baseball in the Time of Cholera, which explored the cholera epidemic in Haiti; and Sun City Picture House, which is about a community in Haiti that rallies to build a movie theater after the disastrous 2010 earthquake.

Continuing on the documentary front, Wilde was featured 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.

2016-present

In 2016 Wilde directed a music video for Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros, teaming up with DP, Reed Morano. Wilde then worked with American rock band Red Hot Chili Peppers, directing the music video for their song "Dark Necessities" for their album The Getaway.

In 2017, she made her Broadway debut playing Julia in 1984, opposite Tom Sturridge as Winston Smith.

Endorsements

In 2011, Wilde became a brand ambassador for Revlon, appearing in print ads and commercials. The partnership ended in the end of 2016.

In May 2017, Wilde became chief brand activist of True Botanicals, a cosmetics & skin care company, which sells nontoxic products.

Personal life

Wilde derived her stage name from Irish author Oscar Wilde. She changed her surname while in high school, to honor the writers in her family, many of whom used pen names. She considered herself a pescetarian in 2011, although she has also claimed to be both vegan and vegetarian at different times in her life. She was voted PETA's Sexiest Vegetarian Celebrity of 2010.

Wilde holds dual citizenship with Ireland and the United States.

Relationships

On June 7, 2003, when she was 19 years old, Wilde married Tao Ruspoli, an Italian filmmaker and musician, whose family owns a famed palazzo in Italy, at a ceremony in Washington, Virginia. They were married on a school bus with only a pair of witnesses. She later said the marriage occurred in an abandoned school bus because it was the only place where they could be completely alone, as the marriage was a secret at the time. On February 8, 2011, she and Ruspoli announced that they were separating. Wilde filed for divorce in Los Angeles County Superior Court on March 3, 2011, citing "irreconcilable differences". The divorce was finalized on September 29, 2011. Wilde did not seek spousal support, and the pair reached a private agreement on property division.

Wilde began dating actor, comedian, and screenwriter Jason Sudeikis in November 2011. They were engaged in January 2013. They have two children, son Otis Alexander Sudeikis (born April 2014) and a daughter Daisy Josephine Sudeikis (born October 2016).

Other activities

In 2008, Wilde campaigned with actors Justin Long and her then-current House castmate Kal Penn for the Democratic Presidential nominee Barack Obama. Wilde was a supporter of the youth voter organization, 18 in '08. She serves on their advisory council and appeared in a public service announcement that debuted June 30, 2008.

She appeared in the MoveOn.org mock-PSA "supporting" the rights of the healthcare insurance industry.

Wilde was commended by the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, a farmworkers' union, for supporting the Fair Foods campaign.

In 2013, Wilde wrote an article called the, "Do's and Don'ts of Turning 30," which was published in Glamour Magazine.

In 2013, she appeared in a video clip for Gucci's "Chime for Change" campaign that aims to raise funds and awareness of women's issues in terms of education, health, and justice.

Wilde is a board member of Artists for Peace and Justice, which provides education and health services in Haiti, and the ACLU of Southern California.

On June 30, 2015, she introduced Democratic Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton at a campaign event in New York City.

Wilde is a celebrity influencer/activist for RYOT, a Los Angeles-based media company.

Wilde starred in a PSA released on March 21, 2016 for World Down Syndrome Day where she stars alongside 19-year-old AnnaRose from New Jersey who has Down Syndrome.