- Born
- Birth nameOlivia Jane Cockburn
- Height5′ 7″ (1.70 m)
- Actress and activist Olivia Wilde is a modern day renaissance woman, starring in many acclaimed film productions, while simultaneously giving back to the community.
She was born on March 10, 1984 in New York City. Her parents are Leslie Cockburn (née Leslie Corkill Redlich) and Andrew Cockburn. Her mother is American-born and her father was born in London, England to an upper-class British family; he also later became a citizen of Ireland. Wilde is the middle child, having an older sister, Chloe Cockburn, and, a younger brother, Charlie Cockburn. She is of English, Irish, Scottish, German, and Manx descent.
She was raised in Georgetown, Washington, D.C., and spent her summers in Ardmore, County Waterford, Ireland. She attended the private Georgetown Day School, as well as, Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts, graduating in 2002. She was accepted to Bard College, another highly selective private school in Duchess County, New York but deferred her enrollment three times in order to pursue an acting career. She later studied at the Gaiety School of Acting in Dublin, Ireland.
Wilde is known for her television roles as Alex Kelly in The O.C. (2003) from 2004-2005 and Dr. Remy "Thirteen" Hadley in the medical-drama television series, House (2004) when she joined the cast in 2007 and appeared on the show until the series end in 2012.
Wilde is a board member of the organization "Artists for Peace and Justice," which supports communities in Haiti through programs in education, health care, and dignity through the performing arts. She has served as executive producer on several documentary short films, including, Sun City Picture House (2010), which is about a community in Haiti that rallies to build a movie theater after the disastrous 2010 earthquake and Baseball in the Time of Cholera (2012), which explored the cholera epidemic in Haiti.
Wilde is known for her roles in Year One (2009), Tron: Legacy (2010), Cowboys & Aliens (2011), In Time (2011), People Like Us (2012), Her (2013), Rush (2013), Drinking Buddies (2013), The Longest Week (2014), Love the Coopers (2015), and Meadowland (2015).
Since 2011, Wilde had been in a relationship with Jason Sudeikis. They have two children together, Otis Alexander Sudeikis (born April 20, 2014) and Daisy Josephine Sudeikis (born October 11, 2016). In November 2020, they announced that they had ended their relationship.
Wilde made her Broadway debut in the play "1984" at the Hudson Theatre in New York City in 2017. She has recently starred in Life Itself (2018) and A Vigilante (2018).- IMDb Mini Biography By: Annonymous
- SpouseTao Ruspoli(January 16, 2003 - September 29, 2011) (divorced)
- Children
- Parents
- RelativesJean Ross(Grandparent)Chloe Cockburn(Sibling)Charlie Cockburn(Sibling)Rose Leslie(Cousin)Kit Harington(Cousin)Dacre Montgomery(Cousin)Claud Cockburn(Grandparent)Patrick Cockburn(Aunt or Uncle)Alexander Cockburn(Aunt or Uncle)Laura Flanders(Cousin)Portia Leslie(Cousin)
- Her feline eyebrows
- Cat-like green-blue eyes
- Husky voice
- Adopted her professional name "Wilde" after she developed a profound respect and admiration for Irish poet and writer Oscar Wilde and his body of literature.
- When asked about the meaning behind the tattoo on her wrist, which says "All love, A", she explained "It's in honor of my late uncle Alexander Cockburn. He was a dear dear friend. The tattoo is the last phrase he wrote to me. All love, A. It reminds me to love everyone, just as he did.".
- Once won a pancake eating contest while in Australia.
- Has dual originary citizenship between Ireland and the United States.
- Mick Jagger was once her parents' dinner guest at their Washington, D.C. home and she had an impromptu brownie-eating contest with Chris Farley when at age 10, she visited the set of Saturday Night Live (1975).
- [interview in The New York Observer] When people saw The Black Donnellys (2007), they didn't know it was the same girl from The O.C. (2003). I'm a natural blonde, but I feel like a brunette. I feel like people treat me now how I should be treated. People used to be shocked, when I was blonde, that I wasn't stupid. I used to get these comments that I swear people thought were compliments. Like, "Oh! You're smart" -- like they couldn't believe it. (April 15, 2007)
- Trying to find this industry's tendency to celebrate the physical is a waste of time. So I'm happy to play the game. But I am also thirsty for input. I'm not a dunce whose only skill is knowing how to take a photograph, you know? And at the end of the day, I think it makes me slightly less replaceable.
- [on her marriage, at age 19] It was a great eight years, but it was time for both of us to move.
- [on Tron: Legacy (2010)] It was an effort to get into that suit, but if I was a real astronaut I wouldn't expect that to be easy either. It's all part of the process, it's a challenge and that is what creates the rewards.
- I wanted to be on Saturday Night Live (1975) as a cast member. So I went to my mom at ten years old and said, "This is what I want." And she said, "Great, well, you're going to have to go to Second City and you're going to have to audition." And she took me seriously. And I think that's what always kind of helped propel me and take myself seriously is that I had supportive parents that were in no way pressuring me to do anything. But if I declared that I wanted something, they took me seriously. And that is often what it takes when you decide to be an artist.
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