Elizabeth Olsen biography

Synopsis

Early Life

Actress. Elizabeth Chase Olsen was born on February 16, 1989 in Sherman Oaks, California, as the third daughter of David Olsen, a mortgage banker, and Jarnie Olsen, a manager. Olsen's older twin sisters are the actresses and entrepreneurs Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen, who first gained fame on the family sitcom Full House. Lizzie Olsen began acting at a very young age, with appearances in her sisters' films. Before the age of eleven, Olsen had small roles in How the West Was Fun, Our First Video, and the straight-to-video series The Adventures of Mary-Kate and Ashley. Of this period in her acting career, Olsen comments, "Well, that was like after-school for me. I'd hang out and they'd be like, hey, you want to be in this one? Then they'd paint half my face dark brown or something— 'Silly sister, forgot to put sunscreen on half her face.'"

Olsen attended Campbell Hall School in North Hollywood, California from kindergarten through grade 12. After graduation, she enrolled at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts. In 2009, Olsen spent a semester studying in Moscow, Russia at the Art Theatre School. The young actress says of her work towards an acting career: "...I've been taking acting classes since I was 7. I took classes, kids auditioning with their mothers, and I didn't want that, I just liked the classes. I met my agent through understudying a Broadway play, and I was doing some underground stuff that nobody saw."

Film Career

In 2011, Olsen graduated from Tisch, but even before finishing school, she appeared as an actress in several films. Her first three major roles were in Silent House, Martha Marcy May Marlene, and Peace, Love, & Misunderstanding. Silent House and Martha Marcy May Marlene premiered at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival, though only the latter was entered into competition. Olsen's performances led many critics to call her the breakout star of the festival, especially for her work in Martha Marcy May Marlene. Olsen says that she fell in love with that project because "the audience takes the point of view of my character, Martha. They will see what's the present and what's the past through flashbacks. So what happened to her [in a cult] is slowly revealed, but what's happening in the present is for the audience to decide whether it's real or whether it's a paranoia." Silent House, a remake of an Uruguayan horror film, was shot in a single take, and was thus particularly suited to Olsen's theater background. In Peace, Love, & Misunderstanding, Olsen plays the daughter of the character played by well-known actress Jane Fonda.

Elizabeth Olsen is working at a fast pace, and will appear in three films to be released in 2012: Red Lights (in which she appears with Robert De Niro), Liberal Arts, and Very Good Girls. When asked about her participation in so many films and her future plans, Olsen responded, "I've been training in theater and dance since I was a kid, so being in front of a camera was really the most frightening thing — I hope I will be able to do stage and film work. I really love it all."

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