Kate Mara (born February 27, 1983) is an American television and film actress. Beginning acting in her hometown of Bedford, New York, she moved from the stage to her first film, Random Hearts (1999). Her notable roles include appearances in the Academy Award-winning film Brokeback Mountain (2005), playing the daughter of Heath Ledger's character, and on the Fox television series 24, as computer analyst Shari Rothenberg. She has since appeared in the feature films We Are Marshall (2006), Shooter (2007), Transsiberian (2008), Stone of Destiny (2008), and The Open Road (2009). Mara joined the cast of the HBO series Entourage for its sixth season, and appeared in Iron Man 2, Happythankyoumoreplease and 127 Hours. In 2011, she starred in the film Ironclad, and played Hayden McClaine on the FX series, American Horror Story.
Early life
Mara was born and raised in Bedford, New York, the daughter of Timothy Christopher Mara, a scout for the
New York Giants, and Kathleen McNulty (
née Rooney).
[1] Mara has Irish roots on both sides of her family; she is also of
Italian descent (from her maternal grandmother). Her family name used to be O'Mara.
[2][3] She has one older brother, Daniel, and two younger siblings, fellow actress
Patricia Rooney Mara, and Conor. Mara wanted to be an actress since seeing
Les Misérables at a young age; she said she "fell in love with
Broadway and
musicals",
[4] and grew up watching movie musicals on television and going to Broadway shows with her mother. She was especially a fan of
Judy Garland's films.
[5] Mara began acting at the age of nine in a school musical, and attended several youth theater-arts schools, and appeared in
community theater and in school
plays.
[6][7] Mara described herself to
Esquire magazine as "painfully shy" while growing up, and said she only had one friend.
[8]
Beginning at a young age, Mara continually asked her mother to help her get an
agent.
[9] Mara's mother got the name and address of a management company, sent in a photograph, and Mara signed with her first agent,
[5] beginning her professional career at the age of 14.
[6] Mara's first audition was for the television drama
Homicide: Life on the Street. She did not get the role, but knew from then on that she just wanted to act. Mara was accepted into the
Tisch School of the Arts at
New York University to study musical theater and graduated from
Fox Lane High School a year early. Mara felt pressure from her parents to go to
college, but was already getting work as an actress, so she deferred for three or four years before deciding not to go. Mara moved to
Manhattan in order to act full time.
Television and stage roles
Mara was cast as the lead in the 2004
WB pilot Prodigy, about a teenage
child prodigy.
[11] She had a recurring role on the WB's
Jack & Bobby in 2005, and a 5 episode arc on the
Fox series
24 in 2006, playing computer analyst
Shari Rothenberg. Mara joined the cast of the
HBO series
Entourage for the series' sixth season in 2009. She played Brittany,
Eric "E" Murphy (
Kevin Connolly)'s assistant at his talent-management company, and a potential love interest.
[12] Mara filmed four episodes for the series in 2009.
[13] In 2011, she guest starred on the
FX television series,
American Horror Story, as Hayden McClaine, Dr. Ben Harmon (
Dylan McDermott)'s dead mistress, a spirit trapped in the Harmon house. Mara was offered the role by
Ryan Murphy, her former producer on
Nip/Tuck.
[14]
Film career
Also in 2007, Mara finished the film
Transsiberian by
Brad Anderson, which takes place on the
Trans-Siberian Railway that runs from
China to
Moscow. The cast included
Woody Harrelson,
Ben Kingsley,
Eduardo Noriega and
Emily Mortimer. Mara spent three months shooting the thriller in
Vilnius, Lithuania,
[9] starting in December 2006. The film also shot on location in
Beijing and
Russia.
[23] Mara played Abby, a 20-year-old
runaway from
Seattle, a character she described to MoviesOnline as "dark", "mysterious", "sort of
goth", and did not talk much.
[24] Transsiberian premiered at the
2008 Sundance Film Festival in January 2008.
Mara starred in the 2008 film
Stone of Destiny, written and directed by
Charles Martin Smith, about the theft of the
Stone of Scone on
Christmas Day, 1950. Mara played Kay Matheson, one of four students that removed the stone in a
Scottish nationalist plot. The
period adventure-comedy co-starred
Billy Boyd,
Robert Carlyle and
Charlie Cox.
[25] Filming began in June 2007 in locations around
Glasgow, including Film City studio and
Arbroath Abbey.
[26] Mara employed a
Scottish accent for the role, which she found very difficult to master.
[27] Mara felt lucky and proud to play a role that was important to people's heritage.
[28] She stayed near the
Botanic Gardens in the city's
West End while filming,
[29] and attended the film's premiere at the
Edinburgh International Film Festival in
Fountainbridge,
Edinburgh on June 21, 2008.
[30] The film closed the
2008 Toronto International Film Festival on September 13, 2008.
[31]
In December 2008, Mara appeared in
T Takes: Brooklyn 09, a series of 6 improvised
short films directed by Brody Baker, in association with
The New York TImes' T magazine.
[32] Mara starred in
The Open Road, alongside
Jeff Bridges,
Justin Timberlake, and
Mary Steenburgen, playing Lucy, the girlfriend of Timberlake's character, Carlton.
[33] Filming began in
Hammond, Louisiana in February 2008, and continued in
Memphis, Tennessee and elsewhere in the
southern United States.
[33][34]
In 2009, Mara filmed the independent comedy
Peep World, starring
Michael C. Hall,
Sarah Silverman and
Rainn Wilson,
[35] and joined the cast of
Marvel's
Iron Man 2, making a
cameo appearance as a
U.S. marshal.
[36] Mara also shot the
ensemble romantic comedy
happythankyoumoreplease in
New York City in July 2009. She plays a waitress and aspiring singer named Mississippi, in a story about six single New Yorkers in their 20s. The film was written and directed by
Josh Radnor, the star of the
CBS television comedy
How I Met Your Mother.
[13] The film won the U.S. Dramatic Audience Award at the 2010
Sundance Film Festival.
[37] In 2010, Mara appeared in the survival drama
127 Hours, directed by
Danny Boyle, starring alongside
James Franco and
Amber Tamblyn. Mara plays a hiker in the film, a true story about
Aron Ralston, a climber trapped while
mountaineering in
Utah.
[37]
Mara appeared in
Ironclad (2011), which tells the story of the siege of
Rochester Castle by
King John in the year 1215.
[38] It is her first film where she speaks in an
English accent.
[39] Mara appeared in the
short film Ten Year, produced by
Channing Tatum to attract financing for a feature film.
[40] The full-length feature went into production in
Albuquerque in January 2010, with Mara starring in a large ensemble cast that includes Channing Tatum,
Rosario Dawson,
Brian Geraghty,
Justin Long,
Anthony Mackie,
Scott Porter,
Lynn Collins,
Chris Pratt and
Oscar Isaac. The film is about a 10-year high school reunion, and was directed by
Jamie Linden.
[41]
[edit] Personal life
Mara has stated that she comes from a "huge" family.
[17] Her father was one of 11 children. She has 22 aunts and uncles and 40 cousins.
[9][43] She lives in Los Angeles, having resided there on and off since around 2003.
[17] Her younger sister,
Patricia, (known professionally as Rooney Mara) lived with her temporarily after relocating to Los Angeles in 2007. Mara travels back to New York when her schedule allows and has stated, "If I could live in New York, I would", specifying that she likes "the cold... the rain" and "miss[es] it";
[17] she also stated that she likes "not needing plans" in New York.
[44] Mara tries to spend the football season in New York when she can. She dated producer and director
McG, with whom she worked on
We Are Marshall.
[45] In July 2008, she was linked to
Stone of Destiny co-star
Charlie Cox.
[46]
NFL ties
Filmography
