English actress (born 1993)
Olivia Cooke
Cooke in 2018
Born Olivia Kate Cooke
(1993-12-27 ) 27 December 1993 (age 30) Occupation Actress Years active 2012–present
Olivia Kate Cooke (born 27 December 1993) is an English actress. In television, she has starred as
Emma Decody in the thriller
Bates Motel (2013–2017),
Becky Sharp in the period drama
Vanity Fair (2018),
Alicent Hightower in the fantasy drama
House of the Dragon (2022–present), and Sidonie Baker in the British spy thriller
Slow Horses (2022-present).
In film, Cooke has starred in the horror film
Ouija (2014), the comedy-drama film
Me and Earl and the Dying Girl (2015), the thriller
Thoroughbreds (2017), the science fiction film
Ready Player One (2018), and the drama
Sound of Metal (2020).
Early life
Olivia Kate Cooke
[1] was born on 27 December 1993 in
Oldham ,
Greater Manchester , to sales representative Lindsay Wilde and police officer John Cooke.
[2]
[3]
[4] Her parents divorced when she was a child, and she and her sister lived with their mother.
[5] She started acting when she was eight years old at the
Oldham Theatre Workshop , an after-school drama programme in her hometown. She attended
Royton and Crompton Academy and studied drama at
Oldham Sixth Form College , leaving before the end of her
A-levels to appear in the drama series
Blackout .
[3] She starred as
Maria in a college production of
West Side Story , and soon landed her first and last leading role for the Oldham Theatre Workshop in Prom: The Musical , a remake of
Cinderella .
[2]
[3] When she was 14, she secured her first local agent, who gained her commercial roles.
[6] In 2012, she appeared in
One Direction 's "Autumn Term" tour video as a student getting a piggyback ride from
Harry Styles .
[7] Although her agent discouraged her from enrolling in drama school because she was already getting acting work, she was keen on applying to the
Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) and made it to the final round of auditions, but was not accepted.
[2] As of 2020, she lives in London.
[8]
Career
Early roles (2012–2014)
After Cooke performed at the Oldham Theatre Workshop, Beverley Keogh, a casting director next door to her agency, secured her roles in television. Cooke starred in all three
BBC mini-series productions in 2012:
Blackout ,
[9] as the daughter of
Christopher Eccleston 's character, and
The Secret of Crickley Hall , as a young teacher at a tyrannical orphanage in the 1940s.
[10]
[11] Cooke stated that she felt better suited for television than theatre, as she was embarrassed by the exaggerated gestures sometimes required for stage acting.
[2] Despite being a novice, Cooke distinguished herself among European actresses in the gruelling casting process for
The Quiet Ones , which opened in April 2014, two years after filming took place.
[12]
[13]
In 2012, following The Quiet Ones , Cooke acquired an agent in
Los Angeles .
[14] After reading the character descriptions for
A&E 's contemporary
Psycho prequel
Bates Motel , she sent an audition tape for the role of Emma Decody.
[15] Three weeks later, Cooke earned the part of Emma, her first American role.
[14] She was originally disappointed when the producers made Emma
Mancunian , believing it was a fail-safe measure regarding her accent. However, aided by fellow English actor
Freddie Highmore , who has previous experience with an American accent, Cooke has since been mistaken to be American.
[2]
[16] Cooke also contributed short videos for Emma's fictitious
blog .
[17]
Cooke's second feature film
The Signal , with
Brenton Thwaites and
Laurence Fishburne , opened at the
2014 Sundance Film Festival .
[18] Cooke starred as Haley Peterson, an American
MIT student transferring to
Caltech , who encounters strange occurrences as she, her boyfriend, and her best friend are lured into the desert by a hacker. In October 2014, Cooke led the cast of
Ouija , a horror film based on
Hasbro 's board game.
[19] The role of the protagonist, Laine Morris, was a major undertaking for Cooke, who appeared in almost every scene.
[7] The story centred around a group of friends who use the Ouija board to contact a deceased friend, but end up awakening a dark presence.
[20] Despite being panned by critics,
[21] Ouija was a box office success, grossing approximately $102.5 million worldwide.
[22]
Breakthrough (2015–2018)
Cooke at the 2017
San Diego Comic-Con
Cooke next appeared in the comedy-drama film
Me and Earl and the Dying Girl .
[23] For the coming-of-age tale by
Jesse Andrews , who adapted the
original novel for the film, Cooke shaved off her hair to play the female lead who battles
leukaemia .
[24]
[25] The film premiered at the
Sundance Film Festival , where it was awarded both the Grand Jury and Audience Awards.
[26] Also in 2015, Cooke voiced the
Loch Ness Monster for an episode of
Axe Cop , which was co-written by her Me and Earl and the Dying Girl co-star
Nick Offerman .[
citation needed ]
Cooke played the titular character in the independent drama film
Katie Says Goodbye , alongside
Jim Belushi ,
Mireille Enos ,
Christopher Abbott , and
Mary Steenburgen . The film revolves around Katie, a 17-year-old waitress attempting to overcome poverty and start a new life in
San Francisco by resorting to prostitution.
[27] She next starred in the
film adaptation of
Dan Leno and the Limehouse Golem , a gothic murder mystery, opposite
Bill Nighy and
Douglas Booth .
[28] Both films premiered at the
2016 Toronto International Film Festival . Cooke then starred in the thriller film
Thoroughbreds , alongside
Anya Taylor-Joy and
Anton Yelchin , which premiered at the
2017 Sundance Film Festival .
[29]
Cooke starred as Art3mis in
Steven Spielberg 's science fiction adventure
Ready Player One , which was released in March 2018.
[30]
[31] Later that year, she appeared alongside
Oscar Isaac ,
Olivia Wilde and
Samuel L. Jackson in
Dan Fogelman 's relationship drama film
Life Itself ,
[32] and played the lead character,
Becky Sharp in the
ITV production of
Vanity Fair .[
citation needed ]
Sound of Metal and House of the Dragon (2019–present)
Cooke starred in the drama film
Sound of Metal , alongside
Riz Ahmed . The film premiered at the
2019 Toronto International Film Festival on 6 September 2019.
[33] Also in 2019, she appeared as Karla, pregnant homeless woman giving her baby up for adoption, in the
Amazon Prime Video romantic comedy anthology series
Modern Love . Since 2022, Cooke has played the role of Alicent Hightower, the "Green Queen," in
HBO 's
House of the Dragon .
[34]
In the
Apple TV+ series
Slow Horses , Cooke appears as MI5 agent Sidonie "Sid" Baker.
[35]
Filmography
Film
†
Denotes films that have not yet been released
Television
†
Denotes series that have not yet been released
Music videos
Podcasts
Awards and nominations
Olivia Cooke at
Ready Player One MTV interview 2018
References
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