Rooney Mara

Patricia Rooney Mara ( MAIR-ə; born April 17, 1985) is an American actress. Her accolades include nominations for two Academy Awards, two Golden Globe Awards, and a British Academy Film Award.

Born into the Rooney and Mara families, Mara began her career acting in television and independent films, such as the coming-of-age drama Tanner Hall (2009). She first gained recognition for her supporting role in David Fincher's drama film The Social Network (2010). Mara had a career breakthrough when she starred as Lisbeth Salander in Fincher's thriller The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011), which earned her a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress.

Mara's career progressed with leading roles in the thriller Side Effects (2013), the science fiction romance Her (2013), and the romantic drama Carol (2015). For the latter she won the Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actress and received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. She has since appeared in the biographical drama Lion (2016), the supernatural drama A Ghost Story (2017), and portrayed the title character in the biblical drama Mary Magdalene (2018). Following a brief hiatus, Mara starred in the psychological thriller Nightmare Alley (2021) and the drama Women Talking (2022).

Mara is also known for her charity work and oversees the Uweza Foundation, which supports empowerment programs for children and families in the Kibera slum of Nairobi. She is also the founder of the vegan clothing line Hiraeth Collective.

Mara was born on April 17, 1985, and raised in Bedford, New York, a town in Westchester County about 40 miles (64 km) north of New York City. Her mother's family founded the Pittsburgh Steelers and her father's family founded the New York Giants. Her father, Timothy Christopher Mara, is the senior vice president of player personnel for the New York Giants; and her mother, Kathleen McNulty (née Rooney), is a part-time real estate agent. She is the third of four children: she has an older brother, Daniel; an older sister, Kate, who is also an actress; and a younger brother, Conor.

Mara's father has Irish, German, and French-Canadian ancestry, and her mother is of Irish and Italian descent. Her Rooney ancestors originated in Newry, County Down. Her paternal grandparents were Ann Mara and Wellington Mara. Wellington was the long-time co-owner of the Giants, who was succeeded in that position by his son (Rooney Mara's uncle), John Mara. Rooney Mara's maternal grandfather, Timothy James "Tim" Rooney, has run Yonkers Raceway & Empire City Casino in Yonkers, New York since 1972. Mara is the great-granddaughter of both New York Giants founder Tim Mara and Pittsburgh Steelers founder Art Rooney, Sr., as well as of Kathleen McNulty Rooney. Her grand-uncle, Dan Rooney, was chairman of the Steelers, the former United States Ambassador to Ireland, the co-founder of The Ireland Funds charitable organization, and the architect of American Football's Rooney Rule. U.S. Representative Tom Rooney and former Florida State Representative Patrick Rooney Jr. are her cousins.

After graduating from Fox Lane High School in 2003, Mara went to Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia in South America for four months as part of the Traveling School, an open learning environment. She attended George Washington University for a year before transferring to New York University's Gallatin School of Individualized Study, where she studied psychology, international social policy and nonprofits, graduating in 2010.

Mara was inspired to act by seeing musical theatre and classic movies, like Gone with the Wind (1939), Rebecca (1940), and Bringing Up Baby (1938), with her mother. She also wanted to be like her sister, Kate Mara, a professional actress. Mara resisted pursuing acting as a child, stating to The Journal News that "it never seemed that honorable to me, and I guess I was always afraid that I might fail." Her first and only role in high school was Juliet in Romeo and Juliet, which she got after being signed up to audition by a friend. Mara acted in a few student films while at NYU, and then began her career in acting, first auditioning at the age of nineteen.

Mara first appeared as an extra in films which starred her sister, including a bit-part in the 2005 direct-to-video horror film Urban Legends: Bloody Mary. She found work in television, making her professional debut in a 2006 episode of the drama Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, as a girl who bullies overweight children. She guest-starred on the legal drama Women's Murder Club and played a drug addict in an episode of The Cleaner. Mara made her feature film debut Dream Boy (2008) and guest-starred as Megan for two episodes of NBC's ER.

In a coming-of-age film Tanner Hall (2009), Mara landed her first lead role, as Fernanda who has an affair with a married family friend (Tom Everett Scott). The film was the directorial debut of Tatiana von Fürstenberg and Francesca Gregorini, it debuted at the 2009 Toronto International Film Festival and had a limited theatrical release in September 2011. Mara dropped her first name, Patricia, to be known professionally by her middle name after working on the project. "I never really liked my first name," Mara stated to Paper magazine. "I never felt like a Tricia. And Rooney is more memorable". Her father and younger brother also go by their middle names.

In Miguel Arteta's comedy-drama film Youth in Revolt, Mara played Taggarty who tries to sleep with fifty men before she goes to college. The film was based on C.D. Payne's 1993 cult novel of the same name. Mara had auditioned for the starring role, but was offered the smaller part when the lead went to Portia Doubleday.

Mara played Courtney in the 2009 independent film Dare and in The Winning Season as Wendy, a high school basketball player having an affair with a middle-aged shoe salesman (Kevin Breznahan) with a similar story to The Bad News Bears. Both films were premiered at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival and Mara was included on Filmmaker magazine's list of "25 New Faces of Independent Film" that year.

Mara starred in a remake of the 1984 horror film A Nightmare on Elm Street, as the protagonist Nancy Holbrook, a high school student victimized by Freddy Krueger (Jackie Earle Haley). Mara began shooting the film in Chicago on May 5, 2009, directed by Samuel Bayer. Mara told Filmmaker that she felt that her Nancy was "completely different from the original" and "the loneliest girl in the world". Mara had signed on to continue her role if a sequel was made. She stated to Vogue that she disliked the experience of making the film so much, that it made her question if she wanted to be an actress. Mara appeared at the Hamptons International Film Festival in October 2009 as part of its Breakthrough Performers Program, where she was tutored by Sharon Stone.

In 2017, Mara appeared in The Discovery, directed by Charlie McDowell, and A Ghost Story, with Casey Affleck, directed by David Lowery. Both had their world premieres at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival. Mara starred with Ryan Gosling, Natalie Portman, Cate Blanchett and Val Kilmer in Terrence Malick's Song to Song, which had a limited release.

Mara appeared in Don't Worry, He Won't Get Far on Foot, directed by Gus Van Sant, opposite Joaquin Phoenix, Jonah Hill and Jack Black. The film had its world premiere at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival. and was later released by Amazon Studios. That same year, Mara starred opposite Phoenix again in Mary Magdalene, written by Helen Edmundson and directed by Garth Davis. This same year, she also collaborated with Joaquin Phoenix, Sia, Sadie Sink and Kat von D to narrate Chris Delforce's animal rights documentary Dominion. For her contribution to the documentary, she was granted the 2018 Award of Excellence for Narration by Hollywood International Independent Documentary Awards.

Following a brief hiatus, Mara co-starred in the neo-noir psychological thriller Nightmare Alley (2021), an adaptation of the 1946 novel of the same name directed by Guillermo del Toro. The film received critical acclaim and was included in the Top 10 Films of the year by the American Film Institute Awards, but fared badly at the box office. It received four nominations at the 94th Academy Awards, including Best Picture. In 2022, Mara starred with Frances McDormand, Claire Foy, Jessie Buckley and Ben Whishaw in Sarah Polley's feature adaptation of Miriam Toews' bestselling novel Women Talking. In 2024, she starred in La cocina, an adaptation of Arnold Wesker's 1975 play The Kitchen directed by Alonso Ruizpalacios. She will also star in the upcoming film Bucking Fastard, directed by Werner Herzog, alongside her sister Kate Mara.

Mara is a signatory of the Film Workers for Palestine boycott pledge that was published in September 2025.

In February 2018, it was announced Mara, Sara Schloat, and Chrys Wong had started a vegan clothing line named Hiraeth Collective, consisting of clothing, shoes, and accessories, designed by themselves. The clothing line is produced in Los Angeles, California. The clothing line was made available in select Barneys New York stores and online, beginning in August 2018.

Mara founded the charity Faces of Kibera, which aimed to provide housing, food, and medical care for orphans in Kibera, a slum in Nairobi, Kenya. The charity's goal was to build an orphanage in the region, for which 6 acres of land have been purchased. The charity auctioned memorabilia from the Steelers and Giants, as well as training camp events on eBay to raise money. She visited the area as a volunteer in 2006 and was moved to help the orphans, many of whom lost parents to AIDS and HIV-related illnesses. She began the charity due to her frustration with the growing number of nonprofits that are just business opportunities. "The people who need help aren't really getting it. So I started my own", she told Interview magazine in 2009. Mara later found it challenging to balance her charity work and acting career. "I need to do both; I can't just do acting," she stated to The Journal News. In January 2011, Faces of Kibera merged with Uweza Foundation which runs community-based empowerment programs in Kibera, including soccer leagues and after-school tutoring. Uweza is a Swahili word meaning opportunity, ability, and power. Mara serves as the president of the board of directors for the foundation.

Mara moved to Los Angeles in early 2007 and lived with her sister temporarily. Mara felt that the experience brought them closer together, and by 2010 they were regularly discussing the film business and movie scripts. In January 2012, Mara lived in the Los Feliz neighborhood of Los Angeles. She includes Gena Rowlands among the actresses who inspire her, especially her performances in A Woman Under the Influence (1974) and Opening Night (1977).

Mara is vegan. Since late 2016, she has been in a relationship with American actor Joaquin Phoenix, her co-star in Her (2013), Don't Worry, He Won't Get Far on Foot (2018), and Mary Magdalene (2018). As of September 2017, they reside in the Hollywood Hills with their two dogs, Soda and Oskar. They were engaged in 2019 and married some time after. Mara gave birth to their first child, a son, in August 2020. In June 2024, their daughter was born.