Olivia Wilde

Olivia Wilde, born Olivia Cockburn, spent her twenties as a television face. Thirteen on House ran from 2007 to 2012 and was a genuinely good part, a doctor whose central storyline is about knowledge she does not want, played with more restraint than that show usually permitted.

The film career that followed was busier than it was distinguished. Tron: Legacy and Cowboys & Aliens gave her the girlfriend-shaped role inside large machines, while Rush, In Time and Richard Jewell asked for varying amounts of grace within limited screen time. She is a strong screen presence who was rarely handed anything difficult, and the most interesting acting she has done is probably the smallest: a few minutes in Her, a strange late turn in Babylon.

Directing changed the picture entirely. Booksmart in 2019 is a confident first feature, a teen comedy with real affection for its two leads and a much better ear for how teenagers actually talk than the genre usually manages, and it won the Independent Spirit Award for Best First Feature. Don't Worry Darling in 2022 was more ambitious and much less controlled, a stylish thriller with a premise it cannot quite pay off, and it arrived buried under press coverage about everything except the film itself.

She made her Broadway debut in 1984 in 2017, which reads oddly and is true. The directing is the part of this career worth following.