Kate Mara

• 1. Introduction

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  Kate Mara, the American actress, once told Esquire magazine that she was painfully shy as a child and had only one friend. She was born on the 27th of February 1983 in Bedford, New York. That quiet girl grew up to share screens with some of the best-known names in film and television. How does a child like that end up in front of cameras? What kind of family stood behind her? Why did she want the stage long before she cared about movies? And when her parents' sides of the family disagree, which team does she cheer for?

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• 2. Football Royalty

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  Tim Mara founded the New York Giants, and his descendants have held ownership in the team since its formation in 1925. He is Kate Mara's great-grandfather. Eight years later, in 1933, Art Rooney Sr. founded the Pittsburgh Steelers. He is her great-grandfather as well, and her mother's side of the family has owned a share of that team ever since.

  Her father, Timothy Christopher Mara, worked as an NFL scout and as a vice president of the Giants for player evaluation. Her paternal grandparents were Wellington and Ann Mara. Wellington co-owned the Giants from 1959 until his death in 2005. His son John, Kate's uncle, succeeded him and now serves as president, chief executive and co-owner of the club.

  The Rooney side reaches into other worlds too. Her maternal grandfather, Timothy James Rooney, has operated Yonkers Raceway in Yonkers, New York, since 1972. Her granduncle Dan Rooney chaired the Steelers, served as a United States ambassador to Ireland, and co-founded the charitable organization The Ireland Funds. Her first cousin once removed, Art Rooney II, is the Steelers' current president and co-owner.

  Kate is the second of four children. Her mother is Kathleen McNulty Mara, born Rooney. She has an older brother, Daniel, plus a younger sister, the actress Patricia, and a younger brother, Conor. Her father is one of 11 children, which gives her 20 aunts and uncles and 40 cousins. Her ancestry is Irish, one quarter Italian, with smaller amounts of German, French-Canadian and English.

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• 3. Stage Dreams

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  At the age of nine, Kate Mara acted for the first time, in a school musical. From there she attended several youth theater-arts schools and took parts in community theater and school plays. For a child who described herself as painfully shy, the stage became a place to belong.

  In 2003, she made her professional stage debut at the Williamstown Theatre Festival. The play was Landscape of the Body by John Guare, and her co-star was Lili Taylor. Two years later, in 2005, she starred in The Alice Complex, a play by Peter Barr Nickowitz, at Dixon Place in New York City. The production moved to the Blank Theatre in Los Angeles in 2006, with Tony Award-winner Harriet Harris in the cast.

  In 2006, Mara told WFAN radio that theater was a "dream" because it was "all I really wanted to do as a kid. I didn't care about movies or TV, I just wanted to do Broadway".

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• 4. Breakthrough Years

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  Random Hearts, released in 1999 and directed by Sydney Pollack, gave Kate Mara her film debut. Harrison Ford led the cast. She played Jessica Chandler, the daughter of a congresswoman portrayed by Kristin Scott Thomas. The same year she appeared in Joe the King, and in 2002 she worked with Sigourney Weaver in Tadpole. Both of those films won awards at the Sundance Film Festival.

  Peoples, a coming-of-age drama from 2004, was filmed in Louisville, Kentucky. She then starred in Urban Legends: Bloody Mary, a horror film released direct to video. In 2005 she appeared with Noah Wyle and Illeana Douglas in The Californians.

  That same year, Brokeback Mountain brought her far wider critical notice. The film went on to win Academy Awards, and she played the daughter of the character portrayed by Heath Ledger.

  At the start of 2006, she signed with the William Morris Agency. The New York Daily News placed her on a list of "10 young actors who have a shot at making it big". That year she played Summer Jones, also called Wonder, a 16-year-old girl with telekinetic and empathic abilities, in Zoom. She also joined We Are Marshall, starring Matthew McConaughey, as the cheerleader Annie Cantrell. The film recalls the aftermath of the 1970 plane crash that killed most of the Marshall University football team.

  In 2007, she appeared in the comedy Full of It for New Line Cinema, with Ryan Pinkston. It later aired on television as Big Liar on Campus. In the thriller Shooter, Mark Wahlberg plays a master sniper lured out of retirement to prevent an assassination. Mara played Sarah Fenn, a Kentucky widow, and adopted a southern accent for the part. That year she also appeared in a Gap advertising campaign called "khakis with attitude".

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• 5. Real Places, True Stories

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  Three months in Vilnius, Lithuania, starting in December 2006, were the heart of the shoot for Transsiberian. Brad Anderson's thriller takes place on the Trans-Siberian Railway, which runs from China to Moscow. The production also filmed in Beijing and in Russia. Mara played Abby, a 20-year-old runaway from Seattle.

  Stone of Destiny, from 2008, was written and directed by Charles Martin Smith. It dramatizes the theft of the Stone of Scone on Christmas Day 1950. Mara played Kay Matheson, one of four students who removed the stone in a Scottish nationalist plot. Billy Boyd, Robert Carlyle and Charlie Cox co-starred.

  Filming began in June 2007 around Glasgow, and Mara stayed near the Botanic Gardens in the city's West End. She felt lucky and proud to play a role that mattered to people's heritage. The film was shown at the Edinburgh and Toronto International Film Festivals.

  In 2010, Danny Boyle directed 127 Hours, the true story of Aron Ralston, a climber trapped while mountaineering in Utah. Mara played the hiker Kristi Moore. The following year, Ironclad told of King John's siege of Rochester Castle in the year 1215. It was the first film in which she spoke in an English accent.

  In 2017, Gabriela Cowperthwaite directed Megan Leavey, released on the 9th of June 2017. Mara played the title role, a real-life U.S. marine who bonded with her military working dog. In 2018, she played Mary Jo Kopechne in Chappaquiddick.

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• 6. Television Roles

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  A love triangle among cheerleaders marked Kate Mara's first recurring television role, on the FX drama Nip/Tuck. Her character was involved with a boyfriend named Matt McNamara, played by John Hensley, and another cheerleader, played by Sophia Bush. She also appeared on Cold Case, Boston Public, CSI: Miami and CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.

  In 2004, she was cast as the lead in Prodigy, a pilot for The WB about a teenage child prodigy. In 2005 she had a recurring part on Jack & Bobby. In 2006 she played the computer analyst Shari Rothenberg in a five-episode arc on the Fox series 24. For the sixth season of the HBO comedy-drama Entourage, in 2009, she played Brittany. Brittany was the assistant of Eric "E" Murphy, played by Kevin Connolly, and a potential love interest. She filmed four episodes.

  In 2011, Ryan Murphy, her former producer on Nip/Tuck, offered her a role in American Horror Story. She played Hayden McClaine, a student who becomes the dead mistress of Dr. Ben Harmon, played by Dylan McDermott. Hayden is a spirit trapped in the Harmon house.

  In 2012, she joined House of Cards as Zoe Barnes, an intrepid reporter from Washington, D.C. Zoe becomes a major ally to Frank Underwood by leaking stories that undermine his rivals. The second season was released on the 14th of February 2014. On the 10th of July 2014, Mara was nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series. Her 14 episodes spread across 2013-2014 and 2016.

  In 2018, she played Patty Bowes in the first season of the FX drama Pose. In 2020, she appeared in the FX miniseries A Teacher as Claire Wilson, a teacher who begins an illicit relationship with an underage student. As an executive producer of the series, she received an Independent Spirit Award nomination for Best New Scripted Series.

  In 2023, she appeared in the Black Mirror episode "Beyond the Sea", playing a character named Lana.

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• 7. Franchises and Ensembles

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  Marvel's Iron Man 2 gave Kate Mara a cameo in 2009 as a U.S. Marshal who serves Tony Stark with a subpoena. That year she also filmed the independent comedy Peep World, with Michael C. Hall, Sarah Silverman and Rainn Wilson.

  In July 2009, she shot Happythankyoumoreplease in New York City. The ensemble romantic comedy follows six single New Yorkers in their 20s. She played Mississippi, a waitress and aspiring singer. Josh Radnor, the actor from How I Met Your Mother, wrote and directed it. The film won the U.S. Dramatic Audience Award at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival.

  Channing Tatum produced a short film called Ten Year to attract financing for a full-length feature. The feature went into production in Albuquerque in January 2010. It was a large ensemble film about a 10-year high school reunion, with Mara in the cast. In 2012, she starred in Stefan Ruzowitzky's thriller Deadfall, alongside Eric Bana and Olivia Wilde. In 2013, she starred in the Broken Bells video for the song "Holding On for Life".

  Johnny Depp starred in Transcendence in 2014, directed by Wally Pfister, and Mara appeared in it. In 2015, she played Sue Storm, the Invisible Woman, in the Fantastic Four reboot. That year she also played the astronaut Beth Johanssen in Ridley Scott's The Martian. She starred as Ashley Smith in Captive as well.

  Elliot Page was her co-star in My Days of Mercy, which she also co-produced. In 2024 she appeared in Friendship, playing Tami Waterman.

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• 8. Off Screen

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  From 2010 to 2014, Kate Mara was in a relationship with Max Minghella. In 2014 she had a brief relationship with Elliot Page, who would later co-star with her in My Days of Mercy. In 2015 she began a relationship with her Fantastic Four co-star Jamie Bell. They became engaged in January 2017, and on the 17th of July 2017 they announced that they had married.

  Through the marriage, she became stepmother to Bell's son from his marriage to Evan Rachel Wood. Their daughter was born in May 2019. On the 17th of November 2022, Mara announced on Instagram that she had given birth to a son the week before. She lives in Los Angeles and Manhattan.

  Mara credits a vegan diet and regular workouts for keeping fit. "I'm a massive animal lover, too," she explained. "Being vegan has been so good for me. I never felt better." She is one of the faces of the Humane Society of the United States, and in 2015 she appeared in one of its campaign videos promoting Meatless Monday.

  Her football heritage gives her a divided heart. She joked that she roots for the Giants when she is angry with her mother and for the Steelers when she is angry with her father. That family connection helped her win her part in We Are Marshall. She has sung at games for both teams.

  In 2006, work kept her away from the Steelers' victory at Super Bowl XL. She has since attended the Giants' win in Super Bowl XLII, the Steelers' win the next year in Super Bowl XLIII, and the Giants' win in Super Bowl XLVI. Her contracts now say she may attend if either team reaches the Super Bowl.

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