Elizabeth Olsen Biography

Elizabeth Olsen made her big-screen splash in 2011, starring in the psychological thriller Martha Marcy May Marlene and the art house horror film Silent House. The younger sister of The Olsen Twins (child stars Mary-Kate and Ashley), Elizabeth got her first taste of acting as a wee child. She appeared in the direct-to-video feature How the West Was Fun (1989) and other Olsen Twin videos in the early 1990s, but then focused on school and stage work. Elizabeth Olsen studied acting at the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University and began getting work in films in 2010. By the end of 2011 she’d made five movies, including appearances in Peace, Love and Misunderstanding (starring Jane Fonda and Catherine Keener) and Red Lights (starring Robert De Niro and Sigourney Weaver). Her starring role in Martha Marcy May Marlene (opposite John Hawkes) made Olsen a hit at the Sundance Film Festival and she was dubbed the new “it” girl of indie movies for 2011.