Rooney Mara Biography

Rooney Mara is the American actress who appeared in 2010’s The Social Network, and then won the lead role for the Hollywood version of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.

Rooney Mara grew up in New York, where she was raised in a football family: her mother’s grandfather, Art Rooney, Sr., founded the Pittsburg Steelers, and her father’s grandfather, Tim Mara, founded the New York Giants. Rooney Mara began acting after leaving high school in 2003, first as a student at New York University, then in New York-based television shows.

She relocated to Los Angeles in 2007 and began getting small roles on TV and in feature films. Mara was a standout in the 2009 films Youth in Revolt and Tanner Hall, and in 2010 she starred as the protagonist in the remake of A Nightmare on Elm Street. Although her role is small in David Fincher‘s The Social Network, Mara’s brief scenes are key to the story of the founding of Facebook — she plays Mark Zuckerberg‘s almost-girlfriend.

Fincher then named her for the role of Lisbeth Salander, the tough-as-nails heroine from Stieg Larsson’s Millennium trilogy, in his 2011 American re-make of the The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. (The original Swedish films had starred Noomi Rapace as Salander.) Her other films include the sci-fi feature Her (2013, with Joaquin Phoenix), the romantic drama Carol (2015, with Cate Blanchett) and the horror haunter A Ghost Story (2017, with Casey Affleck).