Olivia Wilde (born March 10, 1984) is an American actress, model, producer, director, activist, and entrepreneur. She is well known for her role as Dr. Remy "Thirteen" Hadley on the award winning television series House (2007–12) and her roles in Alpha Dog (2007), Tron: Legacy (2010), Cowboys & Aliens (2011), Her (2013), Drinking Buddies (2013), and Rush (2013). She starred in HBO's rock 'n' roll drama series Vinyl (2016).
Wilde was born in New York City and grew up in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, DC. Her mother, Leslie Cockburn (nee Leslie Corkill Redlich), is an American-born 60 Minutes producer and journalist. Her father, Andrew Cockburn, is also a journalist. He was born in London, to English parents, and was raised in Ireland. Wilde's uncles, Alexander and Patrick Cockburn, also worked as journalists. Her older sister, Chloe Cockburn, is a civil rights attorney in New York. Her aunt, Sarah Caudwell, was a writer; her half-cousin, Stephanie Flanders, is a journalist; and her paternal grandfather, Claud Cockburn, was a novelist and journalist. She also spent her summers in Ardmore in Co. Waterford in Ireland.
Wilde's paternal Scottish ancestors were upper-class and lived in several places at the height of the British Empire, including Peking (where her paternal grandfather was born), Kolkata, Mumbai, Cairo, and Tasmania; one of her paternal great-great-grandfathers, Henry Arthur Blake, was Governor of Hong Kong.[6] Her other paternal ancestors include abolitionist and Anglican minister James Ramsay; politician George Arbuthnot; lawyer, judge, and literary figure Henry Cockburn, Lord Cockburn; Lord Provost of Edinburgh Sir William Arbuthnot; and Sir Thomas Osborne. Her ancestry includes English, German, Irish, Manx, and Scottish; she is also of 1/64th Sephardi Jewish descent through Ralph Bernal (1783–1854), a British Whig politician and actor.
Wilde has said that as a result of her parents' occupations, she has a "strong journalistic streak" and is "really critical and analytical". Both her parents were prominent in the Washington, D.C. social scene, hosting dinner parties. Her mother once recounted a story of a four-year-old Wilde eavesdropping one night on a conversation between diplomat Richard Holbrooke and singer Mick Jagger, until Jagger noticed her and shooed her to bed. She had writer Christopher Hitchens as a babysitter. She wanted to become an actress since age two. For a short time, Wilde's family had a house in Guilford, Vermont. She attended Georgetown Day School in Washington, D.C., as well as Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts, graduating in 2002. Wilde was accepted to Bard College but deferred her enrollment three times in order to pursue acting. She then studied acting at the Gaiety School of Acting in Dublin.