Photo: Super Festivals from Ft. Lauderdale, USA / CC BY 2.0 (source: Wikimedia Commons)
My Take
Mara Wilson interests me more as an adult than she ever did as Hollywood's favorite child star, and that is saying something given Matilda. She did the rarest thing a famous kid can do: she left on her own terms and found a second voice in writing, podcasting, and voice acting. Her essays on child stardom are some of the most clear-eyed I have read on the subject — funny, unsentimental, quietly devastating. I admire people who refuse to stay frozen at the age the public first met them, and Wilson is the model case. Her byline now excites me as much as her filmography.
Overview
Mara Elizabeth Wilson (born July 24, 1987) is an American actress. As a child, she played Natalie Hillard in Mrs. Doubtfire (1993), Susan Walker in Miracle on 34th Street (1994), the title character in Matilda (1996), and Annabel Greening in A Simple Wish (1997). Following her role as Lily in Thomas and the Magic Railroad (2000), Wilson took a 12-year hiatus from acting to focus on writing.
Summary adapted from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
1. Profile
- Name (English)
- Mara Wilson
- Name (Japanese)
- マーラ・ウィルソン
- Reading
- まーら・うぃるそん
- Born
- July 24, 1987 (age 38)
- Zodiac / Chinese zodiac
- Leo / Rabbit
- Origin
- Burbank, California, United States
- Blood type
- Private
- Height
- Private
- Agency
- Private
- Occupation
- stage actor / blogger / podcaster / voice actor / film actor
2. Background
- Elementary school
- Private
- Junior high
- Private
- High school
- Sherman E. Burroughs High School
- University
- New York University Tisch School of the Arts
Awards & achievements
- Young Artist Award for Best Leading Young Actress in a Feature Film
3. Relationships
- Spouse
- Private
- Children
- Private
- Parents
- Private
- Siblings
- Private
4. Personality
Motto
Private
5. Works & records
| Category | Title | Role | Year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Notable work | Welcome to Night Vale | — | |
| Notable work | Matilda | — | |
| Notable work | Thomas and the Magic Railroad | — |
6. Links
Stage actor — see all → · Blogger — see all → · More people from United States →
7. About this entry
Tags
- Last updated
- 2026-06-11
Facts are limited to publicly available information up to 2024; non-public items are marked "Private / Unknown". English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.