Olivia Cooke rose to fame for portraying Emma Decody in the A&E show Bates Motel. She also appeared in various British TV limited series and horror movies like The Quiet Ones, The Signal, and Ouija. In 2018, she played the character of Amanda in Thoroughbreds and had a leading role in Steven Spielberg‘s Ready Player One.
Olivia Cooke Bio Summary
Full name: Olivia Kate Cooke
Date of birth: 27 December 1993
Age: 31 years (2024)
Place of birth: Oldham, England
Gender: Female
Zodiac sign: Capricorn
Mother: Lindsay Wilde
Father: John Cooke
Relationship status: In a relationship
Partner: Ben Hardy
Profession: Actor
Early Life & Education
Olivia Kate Cooke was born on the 27th of December in 1993 in Oldham, Greater Manchester. Her mother, Lindsay Wilde, worked as a sales representative while her father, John Cooke, was a police officer.
When she was young, her parents split up and she and her sister stayed with their mother. At the age of eight, she began her acting journey at the Oldham Theater Workshop, a drama program that took place after school in her hometown.
After attending Royton and Crompton Academy, she pursued drama at Oldham Sixth Form College. Although she didn’t complete her A-levels, she left to join the cast of the drama series Blackout.
Her performance as Maria in a West Side Story production at the college caught attention, leading to her first and final starring role in Prom: The Musical at Oldham Theatre Workshop, a modern take on Cinderella.
At the age of 14, Olivia Cooke got her first local agent, who helped her land commercial roles. In 2012, she was featured in One Direction’s “Autumn Term” tour video as a student receiving a piggyback ride from Harry Styles.
Despite her agent’s discouragement due to her already having acting opportunities, she was determined to audition for the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) and advanced to the last stage of the process, but ultimately did not receive acceptance.
Career
Following her performance at the Oldham Theatre Workshop, Olivia Cooke was approached by Beverley Keogh, a casting director from a neighboring agency, who helped her secure roles in television.
In 2012, Cooke appeared in all three BBC mini-series productions, playing the daughter of Christopher Eccleston’s character in Blackout and a young teacher at a harsh orphanage in the 1940s in The Secret of Crickley Hall.
Cooke preferred TV to theater because exaggerated gestures on stage embarrassed her. Despite being new to acting, she stood out in the tough casting process for The Quiet Ones, which was released in 2014.
After appearing in The Quiet Ones in 2012, Olivia Cooke secured representation in Los Angeles. She came across the character breakdowns for A&E’s modern-day prequel to Psycho, Bates Motel, and decided to submit an audition tape for the role of Emma Decody. Just three weeks later, Cooke was offered the part of Emma, marking her debut in American television.
In 2014, Olivia Cooke’s second movie, The Signal, premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. The film starred Brenton Thwaites and Laurence Fishburne and Cooke starred as Haley Peterson, a student at MIT who moves to Caltech and experiences unusual events while being led into the desert by a hacker along with her boyfriend and best friend. Later that year, Cooke took on the lead role in Ouija, a horror movie inspired by Hasbro’s popular board game.
In 2015, Olivia Cooke starred in the coming-of-age comedy-drama “Me and Earl and the Dying Girl.” She shaved her head to play the lead role, a girl battling leukemia. The film premiered at Sundance, winning both the Grand Jury and Audience Awards. Cooke also voiced the Loch Ness Monster for an “Axe Cop” episode co-written by her co-star Nick Offerman.
In March 2018, Cooke played the role of Art3mis in Steven Spielberg’s sci-fi adventure Ready Player One. Later that same year, she co-starred with Oscar Isaac, Olivia Wilde, and Samuel L. Jackson in Dan Fogelman’s relationship drama Life Itself. Additionally, she took on the lead role of Becky Sharp in ITV’s adaptation of Vanity Fair.
In 2019, Olivia Cooke co-starred with Riz Ahmed in the drama Sound of Metal, which debuted at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 6th.
Later that year, she portrayed Karla, a homeless woman expecting a baby and considering adoption, in the romantic comedy anthology series Modern Love on Amazon Prime Video.
Since 2022, she has been portraying Alicent Hightower, also known as the “Green Queen,” on HBO’s House of the Dragon. Additionally, Cooke appears as MI5 agent Sidonie “Sid” Baker in the Apple TV+ series Slow Horses.
Personal Life
As per the latest reports, the 31-year-old actress has been dating Jacob Ifan since 2020. The couple have been spotted publicly occasionally and have been together for the past four years.
Net Worth
With a net worth of $2 million, Olivia Cooke is a prominent English actress, most recognized for her role as Emma Decody on the TV show Bates Model since 2013. She has also appeared in several films, including Me and Earl and the Dying Girl, The Signal, The Quiet Ones, and Ouija.
