Academy Award-nominated actress Maggie Gyllenhaal was born on November 16, 1977, on the Lower East Side of Manhattan in New York City. Her parents, 'Naomi Foner' , whom she married in 2009.
Older sister of Jake Gyllenhaal.
Daughter of Stephen Gyllenhaal and Naomi Foner.
Earned a B.A. in English from Columbia University.
Studied briefly at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts in London.
The first six movies she made ( Waterland ; A Dangerous Woman ; Shattered Mind ; The Patron Saint of Liars ; Homegrown ; Resurrection ) were all directed by her father.
During the 2003 Academy Awards, she wore a peace sign pin in support of the organization Artists United to Win Without War.
She co-hosted the Sundance Awards 2003.
Played sister to real-life brother Jake Gyllenhaal in the movie Donnie Darko .
Broke up with her artist boyfriend of five years during the filming of Secretary .
Has been in three movies with her brother Jake Gyllenhaal : A Dangerous Woman (which was directed by their father), Homegrown (which was directed by their father), and Donnie Darko .
Was born in New York City but grew up in Los Angeles where she and her brother attended the prestigious Harvard-Westlake prep school. Returned to New York when she was 17.
Her mother is a Golden Globe-winning, Oscar-nominated scriptwriter. Her father is an Emmy-nominated director, her grandmother is a doctor and Eric Foner, her mothers first husband, is an acclaimed historian at Columbia, the college she attended.
Was invited to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences after the 2004 Academy Awards.
Her mother is good friends, and was once the mentor of, Laurie Collyer who wrote Sherrybaby (aka "Shall Not Want"), in which Maggie stars.
Graduated Harvard-Westlake (private) high school in North Hollywood, California.
Ranked as #58 in FHMs "100 Sexiest Women in the World 2005" special supplement.
Met her fianc at a dinner party.
She and brother, Jake Gyllenhaal , attended Camp Walt Whitman, an outdoors summer camp in Western New Hampshire.
Loves musicals.
Quit smoking.
Her favorite actress is Gena Rowlands.
Maggies father has English, Swedish, Swiss-German, German, and distant Welsh and French, ancestry. Maggies mothers family is Jewish (from Poland and Latvia).
Was member of the dramatic jury at the Sundance Film Festival in 2004.
Her publicist is Amanda Silverman.
Was in consideration for the role of Joyce Lakeland in The Killer Inside Me , but Jessica Alba was cast instead.
She and brother Jake Gyllenhaal are the first brother and sister to be Oscar-nominated in the 21st century.
Fan of T Bone Burnett.
Good friend of Emma Thompson.
Gave birth to her 1st child at age 28, a daughter Ramona Sarsgaard on October 3, 2006. Childs father is her boyfriend [now husband], Peter Sarsgaard.
Gave birth to her 2nd child at age 34, a daughter Gloria Ray Sarsgaard on April 19, 2012. Childs father is her husband, Peter Sarsgaard.
Returned to work 6 months after giving birth to her daughter Ramona in order to begin filming The Dark Knight .
Was 6 months pregnant with her daughter Gloria when she completed filming The Corrections .
Returned to work 4 months after giving birth to her daughter Gloria in order to begin filming White House Down .
Lives in Brooklyn with her husband and daughter.
In an interview with The Observer newspaper in July 2014, Maggie claimed she didnt know her real name until she was 35 years old: "I needed my birth certificate, and when my dad found it, it said that my name was Margalit. It was a bit of a shock. Id always thought my full name was Margaret - never heard of Margalit. Neither of my parents can remember how it got on the birth certificate.".
In 2015, Maggie Gyllenhaal made headlines when, in an interview in The Wrap, she revealed that she had recently been told that she had been rejected for a role on the grounds that she was too old to play a love interest opposite a 55-year-old actor. Gyllenhaal was 37 at the time.
She refused offer to play Milada Horkov in Milada , eventually played by Ayelet Zurer.
I do seem to have a bit of a predilection for movies that say something,transgressive.
I find myself more and more interested only in roles which move the,world forward.
With everything I work on, I want to be put in a position that I have to,be brave to do the project.
There is a need, especially right now in America, to be a bit,provocative.
I want roles that challenge people to question where they are in life.
(About being the youngest actress on her film,Casa de los babys (2003) ) "I felt out of place and not listened,to".
(referring to when she started acting) "Even in elementary school, I,took it really seriously. I was always doing plays. ",There are two ways to be cool: One is to be disinterested and make it,seem like you must be doing something much more interesting than,everybody else if you are this disinterested. The other is to be,extremely interested. You are not trying to please anyone, but you are,really invested are really focused.
I just want to support these films and be a part of them in any way,because they are so provocative and interesting.
I am looking for movies that are actually about something and that are,questioning something. Movies that are provocative in some way and I am,also looking for roles that I think will force me to grow or learn,something about myself or the world in order to play them well.
