# Mikey Madison

Mikaela Madison Rosberg (born March 25, 1999), known professionally as Mikey Madison, is an American actress. She began her career acting in short films and received recognition for her role as a sullen teenager in the FX comedy series Better Things (2016–2022). Madison then played Susan Atkins in Quentin Tarantino's Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019) and Amber Freeman in Scream (2022).
For her breakthrough role as a sex worker in Sean Baker's film Anora (2024), Madison earned several accolades, including the BAFTA and Academy Award for Best Actress. She is the first member of Generation Z to win an acting Oscar.

## Early life

Mikaela Madison Rosberg was born in Los Angeles on March 25, 1999. Both of her parents are psychologists. She has two brothers, one of whom is her twin, and two sisters. She lived in Santa Clarita, a Los Angeles suburb, for the first few years of her life, before her family moved to the Woodland Hills neighborhood of Los Angeles. She initially trained as a competitive horseback rider before switching to acting at age 14. She was homeschooled after the seventh grade. Her grandmother's cousin was a Texas cowboy named Clarence Hailey Long Jr., who appeared on the cover of the August 1949 issue of Life magazine, which served as the main inspiration for the Marlboro Man. She is Jewish.

## Career

Madison made her acting debut in 2013, appearing in the short films Retirement and Pani's Box. In 2014, after appearing in the short film Bound for Greatness, she filmed her first feature film, Liza, Liza, Skies Are Grey, which was not released until 2017.
In 2016, Madison began a starring role as Max Fox, a sullen teenager, in the FX comedy-drama series Better Things created by Louis C.K. and Pamela Adlon, which ran until 2022. From 2017 to 2018, she guest starred in the Bravo dark comedy series Imposters. In 2018, she appeared in the drama films Monster and Nostalgia.
Madison earned recognition for her role as the Manson Family member Susan "Sadie" Atkins in Quentin Tarantino's period drama film Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, which premiered at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival and was a commercial success. Also in 2019, she had a voice role in the animated black comedy film The Addams Family.
The following year, Madison was cast as Amber Freeman in Scream, the fifth film of the Scream franchise, which was directed by Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett. The film was released in 2022 to critical and commercial success, becoming the 28th-highest-grossing film of its year. Writing for The A.V. Club, Katie Rife called Madison a standout performer in the film. In 2024, Madison had a supporting role in the miniseries Lady in the Lake.
Filmmaker Sean Baker cast Madison in the comedy-drama film Anora as the titular stripper and sex worker. He cast her without an audition after watching her performances in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood and Scream, and wrote the character specifically for her. For the role, she studied Russian and performed her own stunts, including two fight scenes. She also studied pole dancing and temporarily relocated to Brighton Beach, the neighborhood setting of the film, in preparation for the film. The film premiered at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival to critical acclaim, winning the Palme d'Or. It became a critical and commercial success, and Madison was praised for her performance. Richard Lawson of Vanity Fair praised Madison's Brooklyn accent and found her performance "big and vivid, brash but charming". Her performance won her the Academy Award for Best Actress (making her the first person from Generation Z to win an Academy Award in an acting category) and the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role, in addition to nominations for a Golden Globe and a SAG Award in the same category.

## Personal life

Madison lives in her native Los Angeles. She is a vegan. She does not use social media, saying in a November 2024 interview that it does not feel "authentic or natural" to her and that she would not "have anything very impactful to add" to social media. She added that she is a "very sensitive person" who believes people should not read what others are saying about them and thus keeps herself "ignorant to that part of the Internet" for her mental health.
She is Jewish, though she was raised in a non-practicing household. However, she describes herself as a "very spiritual person."

## Filmography
### Film

| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
| 2017 | Liza, Liza, Skies Are Grey | Liza | |
| 2018 | Nostalgia | Kathleen | |
| 2018 | Monster | Alexandra Floyd | |
| 2019 | Once Upon a Time in Hollywood | Susan "Sadie" Atkins | |
| 2019 | The Addams Family | Candi the Barista | Voice |
| 2021 | It Takes Three | Kat Walker | |
| 2022 | Scream | Amber Freeman | |
| 2023 | All Souls | River | |
| 2024 | Anora | Anora "Ani" Mikheeva | |

### Television

| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
| 2016–2022 | Better Things | Maxine "Max" Fox | Main role |
| 2017–2018 | Imposters | Young Maddie | 2 episodes |
| 2024 | Lady in the Lake | Judith Weinstein | Miniseries |

## Awards and nominations
### Major associations

| Year | Award | Category | Work | Result |
| 2025 | Academy Awards | Best Actress | Anora | Won |
| 2025 | British Academy Film Awards | Best Actress in a Leading Role | Anora | Won |
| 2025 | British Academy Film Awards | Rising Star Award | — | Nominated |
| 2025 | Critics' Choice Awards | Best Actress | Anora | Nominated |
| 2025 | Critics' Choice Awards | Best Acting Ensemble | Anora | Nominated |
| 2025 | Golden Globe Awards | Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy | Anora | Nominated |
| 2025 | Screen Actors Guild Awards | Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role | Anora | Nominated |
| 2025 | Screen Actors Guild Awards | Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture | Anora | Nominated |

### Other awards

| Year | Award | Category | Work | Result |
| 2024 | Astra Film Awards | Best Actress | Anora | Nominated |
| 2024 | Atlanta Film Critics Circle | Best Actress | Won | |
| 2024 | Boston Society of Film Critics | Best Actress | Won | |
| 2024 | Chicago Film Critics Association | Best Actress | Nominated | |
| 2024 | Deauville American Film Festival | Hollywood Rising-Star Award | — | Won |
| 2024 | Gotham Awards | Outstanding Lead Performance | Anora | Nominated |
| 2024 | Iowa Film Critics Association | Best Actress | Anora | Won |
| 2024 | Las Vegas Film Critics Society | Best Actress | Anora | Won |
| 2024 | Los Angeles Film Critics Association | Best Lead Performance | Anora | Won |
| 2024 | Mill Valley Film Festival | MVFF Breakthrough Performance Award | Anora | Won |
| 2024 | National Board of Review | Breakthrough Performance | Anora | Won |
| 2024 | New York Film Critics Online | Best Actress | Anora | Nominated |
| 2024 | Phoenix Critics Circle | Best Actress | Anora | Won |
| 2024 | San Diego Film Critics Society | Best Actress | Anora | Nominated |
| 2024 | San Diego Film Critics Society | Breakthrough Performance | Anora | Won |
| 2024 | San Francisco Bay Area Film Critics Circle | Best Actress | Anora | Nominated |
| 2024 | SCAD Savannah Film Festival | Breakthrough Award | — | Won |
| 2024 | Seattle Film Critics Society | Best Actress | Anora | Won |
| 2024 | Southeastern Film Critics Association | Best Actress | Anora | Won |
| 2024 | St. Louis Film Critics Association | Best Actress | Anora | Won |
| 2024 | Toronto Film Critics Association | Outstanding Lead Performance | Anora | Won |
| 2024 | Virginia Film Festival | Achievement in Acting Award | Anora | Won |
| 2024 | Washington D.C. Area Film Critics Association | Best Actress | Anora | Won |
| 2025 | AACTA International Awards | Best Actress | Anora | Nominated |
| 2025 | Alliance of Women Film Journalists | Best Actress | Anora | Nominated |
| 2025 | Alliance of Women Film Journalists | Best Women's Breakthrough Performance | Anora | Won |
| 2025 | Georgia Film Critics Association | Best Actress | Anora | Won |
| 2025 | Independent Spirit Awards | Best Lead Performance | Anora | Won |
| 2025 | Irish Film & Television Awards | Best International Actress | Anora | Nominated |
| 2025 | Online Film Critics Society | Best Actress | Anora | Won |
| 2025 | Palm Springs International Film Festival | Breakthrough Performance Award | Anora | Won |
| 2025 | Satellite Awards | Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Comedy or Musical | Anora | Nominated |