page_title: Brie Larson
section_title: Early life
hierarchical_section_title: Brie Larson / Early life
caption_attribution_description: National Register of Historic Places in San Francisco, California. Geary Theatre, 415 Geary Ave, San Francisco, California, USA. Photographed 2008-05-04 by Mike Hofmann from the north side of Geary Blvd between Taylor and Mason Sts. Camera location37°&#160;47′&#160;13.83″&#160;N, 122°&#160;24′&#160;37.16″&#160;W&#160;View this and other nearby images on: OpenStreetMap - Google Earth
context_page_description: Brianne Sidonie Desaulniers, known professionally as Brie Larson, is an American actress and filmmaker. Noted for her supporting work in comedies when a teenager, she has since expanded to leading roles in independent dramas and film franchises, receiving such accolades as an Academy Award and a Golden Globe. Time magazine named her one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2019.
  Born in Sacramento, California, Larson was homeschooled. At age six, she became the youngest student admitted to a training program at the American Conservatory Theater. She soon relocated to Los Angeles and began her acting career in 1998 with a comedy sketch on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. She appeared as a regular in the 2001 sitcom Raising Dad and briefly dabbled with a music career, releasing the album Finally Out of P.E. in 2005. Larson subsequently played supporting roles in the comedy films Hoot, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, and 21 Jump Street, and appeared as a sardonic teenager in the television series United States of Tara.
context_section_description: Larson was born Brianne Sidonie Desaulniers on October 1, 1989, in Sacramento, California, to Heather (Edwards) and Sylvain Desaulniers. Her parents were homeopathic chiropractors who ran a practice together, and they have another daughter, Milaine. Her father is French Canadian, and in her childhood, Larson spoke French as her first language. She was mostly homeschooled, which she believed allowed her to explore innovative and abstract experiences. Describing her early life, Larson has said that she was "straight-laced and square", and that she shared a close bond with her mother but was shy and suffered from social anxiety. During the summer, she would write and direct her own home movies in which she cast her cousins and filmed in her garage. At age six, she expressed interest in becoming an actress, later remarking that the "creative arts was just something that was always in me". That same year, she auditioned for a training program at the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco, where she became the youngest student admitted.
  Larson experienced trauma when her parents divorced when she was seven. She had a dysfunctional relationship with her father; she has recalled, "As a kid I tried to understand him and understand the situation. But he didn't do himself any favors. I don't think he ever really wanted to be a parent." Soon after their split, Heather relocated to Los Angeles with her two daughters to fulfill Larson's acting ambition. They had limited financial means and lived in a small apartment near Hollywood studio lots at Burbank. Larson described her experience, "We had a crappy one-room apartment where the bed came out of the wall and we each had three articles of clothing." Even so, Larson has recounted fond memories of that period and has credited her mother for doing the best she could for them.
  As her last name was difficult to pronounce, she adopted the stage name Larson from her Swedish great-grandmother as well as an American Girl doll named Kirsten Larson that she received as a child. Her first job was performing a commercial parody for Barbie, named "Malibu Mudslide Barbie", in a 1998 episode of The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. She subsequently took on guest roles in several television series, including Touched by an Angel and Popular. In 2000, she was cast in the Fox sitcom Schimmel, which was canceled before airing when its star, Robert Schimmel, was diagnosed with cancer.
caption: The American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco, where Larson was the youngest student admitted
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