Mara Elizabeth Wilson was born on July 24th, 1987 in Los Angeles. She is a middle child with three elder brothers - Danny (b. 1979), Jon (b. 1980) and Joel (b. 1982) - and a younger sister Anna (b. 1992).
When Mara was five years old, her eldest brother Danny started acting in television adverts and she wanted to follow in his footsteps. She went on to appear in a number of commercials includin ...
show all Mara Elizabeth Wilson was born on July 24th, 1987 in Los Angeles. She is a middle child with three elder brothers - Danny (b. 1979), Jon (b. 1980) and Joel (b. 1982) - and a younger sister Anna (b. 1992).
When Mara was five years old, her eldest brother Danny started acting in television adverts and she wanted to follow in his footsteps. She went on to appear in a number of commercials including those advertising Texaco and the Bank of America. She also appeared in a movie with Robin Williams in the film "Mrs. Doubtfire (1993)", which is based on Anne Fine's book 'Madame Doubtfire'. In the role, Mara proved herself to be a talented young actress who was mature for her tender years and her acting career went from strength-to-strength.
The following year, Mara played a small girl whose mother had suffered a major stroke in "Time to Heal, A (1994) (TV)". But her big break came with the remake of "Miracle on 34th Street (1994)" where she had a starring role as the little cynical girl who learned the magic of Santa Claus. Ironically, Mara is Jewish so was not raised to believe in Santa Claus but this was a bonus in some ways since she was able to empathize with her character's stance that there was no Santa.
At the age of nine, Mara was cast in the lead role in the film adaptation of Roald Dahl's book "Matilda (1996)". Sadly, during filming, Mara lost her mother to lung cancer but she bravely pushed ahead with the film much to the amazement and admiration of her adult co-stars.
Mara starred in three films over the following three years, the last of which was as the granddaughter of Peter Fonda in the film version of the British children's favorite "Thomas and the Magic Railroad (2000)". Unfortunately, the film did not do well in the box office and also signaled an end to Mara's childhood career as she focused on her school career and just enjoying her teenage years.
In June 2005, Mara finished up at Burbank High School and now attends New York University as a drama major.
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