Evan Rachel Wood
Evan Rachel Wood (born September 7, 1987) is an American actress. She is the recipient of a Critics' Choice Television Award as well as three Primetime Emmy Award nominations and three Golden Globe Award nominations for her work in film and television.
Evan Rachel Wood
She began acting in the 1990s, appearing in several television series, including American Gothic (1995–96) and Once and Again (1999–2002). She made her debut as a leading film actress at the age of nine in Digging to China (1997) and garnered acclaim for her Golden Globe-nominated role as the troubled teenager Tracy Freeland in the teen drama film Thirteen (2003). She continued acting mostly in independent films, including Pretty Persuasion (2005), Down in the Valley (2005), Running with Scissors (2006), and Across the Universe (2007).
Since 2008, Wood has appeared in more mainstream films, including The Wrestler (2008), Whatever Works (2009), The Ides of March (2011), and she portrayed Madonna in
Weird: The Al Yankovic Story (2022). She returned to television the following year in the recurring role of Sophie-Anne Leclerq, the vampire Queen of Louisiana, on True Blood from 2009 to 2011. She also portrayed the title character's malicious daughter in the HBO miniseries Mildred Pierce (2011), for which she was nominated for the Golden Globe and Emmy Award for Best Supporting Actress. She starred as sentient android Dolores Abernathy in the HBO series Westworld (2016–2022), for which she won a Critics' Choice Award and earned Golden Globe and Emmy Award nominations. Wood also voiced Queen Iduna in the Disney animated fantasy film Frozen II (2019). In 2024, she began starring as Audrey in the Off-Broadway revival of Little Shop of Horrors.[1]
Early life and family[edit]
Wood was born in Raleigh, North Carolina on September 7, 1987.[2] Her mother, Sara Lynn Moore, is an actress, director, and acting coach.[3] Her father, Ira David Wood III, is an actor, theater director and playwright prominent in Raleigh, where he is the co-founder and executive director of a community theatre company called Theatre in the Park.[4][5] Wood's brother, Ira David Wood IV, is also an actor; she has two other brothers, Dana and Thomas, and a sister named Aden. Her paternal aunt, Carol Winstead Wood, was a production designer in Hollywood.[6]
Wood was actively involved in Theatre in the Park while growing up, including an appearance in the 1987 production of her father's musical comedy adaptation of A Christmas Carol when she was just a few months old.[6][7] She subsequently played the Ghost of Christmas Past in several productions there, and starred as Helen Keller alongside her mother (as Anne Sullivan) in The Miracle Worker, under her father's direction.[8][9]
She attended Cary Elementary School in Cary, North Carolina, where she starred in its production of The Little Mermaid.[7] When her parents divorced, she moved with her mother to her mother's native Los Angeles in 1997 to further her acting career.[6][8] She attended public school in California before leaving at age 12 for homeschooling.[5][6] She received her high school diploma at 15.[6][10] Wood said she earned a black belt in taekwondo when she was 12, and that she participated in the AAU Junior Olympic Games.[11]
Other ventures[edit]
Music[edit]
In 2012, Wood recorded "I'd Have You Anytime" which is on the fourth CD of Chimes of Freedom: The Songs of Bob Dylan Honoring 50 Years of Amnesty International, a compilation production for the benefit of the organization.[61] She performed as electro-pop duo, Rebel and a Basketcase, with multi-instrumentalist Zach Villa in 2016.[62][63][64] The duo disbanded in August 2017.[65] Wood is one-half of cover band Evan + Zane, which she formed with guitarist/singer-songwriter Zane Carney in 2018.[66][67] Evan + Zane put out their first CD, called Dreams, in December 2022.
Wood appeared on the Billboard Hot 100 for the first time in 2019 when "Show Yourself", the duet she sang alongside Idina Menzel from the Frozen II soundtrack, debuted on the chart at number 99.[68] The song peaked at number 70.[69]
Activism[edit]
In June 2016, the Human Rights Campaign released a video in tribute to the victims of the Orlando nightclub shooting; in the video, Wood and others told the stories of the people killed there.[70][71]
In February 2018, she testified before the United States House Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, Homeland Security and Investigations in support of the Sexual Assault Survivors' Bill of Rights Act.[72] In April 2019, she testified before the California State Senate to help pass the Phoenix Act, which extended the statute of limitations in domestic violence cases from three to five years and requires police to have additional training.[73] In her testimony, Wood said she had been physically, sexually and emotionally abused by singer Marilyn Manson,[74] including antisemitism,[75][76][77] and that she had subsequently been diagnosed with complex post-traumatic stress disorder.[78][79]