Olivia Wilde (born Olivia Jane Cockburn, /ˈkoʊbərn/ KOH-bərn, March 10, 1984) is an American actress and director. She played Remy "Thirteen" Hadley on the medical-drama television series House (2007–2012), and appeared in the action films Tron: Legacy (2010) and Cowboys & Aliens (2011), the romantic drama film Her (2013), the comedy film The Incredible Burt Wonderstone (2013), and the horror film The Lazarus Effect (2015). She made her Broadway debut playing Julia in 1984 (2017).

Wilde made her directorial debut with the teen comedy film Booksmart (2019), which received critical acclaim and won the Independent Spirit Award for Best First Feature. She directed the thriller film Don't Worry Darling (2022), which she also starred in.

Wilde was born Olivia Jane Cockburn in New York City on March 10, 1984. She grew up in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C., while spending summers at Ardmore in Ireland. She attended Georgetown Day School in Washington, D.C., and Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts, graduating in 2002. A dual citizen of the United States and Ireland, she derived her professional surname from Irish author Oscar Wilde, and began using it in high school to honor the writers in her family, many of whom used pen names. She was accepted to Bard College, but deferred her enrollment three times to pursue acting. She then studied at the Gaiety School of Acting in Dublin. For a short time, Wilde's family also had a house in Guilford, Vermont.^{[citation needed]}

Wilde has a sister five years older and a brother nine years younger. Her father, Andrew Cockburn, is a British journalist who was born in the London suburb of Willesden and raised in Ireland. Her mother, Leslie Cockburn (née Redlich), is an American producer on 60 Minutes and a journalist.

Writer Christopher Hitchens was the Cockburn family's tenant in Washington, D.C., and served as Wilde's babysitter. Her grandfather, British novelist Claud Cockburn, and his sons Alexander and Patrick Cockburn were also journalists, and her aunt, Sarah Caudwell, was a writer.

Wilde appeared as Jewel Goldman on the short-lived television series Skin (2003). She gained attention for her recurring role as bisexual bar owner Alex Kelly, who dates both characters played by Adam Brody and Mischa Barton on the teen drama TV series The O.C. (2004–2005).

She appeared in films The Girl Next Door (2004), Conversations with Other Women (2005), Bickford Shmeckler's Cool Ideas (2006), Turistas (2006) and Alpha Dog (2006). In 2007, she starred off-Broadway in political thriller Beauty on the Vine, playing three characters. She was also in The Death and Life of Bobby Z (2007) and the short-lived drama television series The Black Donnellys (2007). In September 2007, she joined the cast of the medical drama TV series House as Remy "Thirteen" Hadley, a bisexual internist with Huntington's disease who is handpicked by House to join his medical team. Her first appearance was in the episode "The Right Stuff".

Wilde appeared in the comedy film Year One (2009) as Princess Inanna, and starred in Disney's Tron: Legacy (2010) as Quorra. Inspired by her award-winning journalist and documentary filmmaker parents, she has executive-produced several documentary short films, including Sun City Picture House (2010), about a community in Haiti that rallies to build a movie theater after the disastrous 2010 earthquake.