Mikaela Madison Rosberg was born on March 25, 1999, in Los Angeles, California, as the third daughter and fourth child of five children of Michael and Tracy Rosberg.[1][2][3] Both of her parents are psychologists: her father specialized in schizophrenia and her mother specialized in child psychology.[3] She has two brothers, one of whom is her twin, and two older sisters.[4][3][5]
Madison 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.[6] She was raised in the San Fernando Valley.[3] Madison initially trained as a competitive horseback rider before switching to acting at age 14. She was homeschooled after the seventh grade.[2][7] 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.[8][9] She grew up watching films directed by Woody Allen, Quentin Tarantino, Sofia Coppola, and Martin Scorsese.[3]
Madison made her acting debut in 2013, appearing in the short films Retirement and Pani's Box.[11] 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.[12][13]
Filmmaker Sean Baker cast Madison in the comedy-drama film Anora as the titular stripper and sex worker.[31] 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.[32][33] For the role, she studied Russian and performed her own stunts, including two fight scenes.[34][2] She also learned pole dancing and temporarily relocated to Brighton Beach, the neighborhood setting of the film, in preparation for the film.[35] The film premiered at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival to critical acclaim,[36] winning the Palme d'Or.[37][38] It became a critical and commercial success, and Madison was praised for her performance.[39][40][41]Richard Lawson of Vanity Fair praised Madison's Brooklyn accent and found her performance "big and vivid, brash but charming".[42] 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.[43][44][45]
In March 2025, Madison guest hosted an episode of the live sketch comedy show Saturday Night Live.[46] In April 2025, Madison had been in brief negotiations to appear in Star Wars: Starfighter, but declined due to a salary dispute.[47][48] In May 2025, Madison was cast in the upcoming film Reptilia, to be directed by Alejandro Landes.[49] By June 2025, she entered talks to star in The Masque of the Red Death for A24.[48] In September 2025, Madison was cast as whistle blower Frances Haugen in The Social Reckoning, the sequel to 2010's The Social Network, to be released on October 9, 2026.[50]
Personal life
Madison in 2024
Madison lives in her native Los Angeles.[31] She is a vegan and adopted a dog named Jam.[51] Madison does not use social media, saying in an 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.[52] 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.[52]
She describes herself as non-religious but a "very spiritual person".[10]
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