Brie Larson Bio
Brianne Sidonie Desaulniers (born October 1, 1989), known professionally as Brie Larson, is an American-Canadian actress. She played supporting roles in comedies as a teenager and has since expanded to leading roles in independent films and blockbusters. Her accolades include an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, and a Primetime Emmy Award. Time magazine named her one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2019. At age six, Larson was the youngest student admitted to a training program at the American Conservatory Theater, and she 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. She subsequently had supporting roles in the comedy films Hoot (2006), Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (2010), and 21 Jump Street (2012), and appeared as a sardonic teenager in the television series United States of Tara (2009–2011). Her breakthrough came with a leading role in the independent drama Short Term 12 (2013), and she continued to take on supporting parts in the romance The Spectacular Now (2013) and the comedy Trainwreck (2015). For playing a kidnapping victim in the drama Room (2015), she won the Academy Award for Best Actress. The 2017 adventure film Kong: Skull Island marked her first big-budget release, after which she starred as Captain Marvel in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, beginning with Captain Marvel (2019). Larson has since starred in the miniseries Lessons in Chemistry (2023), for which she was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress.
Early Life and Background
Brianne Sidonie Desaulniers was born on October 1, 1989, in Sacramento, California, to Heather and Sylvain Desaulniers, homeopathic chiropractors who ran a practice together. She has one sister, Milaine. Her father is Franco-Manitoban, and French was Larson’s first language. She holds dual citizenship of Canada and the United States. Larson was mostly home-schooled, which she believed allowed her to explore innovative and abstract experiences. Describing her early life, Larson has said she was “strait-laced and square,” and that she shared a close bond with her mother but was shy and had social anxiety. During the summer, she wrote and directed her own home movies in which she cast her cousins, 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 its youngest student. Larson’s parents divorced when she was seven. She had a dysfunctional relationship with her father and, soon after their separation, 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. Even so, she has recounted fond memories of this period and credits her mother for doing the best she could for them.
Path to Hollywood
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. Larson’s first major role came as Emily, the younger daughter of Bob Saget’s character, in the WB sitcom Raising Dad, which aired for one season during the 2001–02 television schedule. She was next hired for the ABC sitcom Hope & Faith, but she and some other cast members were replaced after an unaired pilot. In 2003, she starred alongside Beverley Mitchell in the Disney Channel film Right on Track, based on the junior drag race star sisters Erica and Courtney Enders, and played minor roles in the 2004 comedies Sleepover and 13 Going on 30. Larson developed an interest in music at age eleven when she learned to play the guitar. A music executive encouraged her to write her own songs, and she began self-recording and uploading tracks to her own website. After failing to get cast as Wendy Darling in the 2003 film Peter Pan, Larson wrote and recorded a song titled “Invisible Girl,” which received airplay on KIIS-FM. She soon signed a record deal with Tommy Mottola of Casablanca Records; she and Lindsay Lohan were the only artists signed by the label at the time. In 2005, she released the album Finally Out of P.E., for which she also co-wrote songs with other songwriters. One of her singles, “She Said,” was featured on the MTV series Total Request Live, peaked at number 31 on the Billboard Hot Single Sales, and went on tour with Jesse McCartney for Teen People’s “Rock in Shop” mall concerts.
Brie Larson Career
Early Career (1998–2008)
In 2006, Larson was cast alongside Logan Lerman and Cody Linley in the comedy film Hoot, about young vigilantes trying to save a group of owls. It received poor reviews, but Larson was appreciated for bringing a dash of Indiana Jones to her role. She had a small part in the drama Remember the Daze and launched an arts and literature magazine, Bunnies and Traps, for which she wrote her own opinion columns. Larson has said she frequently considered quitting acting at that point, as she found it difficult to find much work. In 2009, Larson began playing Kate Gregson, the sardonic teenage daughter of Toni Collette’s character, coping with her mother’s dissociative identity disorder, in the Showtime comedy-drama series United States of Tara. Larson’s character’s journey to find meaning in life mirrored that of her own. In 2012, Larson expanded into filmmaking by co-writing and co-directing the short film The Arm, which won a special jury prize at the Sundance Film Festival.
Breakthrough (2013–2014)
Larson’s breakthrough came in 2013 when she starred in Destin Daniel Cretton’s critically acclaimed independent drama Short Term 12, marking the first leading role of her career. The film featured her as Grace, the emotionally distressed supervisor of a group home for troubled teenagers. Her performance was acclaimed by critics, and she received a nomination for the Independent Spirit Award for Best Female Lead. In the same year, Larson had supporting roles in two romantic dramas, Don Jon and The Spectacular Now. The 2014 crime drama The Gambler featured Larson as a literature student who has an affair with her professor.
Notable Works and Milestones
In 2015, Larson had three film releases. Her first appearance was in Digging for Fire, followed by Trainwreck, where she played the sister of Amy Schumer’s character. Larson then starred in Room, a film adaptation of Emma Donoghue’s novel, which featured her as Ma, a young woman held in captivity. The role proved physically and emotionally taxing for her, and she won several awards, including the Academy Award for Best Actress. Following the success of Room, Larson played a leading role in Free Fire (2016) and starred in Kong: Skull Island (2017), marking her first mainstream big-budget release.
Brie Larson Award Nominations
Brie Larson has received numerous nominations throughout her career, including for the Academy Award, Golden Globe Award, and Primetime Emmy Award.
Brie Larson Awards Won
Brie Larson has won several prestigious awards, including an Academy Award for Best Actress for Room, a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama for Room, and a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Original Interactive Program for The Messy Truth VR Experience.
Brie Larson Family
Brie Larson’s parents are Heather and Sylvain Desaulniers. She has one sister, Milaine.
Personal Life
Brie Larson began dating Alex Greenwald, lead singer of the band Phantom Planet, in 2013; the couple were engaged from 2016 to 2019. In 2019, Larson was in a relationship with actor-filmmaker Elijah Allan-Blitz. As of 2023, she stated that she is single.
