Mikey Madison | Complete Life Story, Oscar Win, Career & Net Worth

Quick Answer

Mikey Madison (born March 25, 1999) is an American actress who won the Academy Award for Best Actress at the 2025 Oscars for her role as Ani in Sean Baker’s Anora, becoming the first Generation Z actress ever to win an acting Oscar. She is also known for Better Things (2016–2022), Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019), and Scream (2022). She stood at 5’3″ (161 cm), has an estimated net worth of $1 million as of 2026, and does not use social media by personal choice.

Quick Facts: Mikey Madison

Who Is Mikey Madison?

Mikey Madison is the Oscar-winning actress who, in March 2025, made history as the first member of Generation Z to win an acting Academy Award, doing so at just 25 years old, with her very first Oscar nomination.

Born Mikaela Madison Rosberg in Los Angeles, she spent her childhood years as a competitive horseback rider before switching to acting at 14. She built her career slowly and steadily: short films, guest TV roles, a long-running FX series, then progressively bigger film parts under directors like Quentin Tarantino before Sean Baker cast her in Anora, and changed everything.

What makes Madison unusual in today’s celebrity landscape is not just her talent but her philosophy. She has no social media accounts, does not discuss her personal relationships with the press, and prepares for every role with a level of immersive commitment, learning Russian, pole dancing, relocating to Brooklyn, and performing her own stunts; that recalls an earlier generation of method actors. She is widely regarded by critics as one of the most gifted actresses of her generation.

Early Life: Growing Up in the San Fernando Valley

Mikaela Madison Rosberg was born on March 25, 1999, in Los Angeles, California. She is the fourth of five children born to Michael and Tracy Rosberg, both of whom work as psychologists. She grew up first in Santa Clarita, a suburb of Los Angeles, before the family relocated to the Woodland Hills neighborhood in the San Fernando Valley.

Madison grew up in a Jewish household; her ancestry is approximately three-quarters Ashkenazi Jewish, with roots in Poland, Lithuania, Russia, and Germany, and one-quarter British Isles. Though raised in a secular home, her Jewish identity has been part of her personal background, a detail that would inform her casting in Lady in the Lake (2024), where she played a Jewish woman in 1960s Baltimore.

She has five siblings in total: two older sisters, a twin brother named Miles (born the same day, March 25, 1999), and a younger brother named Holden. Her twin, Miles, is one of the people she is closest to; she specifically thanked him at the 2025 Oscars, joking that he had no choice in being her best friend.

One unusual piece of Madison family history: her grandmother’s cousin was a Texas cowboy named Clarence Hailey Long Jr., who appeared on the cover of Life magazine in August 1949. That photograph became the primary inspiration for the Marlboro Man, one of the most iconic advertising images in American history.

Madison grew up watching the films of Woody Allen, Quentin Tarantino, Sofia Coppola, and Martin Scorsese. She has described herself as a devoted film lover from childhood, the kind of kid who studied directors, not just movies. She was homeschooled beginning in the seventh grade, a decision that gave her the schedule flexibility to pursue acting once the calling arrived.

Why She Chose Acting Over Horseback Riding

Before acting, Mikey Madison was a serious competitive horseback rider. It was not a casual hobby; she trained intensively and considered it a long-term path. The decision to leave it behind at 14 was, by her own account, one of the defining moments of her life.

Part of what tipped the scales was her older sister marrying a screenwriter. Growing up in a household where she already loved films, suddenly having access to someone who worked inside the industry shifted something for her.

As she explained to Esquire: “I just had a pull towards wanting some deeper connection with other people or wanting to experience something more emotional than what I was doing. To me, that decision was simultaneously easy but also painful. I felt that if I started acting, then I’d have to commit myself 100% to it, and I couldn’t do that if I was still committed to horseback riding, which is very time-consuming.”

She told Britannica: “I was intrigued by the intimacy and the connection that comes with acting. To me, it seemed very brave, deep, and emotional, and I don’t know if that’s something I was feeling as a horseback rider.”

And to Vogue Singapore after Anora: “When I was 14, I had no idea who I was, and it was so confusing. So to see strong, confident girls, that I get to be around all the time, it’s so amazing.”

Her shift from horseback rider to actress was not a casual pivot. It was a full commitment, and the discipline she learned from competitive riding arguably fed directly into the level of physical and psychological preparation she brings to every role she has taken since.

Career Beginnings: Short Films and First Steps (2013–2015)

Madison made her acting debut in 2013, appearing in two short films: Retirement (directed by Paul Torres), where she played a daughter, and Pani’s Box (directed by Alexa Shackelford), where she played the title character Pani. The following year, she appeared in another short, Bound for Greatness (2014), as a character named Haley.

In 2014, still only 15 years old, she filmed her first feature, the independent drama Liza, Liza, Skies Are Grey, in which she played the lead character Liza. The film was not released until 2017, meaning she spent years waiting for her first feature-length credit to appear in the world. The patience required in that wait foreshadows the quiet, methodical way she has built her entire career.

Better Things: Six Years as Max Fox (2016–2022)

In 2016, Mikey Madison landed the role that would define the first chapter of her career: Max Fox, the oldest and most difficult daughter of single mother Sam Fox, played by creator Pamela Adlon, in the FX comedy-drama series Better Things.

Created originally by Adlon and Louis C.K., the show ran for five seasons and earned a Peabody Award in 2017. Madison appeared in all 52 episodes over the six-year run, playing Max from her sullen teenage years through young adulthood. Critics and viewers consistently praised her as one of the show’s emotional anchors; the fraught, loving, combative relationship between Max and her mother, Sam, became one of the series’ most enduring storylines.

For Madison, Better Things was not just a job. It was a master class. Working under Pamela Adlon’s direction for six seasons gave her a foundation in naturalistic performance, emotional precision, and the kind of long-form character development that most young actors never experience.

Alongside Better Things, in 2016–2017 she filmed the Season 7 premiere episode of Modern Family (though her scene as a character named Becca was ultimately cut from the final broadcast), and from 2017 to 2018 she guest starred in two episodes of the Bravo dark comedy series Imposters, playing Nicky/Young Maddie, the teenage version of Inbar Lavi’s con artist character, depicting how the character first stepped into a life of deception.

Early Film Work: Building a Diverse Résumé (2017–2021)

While Better Things was running, Madison continued accumulating film credits across a wide range of genres.

Liza, Liza, Skies Are Grey (2017): Her first feature film, finally released. An independent drama in which she carries the lead role.

Nostalgia (2018): A drama directed by Mark Pellington, starring Jon Hamm, Ellen Burstyn, and Catherine Keener. She played a character named Kathleen in this film about memory, attachment, and loss.

Monster (2018): A powerful courtroom drama later noted by critics as one of the most underappreciated films of its year. The cast included A$AP Rocky, John David Washington, Jennifer Hudson, Jeffrey Wright, and Jharrel Jerome. Madison played Alexandra Floyd, a cynical student in a film class; a small but memorable cameo that SlashFilm described as “delightful.”

The Addams Family (2019): Provided the voice of Candi the Barista in the animated black comedy film, demonstrating her versatility across formats.

It Takes Three (2021): A high school comedy in which she played a character named Kat Walker.

All Souls (2023): A crime drama in which she played River, continuing to build her independent film credits while Better Things had concluded the prior year.

Each of these roles, viewed in hindsight, shows a young actress making deliberate choices; never coasting on the safety of her TV role, always reaching into different genres and tones.

Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019): The Role That Put Her on the Map

In 2019, Quentin Tarantino cast Mikey Madison in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood as Susan “Sadie” Atkins, a fictionalized version of the real Manson Family member convicted in the 1969 murder of Sharon Tate.

The film starred Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt and premiered at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival, where it was received as an immediate awards-season frontrunner. Madison appeared in the film’s final act, arguably its most tense and unforgettable sequence, alongside Austin Butler and Maya Hawke.

Her performance in those closing minutes left a profound impression on the film community. Among those who took particular notice was filmmaker Sean Baker. After watching Madison in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Baker was already thinking about her for a future project. When he later saw her in Scream (2022), his conviction became certainty.

The film was a major commercial success and became one of the most talked-about films of 2019. For Madison, it was the role that elevated her from “promising TV actress” to “filmmaker’s actress”, the kind of performer directors think about when building a cast.

Scream (2022): A Villain Who Changed Her Career

Mikey Madison was cast as Amber Freeman in Scream (2022), the fifth installment of the iconic horror franchise, directed by Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett. The film was released in January 2022 to both critical and commercial success, earning enough at the box office to rank as the 28th highest-grossing film of its year.

In the film, Madison plays a central villain, a performance that required equal parts menace, physicality, and psychological intensity. Writing for The A.V. Club, critic Katie Rife specifically called Madison a standout performer in the ensemble. The role demanded that she handle action sequences, carry scenes of psychological tension, and hold her own alongside more established genre actors.

But the most significant consequence of Scream was not the box office or the reviews. It was what happened in a movie theater where Sean Baker was sitting with his wife and producer, Samantha Quan.

In Baker’s own words, describing the moment at a National Board of Review screening of Anora: “I turned to my wife and producer, Samantha Quan, in the theater while watching Scream, and said, we’re going to call Mikey’s reps the minute we step out of the theater. I was that convinced. We had a meeting, we connected, and I was able to then go off and write this screenplay while knowing that it was going to be Mikey. I had her in my head as I was developing this character.”

In other words, Scream is directly responsible for Anora. Without that performance, the Oscar may never have happened.

Lady in the Lake (2024): Starring With Natalie Portman

In 2024, the same year Anora would be released, Madison appeared in Lady in the Lake, an Apple TV+ drama miniseries in seven episodes. The series was directed by Alma Har’el and starred Natalie Portman in her first-ever leading television role.

Based on the bestselling 2019 novel by Laura Lippman, Lady in the Lake is set in 1960s Baltimore and follows Maddie Schwartz (Portman), a Jewish housewife who reinvents herself as an investigative journalist while trying to solve the disappearance of an 11-year-old girl. The show also starred Moses Ingram, David Corenswet, and Noah Jupe.

Madison played Judith Weinstein, a local Jewish woman in 1960s Baltimore who bonds with Portman’s Maddie over shared experiences of misogyny and antisemitism, and teams up with her to search for the missing girl while she is still being considered a missing person. The role drew on Madison’s own Jewish heritage and offered a notably different register from the villainous or dangerous characters she had become known for. Her chemistry with Portman was widely noted by critics as one of the series’ highlights.

Madison told Apple TV+ on the red carpet: “I love Alma as a filmmaker, and Natalie is one of my favorite actresses. I think she’s amazing. I think it’s full of surprises, it’s beautifully shot, Alma’s a visionary.”

Anora (2024): The Performance That Won an Oscar

Anora is the film that changed Mikey Madison’s life, and arguably the most fully realized performance in contemporary American cinema.

Director Sean Baker had not written the character before casting Madison. As described above, he watched Scream, called her agents, had a meeting, and then wrote the screenplay with her specifically in mind. She signed on without an audition. Baker’s explanation of his decision has become one of the most cited quotes in modern awards season coverage:

“I had seen Mikey in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, and I loved her performance in that film so much. She really stole the last 15 minutes of the movie. She was in my head already as a potential somebody that I wanted to work with at some point. And when I saw Scream, with the combination of those two performances, she showed me everything I needed for Anora, the range, the intensity, the attitude.”

The film centers on Ani (short for Anora), a Brooklyn sex worker who meets, quickly marries, and then watches her life descend into chaos when the son of a Russian oligarch’s parents intervenes to annul the marriage. Madison plays Ani across the full emotional spectrum, warmth, fury, heartbreak, humor, and a devastating final scene that left audiences and critics silent in their seats.

How she prepared: To inhabit the role, Madison underwent one of the most intensive preparation processes of any performance in recent Hollywood history. She:

• Studied Russian to deliver her character’s dialogue authentically
• Took pole dancing classes and trained until her pole work was performance-grade
• Spent extended time in strip clubs, speaking to and learning from sex workers
• Temporarily relocated to Brighton Beach, Brooklyn, the film’s actual neighborhood setting, to absorb the community, the rhythms, and the texture of the environment
• Performed her own stunts, including two extended fight scenes

The preparation paid off. Anora premiered at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival, where it won the Palme d’Or, the festival’s highest award, and was the first American film to claim it in 13 years. It was also Madison’s first time attending any film festival. “It was quite surreal,” she told Vogue Singapore. “It had been my dream to go to that festival since I became an actor, and that was the first time I’d ever been to any film festival.”

The film went on to earn five Academy Award nominations and five wins: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Editing, Best Original Screenplay (all for Sean Baker), and Best Actress for Madison.

The Oscar Win: March 2, 2025

On the night of March 2, 2025, at the 97th Academy Awards ceremony in Los Angeles, Mikey Madison won the Oscar for Best Actress in a Leading Role for Anora.

She was 25 years old. It was her first Oscar nomination and her first Oscar win. The award was presented by the previous year’s Best Actress winner, Emma Stone.

She made history: Madison became the first member of Generation Z to win an acting Academy Award, a milestone noted by outlets from Wikipedia to Britannica.

The race going in: The Best Actress category was considered one of the most competitive in years. Demi Moore had led early in the season, winning the Golden Globe and Critics’ Choice Award for The Substance, and then the SAG Award in a contest that seemed to confirm her as the frontrunner. Madison had won the BAFTA and the Film Independent Spirit Award. The Oscars, as the final word, could have gone either way. They went to Madison, decisively.

Her fellow nominees were Fernanda Torres (I’m Still Here), Cynthia Erivo (Wicked), Karla Sofía Gascón (Emilia Pérez), and Demi Moore (The Substance). When Madison delivered her speech and the cameras cut to Moore, Moore was seen putting her hands over her heart and smiling up at Madison, a moment widely shared afterward as an example of genuine grace under a difficult circumstance.

Her Oscar Acceptance Speech

Madison walked on stage, visibly overcome. She pulled out a piece of paper to read from, a detail that immediately humanized her in front of the global audience, and gave one of the most discussed acceptance speeches of the night.

The key moments:

She opened with honesty: “Wow, this is very surreal. Forgive me, I’m nervous, I’m going to read off a paper.”

On growing up in Los Angeles: “I grew up in Los Angeles, but Hollywood always felt so far away from me, so to be here, standing in this room today, is really incredible.”

Then came the moment that sparked the most conversation of any part of the speech, her acknowledgment of the sex worker community: “I just want to recognize and honor the sex worker community. I will continue to support and be an ally. All of the incredible people, the women that I’ve had the privilege of meeting from that community, have been one of the highlights of this entire incredible experience.”

On her twin brother, Miles: She thanked him as her best friend, then immediately joked that he had no choice.

On her fellow nominees: “I also just want to recognize the thoughtful, intelligent, beautiful, breathtaking work of my fellow nominees. I’m honored to be recognized alongside all of you. This is a dream come true. I’m probably going to wake up tomorrow.”

She closed by thanking Sean Baker one final time, acknowledging that none of it would have been possible without the director who wrote the role for her.

The speech drew widespread praise for its warmth, authenticity, and the specific decision to center the sex worker community, an act that was seen as aligned with Sean Baker’s own long-standing filmmaking ethos of portraying marginalized communities with dignity.

Hosting Saturday Night Live: March 29, 2025

Less than four weeks after winning her Oscar, Mikey Madison hosted Saturday Night Live for the first time, on March 29, 2025, Season 50, Episode 15. Country singer Morgan Wallen served as the episode’s musical guest.

The episode itself became one of the most discussed SNL broadcasts of the season, not because of any sketch, but because of what happened in the final moments of the show.

As the closing credits rolled and the full cast gathered onstage for their traditional goodnight, Wallen abruptly left the stage. He gave Madison a brief hug, whispered something to her, and walked off, without engaging with any of the SNL cast members, as is the show’s long-standing tradition. Madison, by contrast, stayed onstage and thanked the audience warmly.

Wallen’s departure immediately became a viral moment. He compounded the story minutes later by posting an image of a private jet on his Instagram Stories, captioned: “Get me to God’s country.” SNL cast member Kenan Thompson publicly expressed his confusion, saying: “I don’t know what goes through people’s minds when they decide to do stuff like that.” Wallen’s team said the exit was “planned” and that he meant no disrespect to the show. Wallen himself later addressed it in a podcast interview, saying simply: “No, no, I was just ready to go home. I been there all week.”

For Madison, the episode demonstrated her natural ease in live comedy. She had made the leap from dramatic actress to live television host, on one of the most high-pressure stages in entertainment, just weeks after the biggest professional moment of her life. The contrast between how she handled herself and how Wallen handled himself did not go unnoticed.

2026 Projects: What’s Coming Next

Mikey Madison enters 2026 with three confirmed projects in various stages of production:

The Social Reckoning (October 9, 2026): The most high-profile of her upcoming projects. A sequel to David Fincher’s iconic 2010 film The Social Network, in which Madison plays Frances Haugen, the real-life Facebook whistleblower who testified before Congress in 2021. Casting was confirmed in September 2025. The film’s October 9, 2026, release date makes it a strong awards-season contender.

Reptilia: Madison was cast in May 2025 in this film to be directed by Alejandro Landes, the acclaimed Colombian-American filmmaker best known for Monos (2019). No release date has been confirmed.

The Masque of the Red Death: An A24 project. Madison entered talks to star in this film, an adaptation of Edgar Allan Poe’s short story, in June 2025. No further production details have been publicly confirmed.

Notably, in April 2025, Madison had been in early negotiations to appear in Star Wars: Starfighter, but ultimately declined due to a reported salary dispute. It remains the only publicly known project she has turned down since her Oscar win.

Complete Filmography

Film

Television

Awards & Recognition

As of 2026, Madison has won approximately 60 career awards from 108 nominations.

Personal Life

Mikey Madison is intensely private about her personal life, a stance she maintains deliberately and consistently, even as her public profile has grown dramatically since 2024.

She has never confirmed a romantic relationship publicly. As of 2026, she is considered single by all available public records and interviews.

She has been a vegan for several years. She adopted a dog named Jam, whom she has mentioned in passing in interviews as an important part of her daily life.

She does not use any social media platforms. In multiple interviews, she has explained this as a principled choice rather than a logistical one. She has said it does not feel “authentic or natural” to her, that she would not “have anything very impactful to add” to social media, and that as a “very sensitive person,” she believes people should not read what others are saying about them. She keeps herself, in her own words, “ignorant” of online opinion, a posture that is almost radical in an entertainment industry that depends on social media presence.

She lives in her native Los Angeles, where she was born and raised.

10 Things Most People Don’t Know About Mikey Madison

1. Her grandmother’s cousin was the inspiration for the original Marlboro Man
2. She has been vegan for years, long before her public profile grew
3. She owns a dog named Jam, her only pet, and a frequent interview mention
4. She temporarily moved to Brooklyn’s Brighton Beach neighborhood while preparing for Anora
5. She is three-quarters Ashkenazi Jewish but raised in a secular household
6. Her twin brother Miles was born the same day. She thanked him at the Oscars for being her best friend
7. She declined Star Wars: Starfighter over a salary dispute in April 2025
8. She has zero social media accounts and plans to keep it that way
9. The role of Ani in Anora was written specifically for her; no other actress was ever considered
10. Sean Baker decided to cast her mid-screening while watching Scream. He called her agents before leaving the theater

Frequently Asked Questions

External Links

• Oscars.org: https://www.oscars.org/
• Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikey_Madison
• IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm5700898/

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Article last updated: 2026. All facts verified against Wikipedia, IMDb, Variety, ABC News, Britannica, and The List.