Mary-Kate Olsen Bio

Mary-Kate Olsen Biography

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This Mary-Kate Olsen biography contains information believed to be accurate as extracted from sources around the internet including Wikipedia. If you believe there are errors or omissions in this Mary-Kate Olsen bio, please let us know so that we can correct any inaccuracies.

Mary-Kate Olsen Pictures

Mary-Kate Olsen (born June 13, 1986) is an American actress, best known as half of the acting duo Mary-Kate and Ashley alongside her fraternal twin sister Ashley Olsen.

Mary-Kate Olsen: Career

Mary-Kate Olsen - Work as a twin

Mary-Kate Olsen began her career in 1987 at the age of nine months when she and her sister Ashley were hired for the role of Michelle Tanner on the popular television series Full House. To comply with strict labor laws regarding child actors, they alternated in the role during the taping of the show. They were credited as "Mary Kate Ashley Olsen" in an attempt to deter audiences from realizing that the role was played by two children.

Following Full House, Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen released a string of successful straight-to-video movies and became popular figures in the preteen market during the late 1990s and early 2000s. Their names became a cottage industry, with their likeness seen in clothes, books, fragrances, magazines, movies and posters. There were even fashion dolls made by Mattel from 2000-2005.

They starred in the video series The Adventures of Mary-Kate & Ashley, the ABC show Two of a Kind, and ABC Family's So Little Time. They were ranked number three on the VH1 program 100 Greatest Child Stars.

Mary-Kate Olsen - Career

Mary-Kate's most recent acting venture was in the light-hearted romantic comedy, New York Minute, also starring Eugene Levy.

Mary-Kate Olsen - Not the Olsen Twins

Most currently, Mary-Kate has urged the public and the media to see her separately from Ashley by following a request to be referred to, not as 'The Olsen Twins' but as Mary-Kate Olsen and Ashley Olsen. Subsequently, Mary-Kate's first solo acting appearance was in the movie Factory Girl, released in December 2006. In addition, she has had a recurring role on Showtime's "Weeds" as Tara Lindman, a devout Christian who believes it is OK to smoke marijuana, because it grows from the earth. She appears in the 2008 film The Wackness as Union. At the Sundance Film Festival, co-star and Academy Award-winner Sir Ben Kingsley praised her by saying "Mary-Kate's portrayal of this girl is perfect-she's hysterical. She's a pro. It makes sense. She's been in this business a lot longer than I have."

Mary-Kate Olsen - CEO

In 2004, both Ashley and Mary-Kate Olsen become CEO of their company Dualstar (created in 1993 following the success on Full House), the brand currently selling in over 3,000 stores in America and 5,300 stores world-wide. Their success has been marked on Forbes The Celebrity 100 list since 2002, and in 2007 Forbes ranked the twins as the eleventh-richest woman in entertainment, with an estimated net worth of $100 million.

Mary-Kate Olsen - Fashion designer

Following a high volume of public interest in the sisters' fashion choices, both worked in collaboration on a string of fashion lines available to the public.

Starting as young girls, they have a clothing line in Wal-Mart stores across America for girls ages 4-14 as well as a beauty line called "Mary-Kate and Ashley: Real fashion for real girls". In 2004 they made news by signing a pledge to allow all the workers that sew their line of clothing in Bangladesh full maternity leave. The National Labor Committee, which organized the pledge, later praised the twins for their commitment to worker rights. The director of the organization, Charles Kernaghan, is quoted as saying, "The Olsen twins have done the right thing. Now it is up to Wal-Mart to either support Mary-Kate and Ashley's commitment to women's rights, or tragically to shut them down." However their collaboration with Wal-Mart tarnished their fashionable reputations amongst the fashion industry until they were tapped as the faces of upscale fashion line Badgley Mischka in 2006, in an attempt to gain credibility in the fashion industry after their association with Wal-Mart.

In a more matured fashion project, Mary-Kate and her sister have released The Row, a high-end fashion line inspired by London's Savile Row, the line a direct reflection of their own popular personal style. The line features shirts and tank tops selling for hundreds of dollars each, a stark contrast to their previous line for young girls. The clothing is sold at high-end retailers such as Barneys, Maxfield, Harvey Nichols, Brown's, and others around the world.

Ashley and Mary-Kate continued their expansion in the fashion industry with the Fall '07 launch of Elizabeth and James, their contemporary collection inspired by many of their unique vintage finds and pieces in their personal wardrobes.

Mary-Kate Olsen: Personal life

In 2005, Mary-Kate Olsen ended her romance with Greek shipping heir Stavros Niarchos III. Mary-Kate said that the breakup was one of the main factors in her leave of absence from New York University. "I miss him and I love him," Olsen said, "It's a hurtful and a painful subject." When asked if there was a specific reason for her leaving NYU, she replied, "I think we can all guess." The breakup and Niarchos's pairing with Paris Hilton led to a rift between Hilton and Mary-Kate. "[Paris and I] always only had nice things to say about each other," Olsen said. "Now I guess you can tell we're not talking.

Mary-Kate Olsen - Health issues

In mid-2004, following a period filled with speculation, shock and concern regarding her weight loss, Olsen announced she had entered treatment for an eating disorder, reportedly anorexia. On November 20, 2007 she was hospitalized for a reported kidney infection.

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