Who is Mikey Madison? All about the Oscar-nominated ‘Anora’ star

Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood, there was Mikey Madison.

The 25-year-old actress has been garnering recognition during the 2025 award show season thanks to her critically acclaimed role in the 2024 film “Anora.”

Madison took home a BAFTA for Best Actress for her portrayal of the exotic dancer Anora and was also nominated at the Golden Globes, Screen Actors Guild Awards and Academy Awards.

Speaking with the Los Angeles Times in December about how her life has changed since her rise to fame, the star admitted, “I think some of it doesn’t seem super genuine.”

“Like old friends coming out of the woodwork. Ex-boyfriends reaching out to me,” Madison continued. “‘Hey, wanna grab a coffee or something.’ Why? Because you’ve seen me on billboards?”

But before “Anora,” which is nominated for six Academy Awards, the actress had starred in a series of hit franchises, including “Scream.”

So don’t hang up. Keep scrolling to learn everything you need to know about Mikey Madison.

Where is Mikey Madison from?

The star was born in Los Angeles and grew up in the San Fernando Valley. Madison’s parents are psychologists, and she has one twin brother, another brother and two sisters.

Growing up, the actress was a competitive horseback rider.

“For a long time, I was the weird horse girl,” Madison teased to W Magazine in January.

What has Mikey Madison been in?

Madison has been acting since she was 14, starting her on-screen career in multiple short films. Madison then made her feature film debut in “Liza, Liza, Skies Are Grey,” released in 2017.

In 2016, she landed the role of Pamela Adlon’s teen daughter in the series “Better Things.” She portrayed Max until the series ended in 2022.

She called the drama her “introduction to acting, my college, my film school, really everything” while talking to The Cut in January.

Her film resume stacked up, taking on the role of Susan “Sadie” Atkins, a member of the Manson Family, in Quentin Tarantino’s 2019 hit “Once Upon a Time . . . In Hollywood” and in the 2024 TV miniseries “Lady in the Lake.”

By 2022, the star had joined the “Scream” franchise as Amber Freeman in “Scream.”

She became Ghostface in the fifth slasher film and killed one of the franchise’s OG characters, Dewey Riley (David Arquette.)

“I have to be honest, when I did the film, it sounds naive, but I wasn’t so aware of the huge fan base that the franchise has, that I’ve now been able to discover,” Madison told Collider in 2024. “‘Scream’ and horror fans and people who love horror films are the best people ever, but I really naively went into it.”

How was Mikey Madison cast in ‘Anora’?

Writer and director Sean Baker saw Madison in “Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood” and wrote the screenplay for “Anora” with Madison in mind.

Baker also cast her in the role without an audition, which worked out, as Madison was already a fan of his.

“I said ‘yes’ even before I read the script,” she told The Cut. “I knew whatever he created was something I would want to be a part of.”

“Anora” follows a young woman from Brooklyn who gets her chance to leave the strip club where she works when she meets and marries the son of a Russian oligarch. But when the news reaches Russia, her fairytale comes crashing down when her husband’s parents try to get the marriage annulled.

For the role, Madison learned how to pole dance and speak Russian.

“I’ve made friends who are dancers,” Madison added about preparing for the role. “I wanted every aspect of Ani’s career and what she does to be realistic—but also, that’s not her entire life; that’s just her job.”

And when it came to playing Ani, the young starlet told Vanity Fair in November: “I feel very different personally and physically to her in every way but I related to her hopefulness a little bit. It felt like I was constantly exerting so much energy to get to the places that she was in.”

What’s next for Mikey Madison?

For Madison, playing Anora has been “genuinely life-changing,”

However, the award-winning performer isn’t looking to rush into her next gig.

“I think that I’m being very thoughtful about the next job I choose for many different reasons,” she explained to Dazed. “I know who I am as an actor and an artist now. I know how I want to feel making a movie. I’ve been lucky to have every job that I’ve had, but I want to feel—even just a little bit—the way I felt making Sean’s movie on my next.

“So it’s important for me to be in love with the character. It’s an emotional job that I’m doing, and so I’m waiting for something that really speaks to me. That’s what I’ve been thinking about, and right now I’m still waiting for that.”