# Maggie Gyllenhaal
**Maggie Gyllenhaal** (born 1977 in New York City) is an American actor and filmmaker known for character-driven performances in independent cinema and, since 2021, for her work as a writer, director, and producer. Her feature directorial debut, *The Lost Daughter*, an adaptation of an [Elena Ferrante](https://www.edgepedia.org/elena-ferrante) novel, won the [Venice Film Festival](https://www.edgepedia.org/venice-film-festival)'s best screenplay prize and earned three Academy Award nominations, and her second film, *The Bride!*, was a large-scale studio production released in 2026.
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Full name | Margalit Ruth Gyllenhaal; born 1977 in New York City, daughter of director Stephen Gyllenhaal and screenwriter Naomi Foner, older sister of actor Jake Gyllenhaal[1](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0350454/?showAllCredits=true) |
| Education | Columbia University, degree in literature, 1999[1](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0350454/?showAllCredits=true) |
| Breakthrough role | Lee Holloway in *Secretary* (2002), which brought her first Golden Globe nomination[2](https://goldenglobes.com/person/maggie-gyllenhaal/) |
| Acting honors | Golden Globe nominations for *Secretary* and *Sherrybaby*; winner for *The Honourable Woman* (2014); Academy Award nomination for *Crazy Heart* (2009)[2](https://goldenglobes.com/person/maggie-gyllenhaal/) • [3](https://www.screendaily.com/features/maggie-gyllenhaal-on-directing-the-lost-daughter-no-one-had-to-come-to-me-with-a-spoonful-of-bullshit-sugar/5166320.article) |
| Directing debut | *The Lost Daughter* (2021), made for around $5 million, with three Oscar nominations including her adapted screenplay[4](https://apnews.com/article/759f6f40d491db66e4950538ba765a19) |
| Second feature | *The Bride!* (2026), a Warner Bros production with a budget north of $80 million[4](https://apnews.com/article/759f6f40d491db66e4950538ba765a19) |
| Festival role | President of the main competition jury, 83rd Venice International Film Festival, 2026[5](https://apnews.com/article/66fce4e22e087f3c0c205a18a248beda) |
## Early life and family
Gyllenhaal was born into the film industry. Her father, [Stephen Gyllenhaal](https://www.edgepedia.org/stephen-gyllenhaal), is a director, and her mother, Naomi Foner, is a screenwriter; her younger brother [Jake Gyllenhaal](https://www.edgepedia.org/jake-gyllenhaal) also became an actor[1](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0350454/?showAllCredits=true). Her full first name, Margalit, a nod to her mother's Jewish heritage, was one she discovered only as an adult, when she requested her birth certificate to take her husband's name[6](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2021/dec/12/maggie-gyllenhaal-from-difficult-roles-to-lauded-hollywood-director).
She made her film debut as a teenager in *Waterland* (1992), directed by her father, and appeared with her brother in *A Dangerous Woman* (1993), again directed by Stephen Gyllenhaal from a screenplay by their mother[7](https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/maggie-gyllenhaal-a-journey-of-the-heart-876540.html). She took a break from acting to attend Columbia University, graduating with a literature degree in 1999[1](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0350454/?showAllCredits=true).
## Acting career
**Breakthrough.** Gyllenhaal's breakthrough came with *Secretary* (2002), in which she played Lee Holloway, a submissive office worker in Steven Shainberg's BDSM romance; the performance earned her a Golden Globe nomination[2](https://goldenglobes.com/person/maggie-gyllenhaal/) • [6](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2021/dec/12/maggie-gyllenhaal-from-difficult-roles-to-lauded-hollywood-director). The same year she appeared in the cult favorite *Donnie Darko* opposite her brother, and in [Charlie Kaufman](https://www.edgepedia.org/charlie-kaufman)'s *Adaptation*[8](https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/maggie-gyllenhaal-interview-kindergarten-teacher-metoo-hollywood-the-deuce-a8808421.html) • [9](https://www.tvinsider.com/people/maggie-gyllenhaal/).
She followed with *Mona Lisa Smile* (2003) opposite [Julia Roberts](https://www.edgepedia.org/julia-roberts), and built a reputation for portraying troubled women. As Sherry Swanson in *Sherrybaby* (2006), a recovering heroin addict trying to win back custody of her daughter after release from jail, she received a second Golden Globe nomination[7](https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/maggie-gyllenhaal-a-journey-of-the-heart-876540.html) • [2](https://goldenglobes.com/person/maggie-gyllenhaal/). Her Oscar-nominated performance came in *Crazy Heart* (2009) with [Jeff Bridges](https://www.edgepedia.org/jeff-bridges)[2](https://goldenglobes.com/person/maggie-gyllenhaal/) • [3](https://www.screendaily.com/features/maggie-gyllenhaal-on-directing-the-lost-daughter-no-one-had-to-come-to-me-with-a-spoonful-of-bullshit-sugar/5166320.article).
**Television.** On television she starred as the fractured protagonist of the miniseries *The Honourable Woman* (2014), winning a Golden Globe, and as a prostitute-turned-porn-director in HBO's *The Deuce* (2017–2019), which brought a further nomination[2](https://goldenglobes.com/person/maggie-gyllenhaal/) • [8](https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/maggie-gyllenhaal-interview-kindergarten-teacher-metoo-hollywood-the-deuce-a8808421.html). On *The Deuce* she negotiated pay parity with co-star [James Franco](https://www.edgepedia.org/james-franco), with HBO raising her salary to match his[8](https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/maggie-gyllenhaal-interview-kindergarten-teacher-metoo-hollywood-the-deuce-a8808421.html).
Her screen persona has consistently favored complex, discomfiting subjects. She has described her attraction to "troubled women. The ones that are a real challenge. They really need me," and has a knack, in films such as *Secretary* and the tragicomic *Frank* (2014), for adding weight to characters who might otherwise be written off as merely quirky[6](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2021/dec/12/maggie-gyllenhaal-from-difficult-roles-to-lauded-hollywood-director) • [8](https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/maggie-gyllenhaal-interview-kindergarten-teacher-metoo-hollywood-the-deuce-a8808421.html).
## Move to directing
Gyllenhaal's first steps behind the camera came with *The Kindergarten Teacher* (2018), a remake of Israeli director Nadav Lapid's 2014 film, which she produced and in which she starred as a preschool teacher who forms an intense relationship with an unusually poetic five-year-old[8](https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/maggie-gyllenhaal-interview-kindergarten-teacher-metoo-hollywood-the-deuce-a8808421.html) • [10](https://www.screendaily.com/features/a-part-of-me-was-afraid-maggie-gyllenhaal-on-producing-writing-and-directing-the-lost-daughter/5162847.article). That production introduced her to the Israeli producers Talia Kleinhendler and Osnat Handelsman-Keren of Pie Films, who became her partners on her next project[10](https://www.screendaily.com/features/a-part-of-me-was-afraid-maggie-gyllenhaal-on-producing-writing-and-directing-the-lost-daughter/5162847.article).
**The Lost Daughter.** For her feature directorial debut, Gyllenhaal approached the pseudonymous Italian writer Elena Ferrante directly to secure the rights to the 2006 novel *La figlia oscura* (*The Lost Daughter*). Ferrante granted the rights on the condition that Gyllenhaal herself direct; she wrote the script on spec, and the producers attached [Olivia Colman](https://www.edgepedia.org/olivia-colman) as Leda, Jessie Buckley as Leda's younger self, and [Dakota Johnson](https://www.edgepedia.org/dakota-johnson) as a young mother before approaching financiers[10](https://www.screendaily.com/features/a-part-of-me-was-afraid-maggie-gyllenhaal-on-producing-writing-and-directing-the-lost-daughter/5162847.article). Netflix acquired the remaining worldwide rights, and the film premiered at the 2021 Venice Film Festival, where it won the jury prize for best screenplay[11](https://about.netflix.com/en/news/maggie-gyllenhaals-directorial-debut-the-lost-daughter-heads-to-netflix) • [12](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/movies/story/2021-09-14/maggie-gyllenhaal-director-lost-daughter-netflix).
The film, made for around $5 million, received three Academy Award nominations: for Buckley and Colman's performances and for Gyllenhaal's adapted screenplay[4](https://apnews.com/article/759f6f40d491db66e4950538ba765a19). Gyllenhaal relocated the story from Ferrante's Naples to a Greek island and has described the film as an attempt to embrace and normalize the full spectrum of feelings that are part of being a parent[13](https://www.washingtonpost.com/arts-entertainment/2022/01/11/maggie-gyllenhaal-lost-daughter-interview/). She has said that while starring on *The Deuce* she wrote "long essays" arguing scenes should not be cut, and that her fascination with editing and desire for creative control led her to directing[13](https://www.washingtonpost.com/arts-entertainment/2022/01/11/maggie-gyllenhaal-lost-daughter-interview/).
## The Bride! and recent work
For her second feature, *The Bride!* (2026), Gyllenhaal reimagined *The Bride of Frankenstein* from the bride's perspective, inspired by an image of [Elsa Lanchester](https://www.edgepedia.org/elsa-lanchester)'s bride she saw on a tattoo. The film is a genre-defying studio production starring [Jessie Buckley](https://www.edgepedia.org/jessie-buckley), Christian Bale, Annette Bening, Penélope Cruz, her brother Jake Gyllenhaal, and her husband [Peter Sarsgaard](https://www.edgepedia.org/peter-sarsgaard), with a production budget north of $80 million and a wide theatrical release[4](https://apnews.com/article/759f6f40d491db66e4950538ba765a19). Its release had been pushed back six months from the fall, and Gyllenhaal made changes after the original cut was screened for test audiences[14](https://www.cinemablend.com/interviews/maggie-gyllenhaal-one-change-made-the-bride-after-feedback-original-cut). She has said she was asked to tone down the film's depiction of sexual violence, telling the New York Times podcast *The Interview* that "what you're seeing is even a little bit pulled back from what was originally in the movie"[15](https://www.thedailybeast.com/obsessed/maggie-gyllenhaal-reveals-why-she-was-told-to-tone-down-sexual-violence-in-the-bride/).
In 2026 she served as president of the main competition jury at the 83rd Venice International Film Festival, which runs from September 2 to 12, and premiered there a 17-minute short film, *Flesh Impact*, starring Dakota Johnson and [Ellen Burstyn](https://www.edgepedia.org/ellen-burstyn) as versions of [Marilyn Monroe](https://www.edgepedia.org/marilyn-monroe)[5](https://apnews.com/article/66fce4e22e087f3c0c205a18a248beda) • [16](https://au.variety.com/2026/film/global/maggie-gyllenhaal-ai-dakota-johnson-marilyn-monroe-39989/). At the festival's opening press conference she warned of a "systemic problem" facing women who want to tell stories on screen, noting that only two of the 21 films in the main competition were directed by women[17](https://elpais.com/cultura/cine/2026-09-02/maggie-gyllenhaal-presidenta-del-jurado-del-festival-de-venecia-existe-un-problema-sistemico-que-perjudica-a-las-directoras.html).
## Politics and personal life
Gyllenhaal was born in Manhattan's Lower East Side and was raised, in her words, to be a liberal democrat and fight for what's right; she has jokingly described her parents as somewhere to the left of Trotsky[8](https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/maggie-gyllenhaal-interview-kindergarten-teacher-metoo-hollywood-the-deuce-a8808421.html) • [6](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2021/dec/12/maggie-gyllenhaal-from-difficult-roles-to-lauded-hollywood-director). Her political activities have included driving voters to polling stations in Florida, speaking in support of the jailed whistleblower Chelsea Manning, and hosting a benefit for Pussy Riot[6](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2021/dec/12/maggie-gyllenhaal-from-difficult-roles-to-lauded-hollywood-director).
She is married to the actor Peter Sarsgaard, with whom she has two daughters[8](https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/maggie-gyllenhaal-interview-kindergarten-teacher-metoo-hollywood-the-deuce-a8808421.html).
## References
1. [Maggie Gyllenhaal, IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0350454/?showAllCredits=true)
2. [Maggie Gyllenhaal, Golden Globes awards database](https://goldenglobes.com/person/maggie-gyllenhaal/)
3. [Maggie Gyllenhaal on directing 'The Lost Daughter', Screen Daily](https://www.screendaily.com/features/maggie-gyllenhaal-on-directing-the-lost-daughter-no-one-had-to-come-to-me-with-a-spoonful-of-bullshit-sugar/5166320.article)
4. [The director and 'The Bride!': Maggie Gyllenhaal and Jessie Buckley dare you to meet your monster, AP News](https://apnews.com/article/759f6f40d491db66e4950538ba765a19)
5. [Maggie Gyllenhaal to lead Venice Film Festival jury, AP News](https://apnews.com/article/66fce4e22e087f3c0c205a18a248beda)
6. [Maggie Gyllenhaal: from 'difficult' roles to lauded Hollywood director, The Guardian](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2021/dec/12/maggie-gyllenhaal-from-difficult-roles-to-lauded-hollywood-director)
7. [Maggie Gyllenhaal: a journey of the heart, The Independent](https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/maggie-gyllenhaal-a-journey-of-the-heart-876540.html)
8. [Maggie Gyllenhaal: 'We live in a misogynistic world, as much as we'd like to believe otherwise', The Independent](https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/maggie-gyllenhaal-interview-kindergarten-teacher-metoo-hollywood-the-deuce-a8808421.html)
9. [Maggie Gyllenhaal, TV Insider](https://www.tvinsider.com/people/maggie-gyllenhaal/)
10. ['A part of me was afraid': Maggie Gyllenhaal on producing, writing and directing 'The Lost Daughter', Screen Daily](https://www.screendaily.com/features/a-part-of-me-was-afraid-maggie-gyllenhaal-on-producing-writing-and-directing-the-lost-daughter/5162847.article)
11. [Maggie Gyllenhaal's Directorial Debut 'The Lost Daughter' Heads To Netflix, About Netflix](https://about.netflix.com/en/news/maggie-gyllenhaals-directorial-debut-the-lost-daughter-heads-to-netflix)
12. [Maggie Gyllenhaal on Netflix directing debut 'Lost Daughter', Los Angeles Times](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/movies/story/2021-09-14/maggie-gyllenhaal-director-lost-daughter-netflix)
13. [Maggie Gyllenhaal on adapting 'The Lost Daughter' and why she doesn't consider the ending ambiguous, The Washington Post](https://www.washingtonpost.com/arts-entertainment/2022/01/11/maggie-gyllenhaal-lost-daughter-interview/)
14. [Maggie Gyllenhaal Explains One Change She Made To The Bride! After Getting Feedback On Her Original Cut, CinemaBlend](https://www.cinemablend.com/interviews/maggie-gyllenhaal-one-change-made-the-bride-after-feedback-original-cut)
15. [Hollywood Star Reveals Why She Was Told to Tone Down Sexual Violence, The Daily Beast](https://www.thedailybeast.com/obsessed/maggie-gyllenhaal-reveals-why-she-was-told-to-tone-down-sexual-violence-in-the-bride/)
16. [Maggie Gyllenhaal Says She Tried Using AI to Turn Dakota Johnson Into Marilyn Monroe for Short 'Flesh Impact', Variety](https://au.variety.com/2026/film/global/maggie-gyllenhaal-ai-dakota-johnson-marilyn-monroe-39989/)
17. [Maggie Gyllenhaal, presidenta del jurado del festival de Venecia: 'Existe un problema sistémico' que perjudica a las directoras, El País](https://elpais.com/cultura/cine/2026-09-02/maggie-gyllenhaal-presidenta-del-jurado-del-festival-de-venecia-existe-un-problema-sistemico-que-perjudica-a-las-directoras.html)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Screen people and creators › Screen actors of the Anglosphere and Europe › American actors: 2000s onward › Surnames Go to G*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Sep 17, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Sep 17, 2026; Oct 12, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
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License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license