Mara Elizabeth Wilson (born July 24, 1987) is an American actress. As a child, she played Natalie Hillard in Mrs. Doubtfire (1993), Susan Walker in Miracle on 34th Street (1994), the title character in Matilda (1996), and Annabel Greening in A Simple Wish (1997). Following her role as Lily in Thomas and the Magic Railroad (2000), Wilson took a 12-year hiatus from acting to focus on writing. She returned to acting in 2012 and has predominantly worked in web series.
Mara Elizabeth Wilson was born on July 24, 1987, in Burbank, California, the fourth child of Burbank PTA school volunteer Suzie (née Shapiro) and KTLA broadcast engineer Mike Wilson. Her mother was Jewish, while her father is a Catholic of Irish descent.
Wilson's mother, Suzie, was diagnosed with breast cancer on March 10, 1995, and died on April 26, 1996, when Wilson was eight years old. The film Matilda was dedicated to her memory. Wilson credits Danny DeVito for being very caring and comforting during this time. Wilson later recalled that this affected her interest in acting. At age 12, Wilson was diagnosed with obsessive–compulsive disorder. She has also been diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Wilson attended John Burroughs High School and then transferred to Idyllwild Arts Academy. After graduation in 2005, she relocated to New York City to continue her studies at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, graduating in 2009. Wilson appeared in her own one-woman show called Weren't You That Girl? while in college.
When she was five years old, she became interested in acting after watching her older brother Danny appear in television commercials. Wilson's parents were initially opposed, but after appearing in several commercials for businesses, Wilson was invited to audition for the 1993 comedy film Mrs. Doubtfire. Producers cast Wilson in the role of Natalie Hillard. The following year, she appeared in a remake of Miracle on 34th Street.
Wilson sang "Make 'Em Laugh" at the 67th Academy Awards broadcast on March 27, 1995, with Tim Curry and Kathy Najimy. In 1995, Wilson won the ShoWest Award for Young Star of the Year.
Wilson's film work caught the attention of Danny DeVito, and she was cast as the protagonist Matilda Wormwood in the 1996 film Matilda. She was nine years old at the time. Wilson was nominated for three awards for her performance, winning the YoungStar Award for Best Performance by a Young Actress in a Comedy Film.
In 1997, Wilson starred in A Simple Wish alongside Martin Short. Although she was nominated for three awards again, the film mostly received negative reviews by critics.
In 1997, Wilson went to a table reading for What Dreams May Come starring Robin Williams, but she did not get the part. A year later, Wilson auditioned for the 1998 remake of Disney's The Parent Trap, but the role was given to Lindsay Lohan after Wilson was deemed too young. In 1999, she portrayed Willow Johnson in the film for The Wonderful World of Disney titled Balloon Farm.
In 2000, Wilson appeared in the fantasy film Thomas and the Magic Railroad, her last film to date. The film was panned by critics and performed poorly at the box office. Wilson retired from film work shortly afterwards. She received a script for the 2001 film Donnie Darko but declined to audition.
Wilson's theater credits include A Midsummer Night's Dream and Cinderella. She starred in her own live shows Weren't You That Girl? and What Are You Afraid Of?
In 2012, Wilson appeared briefly in one episode of the web series Missed Connection in the role of Bitty, and made special appearances on internet review shows for That Guy with the Glasses, including a comedic turn playing an adult Matilda during a review of Matilda by the Nostalgia Chick, Lindsay Ellis. That year, Wilson explained why she quit film acting: "Film acting is not very fun. Doing the same thing over and over again until, in the director's eyes, you 'get it right', does not allow for very much creative freedom. The best times I had on film sets were the times the director let me express myself, but those were rare."
In 2012, Wilson started publishing online writing at a blog called "Mara Wilson Writes Stuff", where, in 2014 after the death of Robin Williams, she shared her memories of working with him. In 2018, Wilson moved to Substack with a blog called "Shan't We Call the Vicar."
In April 2013, Wilson attended and shared her impressions of the Broadway production of Matilda the Musical. A month later, Wilson wrote an article for Cracked.com, offering her opinion of the delinquency of some former child stars. Her play Sheeple was produced in 2013 for the New York International Fringe Festival. In an interview that December, Wilson stated that her film acting days are over, and that she is instead focusing on writing. Wilson's book Where Am I Now?: True Stories of Girlhood and Accidental Fame was published on September 13, 2016.
Wilson had a recurring role on the podcast Welcome to Night Vale as "The Faceless Old Woman Who Secretly Lives in Your Home", as well as her own storytelling show called What Are You Afraid Of?. In 2016, Wilson made a brief return to television in a Mrs. Doubtfire-inspired episode of Broad City, in which she played a waitress where the comical Heimlich scene from the film was re-enacted. That same year, Wilson voiced Jill Pill, a writer/director anthropomorphic spider, in season 3 of BoJack Horseman. Wilson voiced Liv Amara and her clone, Diane Amara, in Big Hero 6: The Series.
In a 2017 NPR interview, The Simpsons voice actress Nancy Cartwright stated that a young Wilson was the inspiration for a character's voice on the episode "Bart Sells His Soul".
In 2019, the American Humanist Association awarded Wilson the LGBTQ Humanist Award.
In 2020, Wilson discussed her childhood acting experiences in the HBO documentary Showbiz Kids.
In May 2024, she reunited with Mrs. Doubtfire cast members Lisa Jakub and Matthew Lawrence for a joint podcast appearance. They had also reunited in 2018 together with Pierce Brosnan on the Today Show to mark the film's 25th anniversary.