Mikey Madison is one of the buzziest names to come out of the current award season and film promotional cycle, emerging as one of the industry's newest breakouts.
The 25-year-old actress may have made her film debut in 2017, but she is now earning the best reviews of her career for her leading turn in Sean Baker's Anora.
The comedy-drama centers around Anora "Ani," a young sex worker in New York who comes in contact with the son of a Russian oligarch. Their story evolves into love, but takes a turn when members of his dangerous family are involved.
Despite her low-key public profile, Mikey has emerged as one of the frontrunners for the Academy Awards come March, with many touting her as one of the favorites to take home Best Actress for her turn. She has already received several critics prizes for her performance, plus nominations for the Golden Globe and SAG Award.
But, as it turns out, acting was not always in the young Mikey's blood, as it turned out, she once had very different plans for her future — horseback riding.
Up until her teens, Mikey, who grew up in the San Fernando Valley with four siblings, trained in horseback riding and intended to go competitive. However, by the time she was 14, she realized that the sport didn't ignite the same spark that the stage and screen did.
By then, she was even taking sewing classes thanks to her psychologist mom, but a growing interest in films made her quit altogether and pursue acting full time.
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Mikey explained as much during a conversation with Vogue last year. "I'd actually been doing competitive horseback riding my entire life, and then I sort of started to become interested in film."
Citing some of her favorite, mostly '80s John Hughes classics, she continued: "When I saw Pretty in Pink, I was like, Maybe I want to be a clothing designer? And so my mom signed me up for sewing classes."
"That wasn't quite right and then I realized I actually just wanted to be an actress. 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."
When asked if she still rides, she responded: "Not as much as I used to, but sometimes. I'd like to get back into it more, which is also an excuse to go buy a new riding wardrobe, which would be exciting."
She made her acting debut in 2013 at the age of 14 in a pair of short films. She played the lead in an independent feature film in 2014 titled Liza, Liza, Skies Are Grey, although it didn't hit theaters until 2017.
By then, she had begun starring in the FX comedy-drama series Better Things, which ran from 2016 to 2022. In 2019, she appeared in Quentin Tarantino's Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, and in 2022, she starred in the fifth installment of the Scream franchise. The latter two performances, she explained, were what drew Sean to write the character of Anora for her.