50 facts about Maggie Gyllenhaal: her career as a child actress in films directed by her father

Gyllenhaal began a relationship with actor Peter Sarsgaard, a close friend of her brother Jake, in 2002. Learn 50 facts about Maggie Gyllenhaal.

1. She started her career as a child actress in films directed by her father, Stephen Gyllenhaal.

2. Her younger brother is actor Jake Gyllenhaal.

3. In 2002, she was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress for her performance as Lee Holloway in Secretary.

4. In 2006 she was nominated for her second Golden Globe Award for her performance in Sherrybaby.

5. Her other films include Donnie Darko (2001), Adaptation (2002), Happy Endings (2005), World Trade Center (2006), and The Dark Knight (2008).

6. For her performance as Jean Craddock in the musical-drama Crazy Heart (2009), she was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.

7. In 2014 she made her Broadway debut in a revival of The Real Thing, and also starred in the television mini-series The Honourable Woman.

8. For her performance as Nessa Stein in the latter she has won a Golden Globe Award and received a nomination for an Emmy Award.

9. Gyllenhaal was born in New York City, the daughter of Naomi Achs and Stephen Gyllenhaal.

10. Her father is a film director and writer and her mother is a producer, writer, and director.

11. She has one sibling, actor Jake Gyllenhaal.

12. Her father, who was raised in the Swedenborgian religion, is of Swedish and English ancestry, and is a member of the Swedish noble Gyllenhaal family.

13. Her last native Swedish ancestor was her great-great-grandfather Anders Leonard Gyllenhaal, a descendant of Leonard Gyllenhaal, a leading Swedenborgian who supported the printing and spreading of Swedenborg's writings.

14. Her mother was born in New York City, and is from a Jewish family (they immigrated from Russia and Poland).

15. Her mother's first husband was Eric Foner, a noted historian and history professor at Columbia University.

16. Gyllenhaal has stated that she "grew up mostly Jewish, culturally", though she did not attend Hebrew school.

17. Married in 1977, her parents filed for divorce in October 2008.

18. The name on Maggie Gyllenhaal's birth certificate is Margalit, which she did not discover until 2013 when she officially changed it to "Maggie".

19. "Margalit" is a Hebrew word meaning "Pearl"; some news stories spelt it "Margolit".

20. Gyllenhaal grew up in Los Angeles, and studied at the Harvard-Westlake prep school.

21. In 1995, she graduated from Harvard-Westlake and moved to New York to attend Columbia University, where she studied literature and Eastern religions.

22. She graduated in 1999 with a Bachelor of Arts degree.

23. After studying at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London, she took a summer job working as a waitress in a Massachusetts restaurant.

24. Gyllenhaal's first films-her feature film debut at the age of 15, Waterland (1992); A Dangerous Woman (1993); and Homegrown (1998)-were directed by her father; the last two also featured her brother; they had supporting roles as children.

25. With their mother, she and Jake appeared in two episodes of Molto Mario, an Italian cooking show on the Food Network.

26. After graduating from college, she played supporting roles in films like Cecil B. Demented (2000) and Riding in Cars with Boys (2001).

27. Gyllenhaal later achieved recognition in her own right playing her real brother's on-screen sister in the indie cult hit Donnie Darko (2001).

28. She made her theatrical debut in the Berkeley Repertory Theatre production of Patrick Marber's Closer, for which she received favorable reviews.

29. Gyllenhaal has performed in several other plays, including The Tempest, Antony and Cleopatra, The Butterfly Project, and No Exit.

30. Gyllenhaal's break-out role was in the black comedy Secretary (2002), a film about two people who embark on a mutually fulfilling BDSM lifestyle.

31. In Stranger than Fiction, Gyllenhaal played a love interest of Harold Crick, played by Will Ferrell. Her performance in the film received favorable reviews.

32. She voiced Elizabeth "Zee" in the computer animated horror film Monster House.

33. Gyllenhaal played Allison Jimeno, the wife of Port Authority officer Will Jimeno, in Oliver Stone's World Trade Center, based on the September 11 attacks in New York City.

34. In 2010, Gyllenhaal appeared in Nanny McPhee and the Big Bang, the sequel to the 2005 film Nanny McPhee. The role required her to speak with an English accent.

35. Away from acting, she served as host of the PBS television documentary series Independent Lens.

36. Gyllenhaal also appeared in Hysteria, an independent movie focusing on the creation of the vibrator.

37. In February 2011, Gyllenhaal starred in another Anton Chekhov production as the character Masha in Austin Pendleton's Three Sisters at the Classic Stage Company.

38. She appeared as a Secret Service agent in the action-thriller White House Down (2013).

39. In 2014, she played the title role as an Anglo-Israeli business-woman in the BBC Television series, The Honourable Woman.

40. Also in 2014 she played Hathfertiti in Matthew Barney and Jonathan Bepler's River of Fundament.

41. Gyllenhaal began a relationship with actor Peter Sarsgaard, a close friend of her brother Jake, in 2002.

42. They announced their engagement in April 2006, and married on May 2, 2009, in a small chapel in Brindisi, Italy.

43. They have two daughters, Ramona and Gloria Ray.

44. The family lives in Brooklyn, New York.

45. Besides acting, Gyllenhaal has modeled for Miu Miu, Reebok, and Agent Provocateur.

46. She recorded the first unabridged audiobook version of Sylvia Plath's novel The Bell Jar.

47. Gyllenhaal is a supporter of Witness, a non-profit organization that uses video and online technologies to expose human rights violations.

48. She co-hosted a benefit dinner with founder Peter Gabriel in November 2007.

49. Gyllenhaal helped raise funds for TrickleUp.org, a non-profit organization that helps impoverished people start a micro-enterprise.

50. For one of the fundraisers, Gyllenhaal helped design and promote a necklace that sold for US$100; all proceeds from sales went to the charity.

Source: Wikipedia.org