Nattie from Mrs. Doubtfire Grows Up: See What Mara Wilson Looks Like at 35
Mara Wilson came into Hollywood an immediate star, the adorable Nattie in the 1993 Robin Williams comedy Mrs. Doubtfire.
After being a bona fide child star in the 1990s, she ended up having a fairly pedestrian acting career. What happened to her?
Mara grew up in Burbank, California, daughter of a school PTA volunteer and a KTLA broadcast engineer.
She was raised Jewish on her mother's side. She is the cousin of right-wing political talking head Ben Shapiro.
She watched her brother Danny act in television commercials thanks to their father's job and at five years old, decided she wanted to act. Her parents were apprehensive at first, but she eventually started appearing in local commercials.
Chris Columbus liked her enough to invite her to audition for his film, Mrs. Doubtfire. The family-friendly comedy has held up over three decades, partially due to the legend that Robin Williams had enough outtakes to earn an NC-17 rating.
After steady work that included a recurring role on Melrose Place and the remake of Miracle on 34th Street, her big break came in 1996. She's caught the eye of Danny DeVito, who chose her to star in Matilda.
She was nominated for a Saturn Award and won Young Star of the Year by ShoWest.
Her acting career came to a close by her own volition, deciding instead to focus on her education. She attended NYU's Tish School of the Arts, at which she created a one-woman play based around her life.
After a short-lived run doing web series, she created the play Sheeple in 2013 for the New York International Fringe Festival.
That same year, she wrote an article for Cracked.com talking about the failures of other child stars. She said that December that her acting years were behind her.
Where Am I Now?: True Stories of Girlhood and Accidental Fame was published in 2016, a memoir about her days as a child star, her life now, and the years in between.
She occasionally pops in for small roles, including a recurring role as a spider director in BoJack Horseman and a Mrs. Doubtfire-themed episode of Broad City.
She also has a recurring role on the Welcome to Night Vale podcast as "The Faceless Old Woman Who Secretly Lives in Your Home."
Now, she is mostly an advocate for mental health and the LGBTQ+ community; she is bisexual and lives with OCD and ADHD. She's renounced her cousin, Ben Shapiro. The two reportedly haven't spoken in years.
While Mara's career didn't end with the same success and fame as other child stars, her story is a positive one amongst the delinquency of so many other young actors and actresses.
She was able to achieve enough fame to give her a small spotlight, something she uses to spread a little good in the world.