Rachel Brosnahan
Birthdate: July 12, 1990 (35 Years Old)
Birthplace: Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA
Rachel Brosnahan (birthname: Rachel Elizabeth Brosnahan) is best known for her acclaimed recurring starring role as Midge Maisel in Amazon Prime’s heralded comedy series, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (2017-2023), but she first appeared in a movie role when she was still in high school in director/writer David S. Goyer’s supernatural horror film, The Unborn (2009), produced by Michael Bay, Andrew Form and Brad Fuller, and co-starring Odette Yustman, Gary Oldman, Meagan Good, Jane Alexander and Idris Elba, and earning $76.5 million globally against $16 million costs for Universal Pictures.
Brosnahan had her first big-screen costarring role in director/co-writer Lisa Albright’s drama, Coming Up Roses (2011), co-starring Bernadette Peters, Peter Friedman, and Ann Dowd, and released by Dada Films. Brosnahan landed her first role in a studio-backed movie in a supporting role in director/writer Richard LaGravenese’s Gothic fantasy for Warner Bros., Beautiful Creatures (2013), based on Kami Garcia’s and Margaret Stohl’s 2009 novel, and starring Alden Ehrenreich, Alice Englert, Jeremy Irons, Viola Davis, Emmy Rossum, Thomas Mann and Emma Thompson, grossing a disappointing $60 million.
Brosnahan, after appearing in several short films including one of horror filmmaker Ari Aster’s early short films, Munchausen (2014), had a supporting role in director/writer Josh Mond’s indie New York drama, James White (2015), co-starring Christoher Abbott, Cynthia Nixon, Scott Mescudi, Ron Livingston, Makenzie Leigh and David Call, premiering at the Sundance Film Festival (where it won the NEXT Audience Award) and released by The Film Arcade.
Rachel Brosnahan was cast by acclaimed Norwegian director/co-writer Joachim Trier in his English-language feature, Louder Than Bombs (2015), co-written by Eskil Vogt, co-starring Gabriel Byrne, Jesse Eisenberg, Isabelle Huppert, Amy Ryan and David Strathairn, premiering in competition at the Cannes Film Festival and released to poor box office ($1.1 million global return against $11 million costs).
Brosnahan had a small role in Walt Disney Studios’ poor-performing disaster thriller, The Finest Hours (2016), co-starring Chris Pine, Casey Affleck, Ben Foster and Eric Bana under Craig Gillespie’s direction, and then Brosnahan co-starred with Dominic Rains, Melissa Leo, James Franco and Thomas Jay Ryan in director/co-writer Ian Olds’s crime drama, Burn Country (2016), and released by Orion Pictures/Samuel Goldwyn Films after premiering at the Tribeca Film Festival.
Brosnahan landed a supporting role in director/co-writer Peter Berg’s Boston Marathon bomber thriller, Patriots Day (2016), based on Casey Sherman’s and Dave Wedge’s non-fiction book, Boston Strong, starring Mark Wahlberg (who also produced), Kevin Bacon, John Goodman, J.K. Simmons and Michelle Monaghan, backed primarily by CBS Films and released by Lionsgate to a poor $52 million return (on $45 million costs).
Brosnahan joined cast mates Mary Beth Hurt, Aidan Quinn, Peter Gerety, M. Emmet Walsh, Macy Gray and Olympia Dukakis in the indie drama, Change in the Air (2018), directed by Dianne Dreyer and released by Screen Media Films, and then Brosnahan took on her first voice role in an animated feature in Blue Sky Studios’ spy comedy, Spies in Disguise (2019), starring the voices of Will Smith, Tom Holland, Rashida Jones, Ben Mendelsohn, Reba McEntire, Karen Gillan and DJ Khaled under the co-direction of Troy Quane and Nick Bruno, but losing money for Blue Sky and producer/distributor 20th Century Fox with a $171.6 million return on a $100 million budget.
Rachel Brosnahan had a co-starring role in the 1960s-era spy movie, The Courier (2020), co-starring Benedict Cumberbatch, Merab Ninidze, Jessie Buckley, and Angus Wright under Dominic Cooke’s direction and grossing $26 million for Lionsgate/Roadside Attractions after premiering at the Sundance Film Festival. Brosnahan was the lead star and producer (with co-writer Jordan Horowitz) of director/co-writer Julia Hart’s 1970s-set crime noir, I’m Your Woman (2020), with Arinzé Kene, Marsha Stephanie Blake, Bill Heck and Frankie Faison, and released theatrically and streamed by Amazon Studios after premiering at AFI Fest.
Brosnahan co-starred in her first Western with director/writer Walter Hill’s Dead for a Dollar (2022), starring Christoph Waltz, Willem Dafoe and Benjamin Bratt, and released to box office returns under $100,000 by distributors Myriad Pictures/Quiver Distribution, and then Brosnahan co-starred with Rami Malek (who also produced) and Laurence Fishburne in the CIA thriller, The Amateur (2025), with Caitrona Balfe, Michael Stuhlbarg, Holt McCallany and Julianne Nicholson under James Hawes’s direction, and which delivered disappointing theatrical results ($96 million on $60 million costs) for distributor 20th Century Fox.
Brosnahan landed the legendary role of Lois Lane, opposite David Corenswet in the superhero title role of director/writer/producer James Gunn’s DC Universe reboot, Superman (2025), co-starring Nicholas Hoult, Edi Gathegi, Anthony Carrigan, Nathan Fillion and Isabella Merced, produced on $225 million budget by DC Studios and released by Warner Bros.
Rachel Brosnahan portrayed Lear’s daughter Regan in director/writer Bernard Rose’s screen version of Shakespeare’s King Lear, Lear Rex (date to be announced), starring Al Pacino as Lear, with Jessica Chastain, Ariana DeBose, LaKeith Stanfield, Peter Dinklage, Chris Messina, Ted Levine, Danny Huston and Stephen Dorff, and produced by Dali Films/Eco Entertainment/Westman Films/World Vision.
Personal life
Rachel Brosnahan was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and raised in Milwaukee and the Chicagoland suburb of Highland Park, Illinois, by her U.K.-born mother, Carol, and father, Earl (children’s book publisher). Brosnahan has one younger sister and brother. Brosnahan attended Highland Park public schools, including Wayne Thomas Elementary School, Northwood Junior High School, and Highland Park High School, where she competed on the women’s wrestling team and performed in musical theater. Brosnahan majored in Drama at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, from which she graduated in 2012. Brosnahan has been married to actor Jason Ralph since 2016. Brosnahan’s height is 5’ 3”. Brosnahan’s estimated net worth is $20 million.
Rachel Brosnahan Movies
Actor
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Previous (11)
- 2021 |
The Courier
asEmily Donovan
Businessman Greville Wynne is asked by a Russian source to try to help put an end to the Cuban Missile Crisis.
- 2019 |
Spies in Disguise
asWendy
When the world's best spy is turned into a pigeon, he must rely on his nerdy tech officer to save the world.
- 2019 |
Joseph Pulitzer: Voice of the People
asNellie Bly
Joseph Pulitzer: Voice of the People
Joseph Pulitzer spoke of "fake news" over 100 years ago and fought the dangers that the suppression of news had for a democracy long before our present threats to press freedom. His heroic battles have been forgotten along with the lessons we might learn from the tools he deploye... Read all
- 2016 |
Patriots Day
asJessica Kensky
The story of the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing and the aftermath, which includes the city-wide manhunt to find the terrorists responsible.
- 2016 |
Louder Than Bombs
asErin
The fractious family of a father and his two sons confront their different feelings and memories of their deceased wife and mother, a famed war photographer.
- 2016 |
The Finest Hours
asBea Hansen
The Coast Guard makes a daring rescue attempt off the coast of Cape Cod after a pair of oil tankers are destroyed during a blizzard in 1952.
- -- | as Sarah
- -- | as Lois Lane
- -- | Coming Up Rosesas Alice
- -- | Beautiful Creaturesas Genevieve Duchannes
- -- | as Desdemona
Facts About Rachel Brosnahan
Loyal: Rachel Brosnahan has kept her manager, Carol Dibo, since she studied with her at Wilmette’s Actors Training Center at age 16.
Family Ties: Brosnahan’s late aunt was fashion designer Kate Spade.
Shingle: Rachel Brosnahan founded her own production company, Scrap Paper Productions, in 2020.
Theatre Life: Brosnahan has acted on some of the most important stages in the U.S., including Steppenwolf Theatre Company in Chicago, as well as Roundabout Theatre Company, New York Theatre Workshop, the Brooklyn Academy of Music, and Broadway’s James Earl Jones Theatre in New York City.
