All About Mikey Madison’s Parents (and the Unexpected Way Their Careers Have Helped the “Anora” Star Get into Character)

Mikey Madison's acting career kicked off when her mother enrolled her in her first acting class as a teen.

The breakout star of Anora grew up in California’s San Fernando Valley with two psychologist parents, whose names have not been made public, and four siblings.

Madison wasn’t destined for the screen as a result of her parents’ career paths and she had many other hobbies before pursuing acting.

Originally, the Golden Globe nominee was focused on horseback riding, a passion she inherited from her mother, but things changed when she started to fall in love with movies due to her father's classic film obsession.

“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,” Madison told Vogue Singapore in 2024.

From her mother’s passion for riding horses to her father’s love of classic films, here’s everything to know about Mikey Madison’s parents.

They are psychologists

Both of Madison's parents are psychologists and she spent her life well outside of the Hollywood orbit.

“My father is a specialist with schizophrenia and my mother works with mostly children,” Madison told Interview in 2017.

Madison’s early years were spent in Santa Clarita, Calif. — a life of "dirt roads" and horseback riding, as she told The Cut in 2024. When she grew a bit older, her parents moved the family to Woodland Hills, Los Angeles.

After moving to L.A., Madison grew curious about acting, so her mother signed her up for her first acting class. Developing a passion for it, she acted in low-budget movies until she booked Better Things in 2016, which went on to air for five seasons. Madison told The Cut that the drama was “my introduction to acting, my college, my film school, really everything.”

As for her parents’ perspective on Better Things? They’re fans: “[My parents were] very excited,” Madison shared with Interview.

They have five children, including Madison

Madison is one of five children: she has two brothers — one of whom is her twin — and two older sisters.

“I’m the only actor in the family,” Madison told Interview. “My little brother does Parkour. My sister married a writer, so I think that’s what sparked my interest in acting.”

Their careers have helped Madison get into character

Madison’s parents' career experience has helped her to understand her characters, making her a better actor.

“My parents being psychologists, I’ve grown up really understanding people and why they do things and why they don’t do things,” she told Interview, noting that her mother and father taught her to be “people-savvy.”

Madison added that her parents “don’t psychoanalyze me all the time,” but they had encouraged their children to be connected with their own emotions.

“When I was younger and I was feeling something and I didn’t know what it was, my mom was like, ‘Okay, what are you feeling? What are you feeling right now? Are you sad? Are you happy? Why are you sad? Why are you laughing right now?’ and so I think that’s helped me a lot with character work,” she said.

They allowed Madison to homeschool

Since Madison was committed to horseback riding in her early years, her parents allowed the future actress to keep up with her studies from home.

Starting in seventh grade, “I literally homeschooled myself so I could be at the barn all day with my pony,” Madison told The Cut.

Madison’s mother inspired her love of horseback riding

Unlike acting, opting to stay home to ride horses wasn’t a shock for Madison’s family.

“My grandmother was a horseback rider, and my mom was a horseback rider, and so, naturally, I was riding horses before I could walk—or at least sitting on a horse,” she told Esquire in 2024.

Eventually though, she left the sport to pursue acting more seriously. “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,” Madison explained to Vogue Singapore.

Madison’s father inspired her love of classic films

While Madison’s first love was horses, she became a self-proclaimed “film buff” years later. After seeing Molly Ringwald in Pretty in Pink, she thought she might want to pursue fashion, but she was ultimately drawn to acting.

From there, Madison followed in her dad’s footsteps. “I’ve always been a huge film buff and so is my father, so I grew up watching all the Woody Allen films and Tarantino, Sofia Coppola, Scorsese,” she told Interview.

On leaving riding for acting, Madison explained to Esquire that she “just had a pull” to connect more deeply with people “or wanting to experience something more emotional than what I was doing [with riding].”

She continued, “To me, that decision was simultaneously easy but also painful. I felt that if I started acting, then I’d have to commit myself 100 percent to it, and I couldn’t do that if I was still committed to horseback riding, which is very time-consuming. And so I let that part of my life go for the time being.”

Read the original article on People