Mary-Kate Olsen Biography

NAME: Mary-Kate Olsen

OCCUPATION: Film Actress, Television Actress

BIRTH DATE: June 13, 1986 (Age: 25)

PLACE OF BIRTH: Sherman Oaks, California

ZODIAC SIGN: Gemini

Actress. Born June 13, 1986 in Sherman Oaks, California. The daughter of mortgage banker David Olsen and manager Jarnie Olsen, Mary-Kate and her twin sister, Ashley, have become among the most popular - and bankable - female personalities in America. They made their acting debut in 1987 at nine months old, sharing the role of the youngest daughter, Michelle Tanner, on the ABC family sitcom Full House. The series ran for eight years, during which the Olsen twins' career took off.

In 2003, Mary-Kate and Ashley began their senior year of high school. It was also their most profitable year to date, with their clothing lines at Wal-Mart and related ventures bringing in $1 billion in sales at cash registers across America. Their official Web site received about two billon hits annually, and a slew of other Web sites were devoted to their stardom. Surprisingly, the twins also found a new group of fans as they grew into young adults: teenaged boys and young men. Even business journalists began to profile the duo and their company, Dualstar, and the fact that long before they had earned their high-school diplomas, each had an estimated net worth of $150 million. Thorne, who ran their company, confirmed reports that both Mary-Kate and Ashley were actively involved in every aspect of their business. They signed off on each item in the clothing line, for example. As Thorne told People 's Michelle Tauber, "It's always two calls" he needed to make for any deal. "And I very rarely get, 'Let my sister handle that.' They're equally voracious to know what the company is up to."

The Olsens have been described as one of just a handful of child stars who managed to maintain their appeal as they grew up. Their access to the media had been strictly controlled, but that began to change after they earned their drivers' licenses and received matching Range Rover sport-utility vehicles for their sixteenth birthdays. The twins also seemed inseparable, and many wondered if they would head to different colleges in the fall of 2004. They both chose New York University, and readied for the school year by purchasing a four-bedroom apartment in the West Village for $3 million. Both noted that they would concentrate on their academic careers for the next few years, putting their other activities on hold.

In 2005, Mary-Kate and her sister purchased the minority shares of Dualstar, taking full control of the company. During this time, Mary-Kate also ended her relationship with Greek shipping heir Stavros Niarchos III. The break-up, combined with the changes at Dualstar, led Mary-Kate quit school and return to California to focus on business ventures with her company.

In January of 2008, Mary-Kate made headlines when her close friend, actor Heath Ledger, died of a prescription drug overdose. Olsen remains silent on the matter, but sources say Ledger's staff contacted Mary-Kate through a speed-dial function on Ledger's cell phone. Olsen then called her security staff in New York to investigate the matter. Ledger was pronounced dead later that day.

Mary-Kate and Ashley were looking forward to their new college adventures in New York City. Mary-Kate was considering fine arts as possible major, while Ashley was leaning toward studying psychology. There had been fears that their Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) scores would be leaked to the press, but they had remained sealed. They did reveal to People, however, the topics of their admissions essays. Mary-Kate had explored "a big fear that I have. It was a lyric by Ben Harper that said, 'When you have everything, you have everything to lose.'" Ashley used a work by the late Abstract Expressionist painter Jackson Pollock to discuss her outlook on life for her essay, especially her life in the spotlight for the past eighteen years. The dense color swirls of Pollock's Number 1, she explained to Tauber in the same article, allowed the viewer "to get exactly what you want out of it, and it's kind of like our life has been, being in the public eye. People can judge it whatever way they want."