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Mrs Doubtfire's Nattie is All Grown Up & Gorgeous: How She Looks Now at 35

Mrs Doubtfire's Nattie is All Grown Up & Gorgeous: How She Looks Now at 35
Image credit: globallookpress

Mara Wilson shot to fame in the 1990s, quickly rising from acting alongside her brother in commercials to starring roles in Mrs Doubtfire, Miracle on 34th Street and Matilda.

Given her performance as Nattie, the daughter of the hilarious Robin Williams in Mrs Doubtfire, it's hard to believe it was her first film role. Prior to playing Natalie Hillard in the hit movie, she'd had just one TV part – a recurring role as Nikki Petrova in Melrose Place. But she was a natural and went on to win the ShoWest Award for Young Star of the Year in 1995.

But then she disappeared from our screens almost as quickly as she'd surfaced as a star. So, what happened to her? And what is she up to now?

Sadly for Wilson, while she was filming Matilda, her mother was diagnosed with breast cancer. Mara was just 7 years old at the time. Just over a year later, Suzie Wilson died. Whether that was the catalyst for a run of bad luck when it came to her acting career is not known. But her next movie, A Simple Wish, was a box office failure (although Mara received 3 nominations for her performance in it).

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The young actor then failed to get roles in What Dreams May Come and Parent Trap. In 2000, she landed a part in Thomas and the Magic Railroad which was another box office flop, and by then she had pretty much fallen out of love with acting.

In 2012, she made something of a return to showbiz – but very much on her own terms. In her blog (which has subsequently been discontinued) she explained why she had quit acting, saying it's "not very fun…doing the same thing over and over again until, in the director's eyes, you get it right".

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Her return has seen her mainly stick to web shows voice acting such as a recurring role as Liv Amara/Diane "Di" Amara in TV's Big Hero 6: The Series.

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She's also turned her hand to stage acting, appearing in A Midsummer Night's Dream and Cinderella as well as her own shows Aren't You That Girl? and What Are You Afraid Of? And in 2013, Sheeple, a play she wrote featured at the New York International Fringe Festival.

These days, she's living in New York and is predominantly focused on her career as a writer. In 2016, she published Where Am I Now?: True Stories of Girlhood and Accidental Fame. And her next book will be a work of fiction.

Away from acting and writing, she came out as bisexual in 2017 and had also revealed she has been diagnosed with ADHD. She remains outspoken about LGBTQ+ rights and the lack of proper mental health support for sufferers in the US and around the world.