olivia was the lastborn to elizabeth and alexandre, making her debut on a wintry chicago evening in 1981. like her birth, her childhood was ordinary. she was a rambunctious toddler who was always eager to be the center of attention, and as she grew, so did her imagination. she became a dancer, a singer, a performer who was always willing to take center stage. olivia would gather up the neighborhood kids and convince them to put on haphazard plays, if only so she could show off the lines she'd memorized and her ability to cry on cue. with age and proper instruction came discipline, and high school saw her become one of the leading talents in the drama club and in a local theater group. her mother set her sights on broadway but olivia knew she didn't have the voice for it. no amount of vocal training could turn her decent voice into someting incredible. and olivia had her sights set on something else entirely: the television screen.
in 1999, as a fresh high school graduate, olivia left the windy city behind for the big apple to pursue her bfa in drama. little did she know, juilliard would change her life in more ways than one. aside from providing her with the guidance she needed to hone her raw talent into a marketable skill, it also afforded her the opportunity to spend the summer between her junior and senior years in london, where she met aidan bremont. when asked, olivia will say they started as just friends, unwilling to share the following years were full of plenty of back and forth, as the pair often traveled in different directions for work, grabbing onto any exposure they could as they slowly built their careers. after three years together, they became engaged, and three years after that, they were married in a quiet and private ceremony in the london countryside in front of a small gathering of close friends and family. despite the lens being trained on her more often than she would like, olivia strives to maintain a boundary between her personal and professional life. while she's more than willing to attend red carpet events hand-in-hand with aidan, she'll easily deflect when pressed about more intimate details of their relationship simply because she believes it isn't anyone's business.
professionally, olivia tends to favor television over movies because of the opportunity it affords to delve into a character long-term. her first most notable role came as the leading female role of gwen cooper in torchwood, a positively-received spin-off of the beloved doctor who series. with the future of torchwood uncertain (a 5-episode third series aired in 2009, followed by a 10-episode fourth series in 2011), olivia pursued other opportunities which landed her the role of anna, lady's maid to the aristocratic crawley family, in the critically acclaimed period drama downton abbey. the role stood in stark contrast to the futuristic sci-fi nature of torchwood, a perfect example of what drew olivia to acting in the first place: the ability to wear different masks and yet still be herself at the end of the day.
currently, olivia is filming this is us, an american drama that has received largely positive reviews and is her first major role on the other side of the pond. she maintains a home address in london with aidan and their two dogs.
