By the time Celia Marie McDonaghy was born, one would have thought that the world would no longer be so enamored with the children of Dermot and Alice McDonaghy. But that was not true. With each child the actress and musician had, the more the world wanted a piece of their life. Celia would be the last of the children to be born, stubbornly refusing to enter the world after her fraternal twin, Noah. In what should have been the family's first clue that young Celia would never quite do what she was expected to do, doctors had to wait nearly another half hour before she decided to make her entrance in to the world. Celia was a bit of a contrast to her siblings from the start. She was quiet while the siblings around her, most of whom were nearly grown by the time she had come around, were louder and much more opinionated. Being the youngest, if even by a half hour, had its advantages and disadvantages. Her elder siblings, coupled with the nanny, Marianela, who would become more of a mother to her than the woman who had given birth to her, made sure that Celia grew up in as normal of a home as they could manage with their level of visibility throughout the world. Being the baby did not mean she was exempt from teasing or tormenting, in fact she often was the subject of her elder siblings pranks. It wasn't unheard of for Celia to end up in some sort of trouble, simply for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. But she would get them back, in small ways. On the outside, Celia could be sullen and stubborn. But behind closed doors she was a very different girl, learning about life from the only people who mattered to her, or who ever would matter to her: Her brothers and sisters. From an early age, she was a bit of a chameleon, able to adapt to many of the situations that the family found themselves in, but no one could ever really put their finger on what made her tick.

For much of her early life, Celia was content to be a normal child. Or as normal as a McDonaghy could be. Or at least until she was nearly six years old. While she had been absentee from the older children's lives, Alice McDonaghy seemed to take an interest in her youngest daughter. Whether Celia was asked if she wanted to go to her first audition would be something of a family mystery. Alice insisted it was Celia's idea, but Celia wasn't talking. Literally. She never said a word about the process that landed her her first role at the age of six. All anyone knew was that from that point on, her life would be different. Even if she had wanted to stay in the background of her famous family, that was no longer an option. She would continue to work steadily throughout her childhood. Critics said she had a natural talent, something that she secretly resented. She began to use her voice when it came to her education. She fought hard to be allowed to attend public school whenever she wasn't filming, even when her older siblings warned her against it. It would be difficult, but she wasn't one to see a challenge or adversity as a bad thing. In her oldest brother, Darsy, she found an ally on the subject. He, too, had chosen to go to public school despite the challenges one of their kind could face. He encouraged her to branch out, to participate in clubs and sports. In short, it was his influence and backing that got her in to public school. And she took his advice to heart. She surrounded herself with people, all kinds of people, even those she knew only wanted to be close to her because of her name. She didn't actively hide the fact that she had access to things that most people didn't but she didn't flaunt it either. But as her star continued to rise, there grew a divide in Celia's life. There was the girl she was expected to be, the girl the media wanted to see. They wanted the actress to be the new and fresh face to hang all of their hopes on. They wanted Celia and Alice to be Kate Hudson and Goldie Hawn: Hollywood familial royalty. But Celia and her own mother were not anything alike. But time and again Alice McDonaghy gave the media what they wanted. She took more and more of an interest in her youngest child's life that had been absent from the start. Celia resented it.

From the moment she knew what her mother was doing, in some ways Celia began to change. On the outside and to the public she was the perfect child star. She was well mannered, well spoken and well behaved. She never did anything in interviews that would raise eyebrows. She never seemed to step out of line in the slightest. But in private she was very different. She began to use her growing celebrity and her name to get what she wanted. A very few knew that she had begun, purposefully, to travel the path that many child stars had taken before her. Alcohol. Drugs. Partying. She was always discreet, but the signs could have been obvious to her parents. Her mother especially. But Celia became a very charming, almost manipulative girl to the adults around her, save her siblings. She was subtle about the ways in which she set out to sabotage what her mother wanted from her. She would miss meetings that Alice set up. She would show up late. She would go behind her mother's back and change meeting times to a time that better suited her. There were few people who could reign in the animosity that grew within her, a circle that contained her siblings and her nanny. But none of them could quite put their finger on exactly what Celia was doing or if she was also trying to self-sabotage her own growing success.

Celia began her acting career when she was five years old, landing a part in the wildly popular film, Mrs. Doubtfire. The film would solidify the youngest McDonaghy as a child star, a mantle that, in later years, the actress maintains she didn't know if she even wanted. McDonaghy landed a role on the then-popular soap opera Days of Our Lives, a rerurring role that would allow her some semblance of a childhood. She moved back into film after her time on the soap ended and stayed in that medium almost exclusively.

After several roles as a child, McDonaghy took herself out of the game completely. It caused a giant rift between she and her mother, but that, of course, was the point. McDonaghy wanted to feel like she had some sort of say in her life and her career, and following her mother's advice was taking her nowhere, fast. She recognized that she was doing more harm to herself than good, but, as with most addictions, they made her feel good enough to ignore those warning signs. As her mother had been acting as her agent, McDonaghy went behind her mother's back and secured new representation. She jokes that firing her mother was the best day of her life, but it wasn't really that much of a joke. As a result of the rift between mother and daughter, it suddenly became difficult for McDonaghy to find work, and a number of rumors and blind items were printed about her, many of which had merit, many of which did not. While McDonaghy maintains that the campaing against her was spearheaded by her mother, she had no proof, but it was likely the final nail in the coffin of their relationship.

It would be another few years before McDonaghy was seen on the big screen. Her first role back from semi-retirement, Inception, would be released in the summer of 2010, marking her first appearance on screen in over 10 years. 2010 would prove to be an important year for the young actress as at the end of 2010, McDonaghy would once again become a household name (for her acting) thanks to her dark turn in Black Swan. McDonaghy regained some of the acclaim she had once had whispered about her and she was able to prove to the world (and her mother) that she didn't necessarily need the McDonaghy name to make it. It certainly helped, but it was her own work ethic that would land her several roles that had critics salavating for the next thing she would do. McDonaghy continued down a darker path when she followed up Black Swan with the American version of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, and Smashed. The two films took McDonaghy down a path she hadn't thought she'd every fully travel, but due to the heavy subject matter of all three films, she began to rely heavily on prescription pain pills (from a lingering injury obtained on The Horse Whisperer) and alcohol. A saving grace, however, was on the horizon.

In 2012, amid acclaim for two roles at the opposite end of the spectrum, McDonaghy welcomed a son, Nicholas, with her then boyfriend Oliver Moorman. The pair had taken on the world by storm and that their love affair culminated with a child both surprised and didn't surprise. Following the birth of her son, McDonaghy became even more picky with the material she chose, staying on the big screen if a script truly moved her, but she made the decision to jump to the small screen in order to keep her son in one place. Cast in a relatively unknown and untested and wildly creative BBC America show, McDonaghy would outdo herself playing multiple iterations of the same character on Orphan Black. It would prove to be some of the hardest work in McDonaghy's career, but some of the most rewarding, as well. For all of her success, McDonaghy still felt like she was trying to prove herself to Hollywood. Throughout her career there have been constant rumors and whispers about nepotism and they quite often got to the young actor's head. Though she was nominated for awards several times, it wasn't until 2015 that the voting bodies of the academies that were responsible for nominting her, finally pulled the trigger and rewarded McDonaghy for her work. In September of 2015, McDonaghy received an Emmy nomination for her work on Orphan Black, a nomination fans said was incrdibly overdue. Fans of the hit show didn't seem to care that their lead actress had already received several nominations for other work, they practically demanded that McDonaghy be recognized. While she lost in 2015, she would win the award a year later, the same year that she would win an academy award for her striking performance in Room. However, almost immediately after her name was called, the rumor mill started that Alice McDonaghy had bought her daughter's award, or that she was really be rewarded for past performance and not the film she was actually nominated for. To her credit, McDonaghy remains tight-lipped about said rumors.

2015 was a banner year for McDonaghy off the screen as well, as she and fiancee Oliver Moorman welcomed a daughter into their family. The couple, who had been together for the better part of three years, seemed to be Hollywood's golden standard when it came to relationships. However, shortly after their daughter, Madeline, was born, the couple separated. Rumors of an affair on the set of Moorman's wildly popular film Deadpool proved true and the couple's future seemed uncertain. However, while officially separated since, the couple has remained close, rebuilding and maintaining a friendship to better raise their children. The pair are seen together quite often and seem to be making the situation work.

With the final season of Orphan Black airing, and filming for the series behind her, McDonaghy has been able to take on a larger load in terms of work, though she still maintains that raising her children is the most important thing for her. She will soon be thrust into a hotter spotlight than even a McDonaghy may be used to when she begins filming one of Marvel's upcoming films, Captain Marvel. While McDonaghy remains hopeful for the project, there are plenty of naysayers who believe she is wrong for the role. In her younger years, she might have let that get to her, but the still young actress has seemingly matured into someone who can handle the criticsm without falling apart or relying on vices.

McDonaghy is extremely close to her older siblings, but has little to no contact with her parents.

A boyfriend from college claims he is in possession of nude pictures and/or a sex tape featuring the actress and threatens to release it every so often.

Was speculated to have gone to rehab for alcohol abuse, but it was actually for dependency on prescription drugs.

Has an American Wirehair cat named Lucy she adopted in 2012.

Splits her time between Los Angeles and New York


FEATURE FILMS (2019) captain marvel (pre-production) ... carol danvers/captain marvel (2018) the favourite (post-production) ... abigail masham (2018) the life and death of john f. donovan (post-production) ... sam turner (2017) a ghost story ... M (2017) the greatest showman ... jenny lind (2017) submergence (completed) ... danielle flinders (2016) una ... una (2016) the girl on the train ... rachel (2015) room ... ma (2015) our brand is crisis ... leblanc (2014) inherent vice ... hope harlingen (2013) her ... catherine (2012) smashed ... kate hanna (2012) ruby sparks ... ruby sparks (2011) the girl with the dragon tattoo ... lisbeth salander (2010) black swan ... lily/the black swan (2010) inception ... ariadne (1998) the horse whisperer ... grace maclean (1996) matilda ... matilda wormwood >(1993) mrs. doubtfire ... natalie hillard
TELEVISION (2013-2017) 'orphan black' ... sarah manning/alison hendrix/cosima niehaus/etc (50 episodes) (1999-2001) 'as the world turns' ... lucinda montgomery (27 episodes)