Sisters Olsen

The Early Years Mary-Kate Olsen and Ashley Fuller Olsen (born June 13, 1986) are American actresses, best known for playing the role of Michelle Tanner on the sitcom Full House. Both have appeared in television and films since infancy. Since then, they have continued their celebrity through numerous television programs, films, interviews, as well as commercial endorsements. The girls were born in Sherman Oaks, California to David Olsen (b. 1953) and Jarnette (Jarnie) Fuller (b. 1954) in 1986. Mary-Kate and Ashley Fuller Olsen started their acting careers on the television series Full House in 1987. They were hired at the age of six months and filming began when they were nine months old. The show was widely popular during the late 1980s and early 1990s. Both sisters played the same character, Michelle Tanner, taking turns during the tapings to do so, in order to comply with strict child labor laws regarding child actors. For the first year, Ashley would cry when she was brought on set to do a scene, so Mary-Kate had more screen time in the first season. Because the producers did not want viewers to know that Michelle was played by twins, the sisters were originally credited as “Mary Kate Ashley Olsen”, but in the last season and most of season one, they were credited as separate people. During the eight year run, Mary-Kate and Ashley made several direct-to-video movies, in addition to Full House, such as To Grandmother’s House We Go (1992). In 1995, following Full House, Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen released a string of successful straight-to-video movies and became popular figures in the preteen market during the late 1990s and early 2000s. Their names became a cottage industry, with their likeness seen in clothes, books, fragrances, magazines, movies and posters. There were even fashion dolls made by Mattel from 2000-2005. They starred in the video series The Adventures of Mary-Kate & Ashley, the ABC show Two of a Kind, and ABC Family’s So Little Time, for which Mary-Kate received a nomination for Outstanding Performer in a Children’s Series at the 2002 Daytime Emmy Awards. Mary-Kate Mary-Kate Olsen is a Daytime Emmy Award-nominated American actress, producer, fashion model and fashion designer. Since 2006, she has appeared in movie roles independently of her sister. Seeking to establish independent identities for herself and her sister, Mary-Kate has asked the public and the media to refer to them not as “the Olsen twins” but as Mary-Kate Olsen and Ashley Olsen respectively. Subsequently, Mary-Kate’s first solo acting appearance was in the movie Factory Girl, released in December 2006. In addition, she has had a recurring role on Showtime’s Weeds as Tara Lindman, a devout Christian who believes it is OK to smoke marijuana, because it grows from the earth. She appears in the 2008 film The Wackness as Union. At the Sundance Film Festival, co-star and Academy Award-winner Sir Ben Kingsley praised her by saying “Mary-Kate’s portrayal of this girl is perfect, she’s hysterical. She’s a pro. It makes sense. She’s been in this business a lot longer than I have.” Personal Life In 2005, Mary-Kate Olsen ended her romance with Greek shipping heir Stavros Niarchos III. Mary-Kate said that the breakup was one of the main factors in her leave of absence from New York University. “I miss him and I love him,” Olsen said, “It’s a hurtful and a painful subject.” When asked if there was a specific reason for her leaving NYU, she replied, “I think we can all guess.” The breakup and Niarchos’s pairing with Paris Hilton led to a rift between Hilton and Mary-Kate. “[Paris and I] always only had nice things to say about each other,” Olsen said. “Now I guess you can tell we’re not talking.” Mary-Kate has also had her fair share of bad press, firstly when rumours circulated that MK was losing weight rapidly. It was then that Mary-Kate announced that she had indeed been suffering with the terrible condition ‘Anorexia Nervosa’. More recently she has found herself