Greta Gerwig in 2024: Career, Personal Life, Barbie, and More

American actress, writer, and director, Greta Celeste Gerwig, found renewed and vigorous fame following the success of her 2023 flick, Barbie, even making its way to the Oscars with eight nominations. However, on her own, she stands as the first director ever with all her first three solo feature films vying for the coveted tag of Best Picture Oscars. Considered one of the most successful, ambitious, and creative independent women filmmakers, she has also collaborated with a host of big-name studios for equally appraised movies.

As she gears up to have her latest movie win high honors at the 96th Academy Awards, a look at the road to the same highlights her passion, struggles, and breakthrough success.

The early life and personal background of Greta Gerwig

Greta Celeste Gerwig was born on August 4, 1983, to Christine Gerwig and Gordon Gerwig. The River Park neighborhood of Sacramento formed her raising grounds where her mother worked as an OB-GYN nurse and her father as a financial consultant and computer programmer. Additionally, the city’s rivers, farmland, streets, and architectural constructs became the base of her creativity, as she would describe in many interviews as her “point of reference.”

Raised as a Unitarian Universalist, Gerwig boasts German, Irish, and English ancestry, however, she proceeded to attend an all-girls Catholic School, St. Francis High School, where she first brushed against theater productions. Furthermore, she also has two siblings, an older brother, a landscape architect, and a sister helming the role of a manager at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Overall, she maintains close-knit ties with her family, especially her parents.

Educational history, passions, and the first move to theaters

Before graduating from St. Francis High School in 2002, Greta Gerwig developed a taste for musical theater during her time at the institute. Moreover, she also found herself inclined towards the arts, where writing and acting became her prime interests in addition to dancing and competitive fencing. While she dropped the last of her early passions, the rest allowed her to prepare for a degree in musical theater in New York. Yet, instead, for several reasons, she settled on attending Barnard College, majoring in English and philosophy.

The liberal arts college for women gave her the scope to develop her creativity in writing and acting plays around several themes. At one point in time, she also participated in and starred in a student-written musical comedy at the Columbia University Varsity Show. During these times, she discovered her profound love for acting and filmmaking, even meeting Joe Swanberg through her then-boyfriend. Soon after, she collaborated with the filmmaker on several low-budget independent films, many of which she starred in, co-wrote, as well as co-directed.

Early career in mumblecore films and Joe Swanberg collaborations

Joe Swanberg has more often than not found recognition as a pioneer of the mumblecore movement. The word refers to a subgenre of American independent cinema that features low-budget production and often focuses on the relationships and lives of young adults. As an aspiring filmmaker and a college student, mumblecore suited Greta Gerwig profusely, and she started her early filming career with the genre while working with esteemed directors such as the Duplass brothers, Aaron Katz, Ti West, and Woody Allen, alongside Swanberg.

The duo collaborated on at least four films, four films including 2006’s LOL, 2007’s Hannah Takes the Stairs, 2008’s Nights and Weekends, and 2009’s Alexander the Last. While Gerwig co-wrote, co-directed, and co-starred alongside Swanberg, her lead role in the 2007 flick also helped her understand the mind of an actor and do justice to the same. In many of her mumblecore movies, she played insecure and often romantically complex characters, which earned her acclaim and recognition.

In terms of balancing her life, she threw open her long-distance relationship with Swanberg, which she also co-wrote and co-directed in Nights and Weekends with Swanberg. The reception of these movies being largely positive put Gerwig on the radar of other filmmakers such as Noah Baumbach, now her husband, collaborating on movies such as 2010’s Greenberg, where she again starred as an actress. All in all, her acclaim and experience in the mumblecore genre helped her develop skills and confidence as an actor, writer, director, and even a producer.

Equipped with the skills, Greta Gerwig moved into mainstream directing with 2011’s Damsel in Distress. However, the impact of mumblecore filmmaking would stay embedded in her, not only providing the stepping stones to writing nuanced stories but also understanding the necessities of her actors, a quality essential for great directors.

The era of independent filmmaking and raining critical acclaim

In the 2010s, Greta Gerwig transitioned to the mainstream and made many moves in acting, writing, and directing. As a mark of her versatility, she voiced the animated series, China IL, for the role of a naïve and optimistic Chinese student in Illinois, appearing for 30 episodes from 2011 through 2015. Thereafter, she also played the role of Julia in the HBO pilot The Corrections, which she also co-wrote, based on the novel by Jonathan Franzen, opposite the likes of Ewan McGregor and Maggie Gyllenhaal.

The breakthrough role for Greta Gerwig came in 2012’s Frances Ha, a black-and-white comedy-drama that she, again, co-wrote and starred in with Noah Baumbach. Playing the role of a 27-year-old aspiring dancer, her performance won her a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress in a Motion Picture–Musical or Comedy alongside widespread critical acclaim. The movie not only highlighted her acting prowess but also her ability in the other two aspects of filmmaking.

Yet, the decade lay prime emphasis on her leaving a mark on independent films, primarily through her acting and writing skills. After Damsel in Distress, she played Sally, an American in Rome who fell in love with her best friend’s boyfriend in 2012’s To Rome with Love. The commercial and critical success of the film brought in a whopping $73 million. All of it prepared her to receive immense recognition to prepare for her solo directorial debut.

Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach - A collaboration beyond love

In 2010, Greenberg became the movie that brought Greta Gerwig closer to Noah Baumbach. Starring opposite Ben Stiller, she played the role of a kind and quirky woman, which critics rightly labeled as her breakout role. However, in the sense of a true collaboration, 2012’s Frances Ha stands as the first movie that the couple co-wrote. In both the aforementioned movies, Gerwig’s role as a young woman trying to figure out life’s complexities became a landing hit for the audience.

In 2015, Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach co-wrote their second film, Mistress America, one that the former also co-produced. Starring as Brooke, the screwball comedy had her nudge on the themes of ambition, identity, and friendship. Similarly, in 2022, the couple adapted Don DeLillo’s 1985 novel, White Noise, into a movie of the same name. Starring alongside Adam Driver, the film’s premiere at the Venice Film Festival earned more laurels for the critically acclaimed couple.

The acting prowess harnessed by Greta Gerwig

In summary, along with her various inroads in the mumblecore genre, Greta Gerwig has proved her mettle in acting with a range encompassing several genres. Among her most notable roles come the role of Violet, the leader of a trio of girls trying to change the male-dominated culture of their campus in Whit Stillman's 2011’s Damsels in Distress as well as the 2012 romantic tugger of Woody Allen’s To Rome with Love before she proceeded to play a woman who wants to have a child on her own but falls in love in 2015’s Maggie’s Plan by Rebecca Miller.

In 2016’s Jackie, Gerwig played Nancy Tuckerman, a biographical drama centered around Jacqueline Kennedy. In a coming-of-age movie, 2016’s 20th Century Women, directed by Mike Mills, she played a cancer survivor and photographer, Abbie, whereas, in 2018’s Isle of Dogs, she voiced Tracy Walker, for the stop-motion by Wes Anderson. All of her acting performances came with the seal of approval from critics highlighting her range and versatility as a film industry artist.

Directorial debut and success of Greta Gerwig

Greta Gerwig marked her first independent directorial debut with 2017’s Lady Bird, a coming-of-age comedy-drama featuring Laurie Metcalf, Tracy Letts, Lucas Hedges, Timothée Chalamet, and Beanie Feldstein. Additionally, the movie grossed over $78 million at the box office against a budget of just $10 million, setting the director on a path to incoming success. Moreover, it also received a Best Picture Oscars nomination while winning two Golden Globe Awards for Best Picture and Best Actress.

Gerwig went on a mission to outdo herself when she spun a story with themes of sisterhood, ambition, and feminism based on Louisa May Alcott’s novel with 2019’s Little Women. Starring Ronan, Emma Watson, Florence Pugh, Eliza Scanlen, Laura Dern, Meryl Streep, and Chalamet, the movie won the director the USC Scripter Award as well as six Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture, for the second time in a row.

Thereafter, in 2023, the live-action movie around Mattel’s fourth-wall-breaking-doll starring Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling, Barbie, cemented her as one of the best directors of the year with the movie sweeping past $1 billion at the box office in a jiffy. Additionally, the story of Barbie and Ken also won Greta Gerwig the honor of breaking the record for the biggest opening weekend for a movie directed by a woman at $356 million.

As of now, Gerwig remains attached to Netflix to reboot the universe revolving around C.S. Lewis’s The Chronicles of Narnia. While shy details have emerged from the project, the filmmaker has at times hinted that she has yet to settle upon the specific book and storyline to adapt even as the franchise likely targets a 2025 or 2026 release.

Greta Gerwig and her runaway success of Barbie entering the Oscars

In 2023, Greta Gerwig proved herself to be a versatile and now mainstream director who can happily collaborate with big-budget juggernauts and deliver a compelling and fresh narrative enough to win over critics, and audiences, as well as leave a mark far beyond the box office. Furthermore, the movie, which she co-wrote with Noah Baumbach, became the highest-grossing movie ever by a woman with about $1.6 billion gross, sitting comfortably in the top tier of highest-earners ever.

Starting from the powerful monologue delivered by America Ferrera to a brilliant show of acting by the leads, Margot Robbie as Barbie and Ryan Gosling as Ken, Greta Gerwig received a third Academy Award nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay, making her the first woman to be nominated in both the original and adapted screenplay categories. While its eight nominations fell short of its twin-released Oppenheimer’s thirteen, the ball was already in her court.

Gerwig became the only director to land three of her movies back to back as the Best Pictures Oscar contenders. Additionally, the movie secured Oscar 2024 nominations for Best Actress in a Supporting Role, Best Actor in a Supporting Role, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Costume Design, Best Production Design, and two Best Original Song nods, alongside Best Picture, paving the way for a studded showdown at the 96th Academy Awards on March 10.