Honestly, if you aren't paying attention to Olivia Cooke, you’re missing out on one of the most versatile actors of our generation. Period.
She has this uncanny ability to disappear into roles. One minute she’s a terminally ill teenager in an indie tear-jerker, and the next, she’s a scheming, green-clad Queen in Westeros. She doesn’t just act; she sort of haunts the screen. You’ve likely seen her in House of the Dragon, but her filmography goes way deeper than Targaryen family drama.
The Big Break: Bates Motel and Early TV
Most people first met Olivia as Emma Decody in Bates Motel. If you haven't seen it, she played a girl with cystic fibrosis who becomes a close confidante to a young Norman Bates.
It was a tough role. She had to carry around an oxygen tank and project a sense of impending mortality, all while maintaining a convincing American accent that fooled basically everyone. She’s actually from Oldham, Greater Manchester. Her career didn't start there, though; she cut her teeth in British miniseries like Blackout and The Secret of Crickley Hall back in 2012.
Why Me and Earl and the Dying Girl Changed Everything
If Bates Motel put her on the map, the 2015 Sundance hit Me and Earl and the Dying Girl made her a star. She played Rachel, a high schooler diagnosed with leukemia.
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- The Commitment: She actually shaved her head for the role. No "bald caps" or CGI trickery.
- The Tone: The movie is famously "anti-cancer-movie." It's funny, weird, and devastating.
- The Impact: Critics at the time, including those from Variety, praised her for avoiding the typical "dying teen" tropes. She wasn't a saint; she was a real, annoyed, witty person.
The Blockbuster Era: Ready Player One
Then came Steven Spielberg. Getting cast in a Spielberg movie is basically the industry's way of saying "you've arrived." In Ready Player One (2018), she played Samantha (and her avatar, Art3mis).
While the movie is a CGI spectacle of 80s nostalgia, Cooke provided the actual heart. It’s hard to stand out when you’re competing with a digital King Kong and an Iron Giant, but her performance as a rebel leader in a dystopian future was grounded and gritty. It proved she could handle massive, big-budget franchises just as well as quiet indie dramas.
Ranking the Best Olivia Cooke Movies and TV Shows
If you're looking for a watchlist, you can't just stick to the hits. You have to look at the weird stuff too.
Thoroughbreds (2017) is a personal favorite for many. She stars alongside Anya Taylor-Joy as two privileged, highly intelligent, and arguably sociopathic teenagers who plot a murder. Cooke plays Amanda, a girl who literally cannot feel emotions. Her deadpan delivery is chilling. It's a dark comedy that feels like a modern-day Heathers, and it’s arguably one of her best performances because she has to communicate everything through micro-expressions since her character's face is essentially a mask.
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Then there’s Sound of Metal (2019). Most of the awards buzz went to Riz Ahmed—and rightly so—but Olivia Cooke as Lou, the girlfriend of a drummer losing his hearing, is the emotional anchor. Her transformation into a bleach-browed punk singer is jarring and perfect.
Recent Hits and Hidden Gems
- Slow Horses (2022): She appeared in the first season of this Apple TV+ spy thriller. Even in a cast led by Gary Oldman, she made her mark as a sharp, ambitious MI5 agent.
- Vanity Fair (2018): She played Becky Sharp. It's a period piece, but she played it with a modern, "hustler" energy that made the character feel surprisingly relatable.
- Little Fish (2020): A sci-fi romance about a memory-loss pandemic. It’s hauntingly beautiful and sadly overlooked because it released right in the middle of a real-life pandemic.
- The Girlfriend (2025): Her latest psychological thriller on Amazon, starring opposite Robin Wright. It’s messy, tense, and shows her leaning into more "grown-up" suspense roles.
The Reign of Alicent Hightower
We have to talk about the dragon in the room. In House of the Dragon, Cooke took over the role of Queen Alicent Hightower from Emily Carey after a mid-season time jump.
Playing a character that half the internet hates is a tall order. Alicent is often framed as the "villain" compared to Rhaenyra Targaryen, but Cooke plays her with such a sense of repressed trauma and religious anxiety that you can't help but feel for her. She portrays a woman who did everything "right" according to the rules of a patriarchal society, only to watch her former best friend break those rules and still be loved for it.
The "Green vs. Black" debate wouldn't be nearly as interesting if Cooke didn't bring that "subterranean tension" to every scene. Whether she’s staring daggers at a council meeting or having a quiet, devastating moment with her children, she’s the reason the political drama works.
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What’s Next for Olivia Cooke?
The future is looking pretty crowded for her. House of the Dragon Season 3 is slated for a Summer 2026 premiere, and early reports suggest her character's arc will be even more turbulent as the civil war escalates.
Beyond Westeros, she’s diving back into horror with Brides, a feminist reimagining of the Dracula story directed by Chloe Okuno. She’s also set to appear in Switzerland, a thriller where she’ll star alongside Helen Mirren. She’s clearly moving into a phase of her career where she’s working with legends, and honestly, she’s earning her spot right next to them.
How to Keep Up With Her Career
If you want to stay ahead of the curve, here is the best way to dive into her work:
- Watch the "Unemotional Trilogy": Start with Thoroughbreds, then Sound of Metal, then House of the Dragon. You’ll see how she uses silence and stillness as a weapon.
- Don't skip the Indies: Seek out Little Fish and Katie Says Goodbye. These are the roles where she really flexes her dramatic muscles.
- Check the 2026 Slate: Keep an eye on HBO for House of the Dragon updates and watch for the theatrical release of Brides later this year.
Olivia Cooke is one of those rare actors who doesn't have a "type." She’s a chameleon. Whether she’s a punk rocker, a dying teen, or a vengeful queen, she makes it impossible to look away. Stop scrolling through Netflix and just pick something with her name in the credits; you won't be disappointed.
Actionable Next Steps:
To fully appreciate Cooke's range, start with Thoroughbreds for her dark comedy skills, then move to Sound of Metal to see her dramatic depth before catching up on the latest episodes of House of the Dragon on Max. If you're interested in her upcoming work, set a notification for the Brides trailer, which is expected to drop later this year as the film enters the festival circuit.