Who is Oscar winner Mikey Madison as she wins top acting prize?

Mikey Madison won at the Academy Awards on Sunday night (Picture: Kevin Winter/Getty Images)

Mikey Madison beat competition from the likes of Wicked actress Cynthia Erivo and The Substance star Demi Moore to win best actress in a leading role at the Oscars.

The 25-year-old Anora star honoured the sex work community in her Academy Award acceptance speech as she collected the statuette during Sunday’s ceremony.

Anora, which follows a young sex worker who falls in a love with the son of a Russian oligarch, picked up five gongs in total, having debuted to critical acclaim at Cannes last year and won the Palme d’Or.

During the 97th Academy Awards, director Sean Baker became the first person to win four Oscars for a single film at one ceremony.

Previously, Walt Disney won the same amount in one night but for different films.

Here’s everything you need to know about the movie’s leading star.

Where is Mikey Madison from?

She was born Mikaela Madison Rosberg in Los Angeles, one of five children of psychologist parents.

Mikey grew up in Los Angeles (Picture: John Salangsang/BEI/Shutterstock)

Her mother signed her up for an acting class in her mid-teens after Madison had trained in competitive horse riding, which she found lonely compared with the collaborative nature of acting.

‘I just had a pull towards wanting some deeper connection with other people or wanting to experience something more emotional than what I was doing,’ she told Esquire.

‘To me, that decision was simultaneously easy but also painful. I felt that if I started acting, then I’d have to commit myself 100 percent to it, and I couldn’t do that if I was still committed to horseback riding, which is very time-consuming. And so I let that part of my life go for the time being.’

Mikey Madison’s twin brother

Mikey Madison is one of five siblings, with two sisters and two brothers, including a twin, Miles.

Mikey previously admitted during her time as a ‘weird horse girl’, her twin brother ‘would pretend’ they weren’t actually siblings.

She told W: ‘People would be like on the last day of school, “Miles, why would you be getting into [Mikey’s] car with her?”

‘And he was like, “Oh, she’s my sister.” He has since apologised. [laughs]’

What movies and TV shows has Mikey Madison been in?

She has appeared in films including 2019’s Once Upon A Time In Hollywood and she played Amber Freeman in 2022 horror Scream.

The Anora star appeared in a number of memorable roles before landing her Oscar-winning role (Picture: Neon via AP)

She also played Max in TV comedy drama Better Things and Judith Weinstein in thriller Lady In The Lake, featuring Natalie Portman.

In February, she won the leading actress Bafta for Anora which saw her learn Russian to play the exotic dancer.

‘She needed to speak Russian in a very specific way,’ she told Pamela Anderson on Variety’s Actors On Actors series, adding: ‘Her Russian is very much at the level of maybe an elementary schooler.’

What did Mikey Madison say in her Oscars leading actress speech?

Accepting her acting award, the LA-born star said: ‘This is very surreal. Forgive me, I’m nervous, I’m gonna read off of a paper, but thank you so much to the Academy.

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‘I grew up in Los Angeles, but Hollywood always felt so far away from me, so to be here standing in this room today is really incredible.’

She then thanked her ‘incredible family, my mum and my dad and my sister and my little brother, and my twin brother … thank you for being my best friend, not that you have a choice’.

She also thanked Brooklyn’s Brighton Beach ‘for lending us your beautiful backdrop and incredible community’.

‘I also want to again recognise and honour the sex worker community,’ she said.

The Anora star vowed to ‘support and be an ally’ for sex workers (Picture: Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP)

‘I will continue to support and be an ally, all of the incredible people, the women that I’ve had the privilege of meeting from that community, has been one of the highlights of this entire incredible experience.

‘I also just want to recognise the thoughtful, intelligent, beautiful, breathtaking work of my fellow nominees.

‘I’m honoured to be recognised alongside all of you, this is a dream come true. I’m probably gonna wake up tomorrow. Thank you so much, Sean [Baker] I adore you. This is all because of you. Thank you.’

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