![olivia wilde young olivia wilde young](http://2.bp.blogspot.com/--MW-uFM34iM/Tsf5-aLtIyI/AAAAAAAAAfQ/zxPwtS_1hko/s1600/olivia-wilde-life-style-04.jpg)
Some of Wilde's paternal Scottish ancestors were upper-class and lived in many locations at the height of the British Empire, including Peking (where her paternal grandfather was born), Calcutta, Bombay, Cairo, and Tasmania. Writer Christopher Hitchens was the Cockburn family's tenant in Washington, D.C. Her grandfather Claud Cockburn and his sons Alexander and Patrick Cockburn also worked as journalists and her aunt, Sarah Caudwell, was a writer.
![olivia wilde young olivia wilde young](https://ilarge.lisimg.com/image/15235349/740full-olivia-wilde.jpg)
She has a sister five years older and a brother nine years younger. For a short time, Wilde's family also had a house in Guilford, Vermont.
![olivia wilde young olivia wilde young](https://ilarge.lisimg.com/image/4146946/740full-olivia-wilde.jpg)
He was born in London and raised in Ireland. Her father, Andrew Cockburn, is also a journalist, and is a son of British novelist and journalist Claud Cockburn. Wilde's mother, Leslie Cockburn (née Redlich), is an American producer on 60 Minutes and journalist. She then studied at the Gaiety School of Acting in Dublin. She was accepted to Bard College, but deferred her enrollment three times in order to pursue acting. Wilde derived her current name from Irish author Oscar Wilde, and changed her surname while in high school to honor the writers in her family, many of whom used pen names. and boarding school at Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts, graduating in 2002. She attended private school at Georgetown Day School in Washington, D.C. while spending summers at Ardmore in Ireland. She grew up in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Wilde was born Olivia Jane Cockburn in New York City on March 10, 1984. 2.3 2019–present: Expansion to film direction.2.2 2013–2018: Mainstream career and Broadway debut.2.1 2003–2012: Early career, House, and breakthrough.