- In full:
- Lisa Olivia Munn
- Born:
- July 3, 1980, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, U.S. (age 46)
Olivia Munn
What are some notable TV shows Olivia Munn has appeared in?
How did Olivia Munn’s early life influence her acting career?
How has Olivia Munn contributed to activism?
Olivia Munn (born July 3, 1980, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, U.S.) is an American actress known for her roles in the TV shows Attack of the Show! (2005–13; 2021–22), The Newsroom (2012–14), and Your Friends & Neighbors (2025– ) and such films as X-Men: Apocalypse (2016), Office Christmas Party (2016), and The Predator (2018). She has also appeared on The Daily Show (1996– ) with Jon Stewart.
Early life
Olivia Munn was born in Oklahoma City to an American father and Vietnamese mother of Chinese descent; the latter had come to the United States with her family as refugees from the Vietnam War. Her parents divorced, and her mother married a U.S. Air Force officer when Munn was two. The family spent the next 14 years in several places, but mostly in Tokyo, before returning to the United States when Munn was a teenager.
She has described her stepfather as abusive, and she had a strained relationship with him. Incidentally, Munn discovered her acting talent when she would herd her siblings into her room to escape their stepfather’s verbal abuse and keep them engaged by acting out famous scenes from movies. Following a divorce, her mother moved the family back to Oklahoma City. Munn wanted to be an actress but was dissuaded by her mother from acting as a career path, instead majoring in journalism at the University of Oklahoma; she minored in theater and Japanese. She interned at Fox Sports Net and covered women’s basketball and college football as a sideline reporter.
Acting career
Munn’s early film roles in 2004–05, including her first screen role in the horror film Scarecrow Gone Wild (2004), credit her as Lisa Munn. She started hosting the TV technology series Attack of the Show! on the G4 network in 2006. She continued to have small roles in films, including Big Stan (2007) featuring Rob Schneider, Date Night (2010) starring Steve Carell and Tina Fey, and Iron Man 2 (2010) in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and in such TV series as Beyond the Break (2006–07) and Chuck (2010).
In June 2010 Munn was selected as a female correspondent on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. Her hiring provoked backlash at the time, with several female comedians who did not get the job suggesting that Munn won the spot because of her good looks and bikini cover shoots for Playboy and Maxim. Munn responded in an interview with Salon, “Jon Stewart hires people that he thinks are funny. That’s it. That’s the only requirement.”
Also in 2010 Munn was cast in one of the lead roles in the 14-episode TV series Perfect Couples (2010–11). In 2012 she starred in the Emmy Award-winning drama The Newsroom, created by Aaron Sorkin and starring Jeff Daniels; she appeared in all 25 episodes. She appeared in the films Mortdecai (2015) with Gwyneth Paltrow and Johnny Depp, Zoolander 2 (2016) with Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson, and as the mutant Psylocke in the superhit film X-Men: Apocalypse, alongside James McAvoy and Jennifer Lawrence. She played a lead role opposite Jason Bateman in Office Christmas Party.
Munn has also acted in the thriller film The Predator, the ensemble heist film Ocean’s Eight (2018), the romantic comedy Love Wedding Repeat (2020), and the thriller The Gateway (2021). She voiced the character Akiko in the animated TV series Hit-Monkey (2021–24) and since 2025 has appeared on the Apple TV drama series Your Friends & Neighbors with Jon Hamm and Amanda Peet.
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Personal life and activism
Munn dated Aaron Rodgers, the Green Bay Packers quarterback, from 2014 to 2017. Munn then dated writer and comedian John Mulaney; they had a son, Malcolm Hiệp, in November 2021. The couple married in July 2024 and welcomed a daughter, Méi June, born via surrogate in September 2024.
In March 2024 Munn revealed her breast cancer diagnosis via social media, which had led to a double mastectomy and four surgeries. She subsequently worked on raising awareness for breast cancer; her campaign saw a rise in breast cancer screening, and Time magazine named her as one of its 2025 Women of the Year for her efforts.
In 2010 Munn published a book, Suck It, Wonder Woman!: The Misadventures of a Hollywood Geek.
“When you look at something like the circus and everyone’s laughing and there’s color and there’s music and everything seems so great, but when you go right behind that door and they’re in these crates all day long and then they’re getting shocked and beat just so they can get up and dance around on a ball…it was just so sickening.” —Olivia Munn, speaking to People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals
Munn supported the Me Too movement; in 2017 she, along with five other women, accused the director Brett Ratner of sexual harassment. She has campaigned for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, speaking out against fur farming as well as circus cruelty. In 2021 she was one of several celebrities who lent their voice to Save Ralph, an animated short by Humane Society International that sought to raise awareness against animal testing.