Mischa Anne Marsden Barton (born 24 January 1986) is a British-American film, television, and stage actress. She began her career on the stage, appearing in Tony Kushner's Slavs! and took the lead in James Lapine's Twelve Dreams at New York City's Lincoln Center. She made her screen debut with a guest appearance on the American soap opera All My Children (1996), and voicing a character on the Nickelodeon cartoon series KaBlam! (1996–97). Her first major film role was as the protagonist of Lawn Dogs (1997), a drama co-starring Sam Rockwell. She appeared in major pictures such as the romantic comedy Notting Hill (1999) and M. Night Shyamalan's psychological thriller The Sixth Sense (1999). She also starred in the indie crime drama Pups (1999).
Barton later appeared in the independent drama Lost and Delirious (2001) and guest-starred as Evan Rachel Wood's girlfriend on ABC's Once and Again (2001–02). She played Marissa Cooper in the Fox television series The O.C. (2003–2006), for which she received two Teen Choice Awards. The role brought Barton into mainstream fame, and Entertainment Weekly named her the "It Girl" of 2003.
Barton has since appeared in the comedy remake St Trinian's (2007), the Richard Attenborough–directed drama Closing the Ring (2007) and Assassination of a High School President (2008). She returned to television, starring in the short-lived Ashton Kutcher-produced CW series The Beautiful Life (2009).
In 2012, she returned to the stage, performing in the Irish production of Steel Magnolias. She also appeared alongside Martin Sheen in Bhopal: A Prayer for Rain (2014). She has garnered critical praise for her roles in independent films, with the Los Angeles Times praising her "standout" performance in Starcrossed (2014). Barton was cast in the first season of the MTV series The Hills: New Beginnings (2019–2021), a reboot of The Hills.
Early life
Barton was born at Queen Charlotte's and Chelsea Hospital in Hammersmith, London, to an Irish mother, Nuala Quinn-Barton, a producer, and an English father, Paul Marsden Barton, a foreign exchange broker from Manchester.
Her maternal grandfather was an Irish language professor at Queen's University Belfast. She has two sisters, Hania (younger) and Zoe (older), the latter a barrister in London. Barton has stated that she briefly attended St. Paul's Girls' School in Hammersmith, but her father's work took the family to New York City when Barton was five years old. In 2006, she became a naturalised citizen of the United States, but retained her British citizenship. She is also eligible for Irish citizenship through her mother.
Barton graduated from the Professional Children's School in Manhattan in 2004, and took a summer short course called Acting Shakespeare at The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London, in June and July 2006, at Sir Richard Attenborough's urging, after he directed her in Closing the Ring.
