Maggie Gyllenhaal Birthday & Age: Real Name, Husband Peter Sarsgaard & Movies Timeline

Maggie Gyllenhaal, the actress and filmmaker behind Secretary, The Dark Knight and the Oscar-nominated The Lost Daughter, was born on November 16, 1977, in Manhattan. She is 48 years old and is part of one of Hollywood’s best-known creative families — her younger brother is actor Jake Gyllenhaal.

Real Name and a Surprise on Her Birth Certificate

Her full legal name is Margalit Ruth Gyllenhaal Sarsgaard. She only discovered that her birth certificate said “Margalit” — a Hebrew name meaning “pearl” — in 2013, when she was taking her husband’s surname. Professionally, she has always been known as Maggie.

A Family of Filmmakers

Family member	Relation	Work
Stephen Gyllenhaal	Father	Film director and poet
Naomi Achs (Foner)	Mother	Screenwriter and director
Jake Gyllenhaal	Younger brother	Actor
Peter Sarsgaard	Husband (married 2009)	Actor
Two daughters	Children	Ramona is the elder

She grew up in Los Angeles, attended the Harvard–Westlake prep school, and in 1995 moved to New York to study literature and Eastern religions at Columbia University. She also spent a summer studying acting at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London.

Husband Peter Sarsgaard

Gyllenhaal began dating actor Peter Sarsgaard in 2002. They got engaged in April 2006 and married on May 2, 2009, in a small chapel in Brindisi, Italy. The couple have two daughters and lived for years in a Park Slope townhouse in Brooklyn.

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Career Timeline

• 1992: Brief first screen role, aged 15, in her father’s film Waterland.
• 2001: Appears with her brother in the cult film Donnie Darko.
• 2002: Breakout lead in Secretary, earning a Golden Globe nomination.
• 2006: Second Golden Globe nomination for Sherrybaby.
• 2008: Plays Rachel Dawes in Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight.
• 2009: Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress in Crazy Heart.
• 2014: Wins a Golden Globe for the BBC miniseries The Honourable Woman; makes her Broadway debut in The Real Thing.
• 2017–2019: Produces and stars in HBO’s The Deuce.
• 2021: Writes and directs The Lost Daughter, winning Best Screenplay at Venice and an Oscar nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay.
• 2026: Releases her second film as director, the gothic romance The Bride!, and serves as jury president at the Venice Film Festival.

Awards and Nominations

Award	Result	Work
Golden Globe – Best Actress (TV)	Won	The Honourable Woman
Academy Award – Best Supporting Actress	Nominated	Crazy Heart
Academy Award – Best Adapted Screenplay	Nominated	The Lost Daughter
Venice – Best Screenplay	Won	The Lost Daughter
Primetime Emmy	Nominated	The Honourable Woman

From Actor to Director

With The Lost Daughter, adapted from an Elena Ferrante novella, Gyllenhaal proved herself as a writer-director. The film won four Gotham Awards and earned her nominations for Best Director at the Golden Globes and Best Adapted Screenplay at the BAFTAs and Oscars. Her follow-up, The Bride!, drew mixed reviews, but it showed her ambition to take on big, stylized projects.

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