Rooney Mara

Date of Birth	17 April 1985 , Bedford, New York, USA
Birth Name	Patricia Rooney Mara
Height	5' 3" (1.6 m)

Biography

Rooney Mara was born in Bedford, New York in 1985. Christened Patricia Rooney Mara when she made her debut on the world stage, she is one of four children of NFL football team New York Giants executive Timothy Christopher Mara and Kathleen McNulty, the granddaughter of Art Rooney, Sr., the founder of the Pittsburgh Steelers football franchise (Her mother's maiden name is Rooney).

Her grandfathers were Wellington Mara, co-owner of the Giants, and Tim Rooney, owner of Yonkers Raceway, and her great-uncle is Steelers Chairman Dan Rooney, the former Ambassador to Ireland. Her father has Irish, German, and French-Canadian ancestry, and her mother is of Irish and Italian descent.

After graduating from Bedford's Fox Lane High school, she enrolled in the Traveling School, which took her to South America to study. She spent a year at George Washington University before transferring to New York University, where she studied international social policy and psychology. She took her degree from NYU in 2010. Her studies focused on non-profit organizations, as her family has a tradition of involvement in philanthropic causes.

She had thought of acting after watching old movies and attending musical theater, but did not think of it as a serious vocation and was afraid she might fail at it. As a result of her reservations, she appeared in only one play while in high school.