Mischa Barton

Mischa Anne Barton (born January 24 1986) is an English/American actress and former child fashion model, who is best known for her role as Marissa Cooper on the popular TV series The O.C..

Early life

Mischa Barton was born in Hammersmith, London, England, to an English father, Paul Barton, and an Irish mother, Nuala Smith. She moved to New York City when she was five years old and was naturalized as a citizen of the United States in Los Angeles on February 3, 2006. She has an older sister, Zoe Barton, and a younger sister, Hania Barton. Barton graduated from the Professional Children's School in Manhattan in 2004, and attended a summer school in Shakespearean acting at RADA in 2006.

Career

Barton started as a model and was signed with Ford Models. She began her acting career at the age of nine in New York Theatre with a lead role in Slavs!, written by Tony Kushner. She took part in many plays, taking a lead role in James Lapine's Twelve Dreams. She made her film debut in Lawn Dogs, which won awards at film festivals around the world. Since then she has appeared in several films, including The Sixth Sense, Notting Hill, and Lost and Delirious, in which she starred.
Barton first appeared on television in 1996, as a younger Lily Montgomery in All My Children. Two years later she starred in the film Pups with Cameron Van Hoy. She also had a one-time appearance in the Fox show Fastlane, and appeared in the video for "Goodbye My Lover" by James Blunt. She has also appeared in Enrique Iglesias's video, Addicted. She played in eight episodes on the television show Once and Again as Katie Singer, Jessie Sammler's (Evan Rachel Wood's) girlfriend.
She is best known for her role as Marissa Cooper in the TV series The O.C., the beautiful, popular and wealthy "princess" of Newport Beach, California, whose story is mostly about her on-and-off relationship with former delinquent Ryan Atwood and her continuous struggles against her mother and all the people and problems that emerge against her and Ryan, though she left the series in the third season finale.
She has two films awaiting release and will next work on the films Malice in Sunderland and Hexxx.

Endorsements

Barton has modeled for Calvin Klein and appeared in advertisements for Aéropostale, bebe, Accessorize, Dooney & Bourke, JC (Jeans and Clothes), Morgan de Toi, Neutrogena, Jaspal, and Keds. The executives at Neutrogena made her the cover girl for their new worldwide ad campaign; in this regard Barton followed in the footsteps of fellow teen stars Jennifer Love Hewitt, Mandy Moore, and Kristin Kreuk. In Australia, she appears in commercials for gossip magazine Famous.

Personal life

Barton began a relationship with oil heir Brandon Davis, grandson of billionaire Marvin Davis, in February 2004. In July 2005 she left him for his friend Cisco Adler, who she remains with as of December 2006. Adler is the lead singer of LA rock band Whitestarr, and the son of the legendary record producer Lou Adler. There is constant, unfounded speculation that Barton and Adler have split, which probably stems from the fact that Barton is extremely guarded about her personal life and the two are rarely photographed together.