Actress Rooney Mara didn't exactly come from a show business family. Her great-grandfather founded the Pittsburgh Steelers, her grandfather ran the Yonkers Raceway, and her father was vice president of player evaluations for the New York Giants. Despite her heritage, Mara opted to go into acting instead of sports, and made her professional debut at the age of 16 with a bit-part in the direct-to-video Urban_Legends:_Bloody_Mary. She followed this with a handful of appearances on episodes of shows like Law & Order: Special Victims Unit and The_Cleaner, eventually scoring a number of film roles, appearing in 2009's Tanner Hall, Youth in Revolt, and Friends (With Benefits).
A relative unknown for the first five years of her career, actress Rooney Mara became the object of major media attention in 2010 when she was cast in David Fincher's remake of the Swedish thriller "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" (2011). The sister of actress Kate Mara, she was a notable presence in such indie films as "Dream Boy" (2008) and "Tanner Hall" (2009), where she delivered sensitive performances as troubled girls on the cusp of adulthood, while also appearing on the small screen in episodes of "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit" (NBC, 1999- ) and "ER" (NBC, 1994-2009). Meanwhile, the remake of "A Nightmare on Elm Street" (2010) brought her to the attention of a wider audience, thanks to that movie's relative success at the box office. Her first brush with celebrity came when she joined Fincher for a supporting role in the highly-anticipated drama, "The Social Network" (2010), which led to being cast in "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo," a film that poised the young actress to become a star.
