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Netflix’s Maniac is a truly star-studded affair. The Maniac cast includes Jonah Hill, Emma Stone, Sally Field, Justin Theroux, Sonoya Mizuno, Billy Magnussen, Julia Garner, and many more recognizable faces. However, one of the most captivating characters might be played by a relative unknown. The beguiling Grace Van Patten pops up as “Olivia” in two of Jonah Hill’s character Owen Milgrim’s fantasy sequences.
So who is the mysterious Olivia? What role does she play in Owen’s real life? And where have you seen Grace Van Patten before?
**Spoilers for Netflix’s Maniac ahead!**
Who Is Olivia in Netflix’s Maniac?
In one of Owen’s fantasy sequences, Olivia appears as a mysterious femme fatale from his past. She quizzes him on the meaning of the owl, thus helping him and Annie discover the secret passage to Cervante’s (fictional) long-lost chapter of Don Quixote. Later, Olivia is a waitress in Owen’s C pill fantasy. She and this gangster version of Owen hit it off and run away together, where they live in Owen’s small, squalid apartment with seven kids.
In real life, Olivia was the catalyst for Owen’s BLIP. As he tells Annie in Episode 3, he suffered his first schizophrenic breakdown when his crush in school — Olivia — asked him to help her study for a history test. On the way to the library, Owen saw Grissom for the first time and this imaginary brother warned Owen that Olivia was a plant hired by their family to spy on him, seduce him, marry him, and have seven kids with. While it’s unclear if Olivia was hired by the Milgrims, Owen did in fact lose his grip on reality upon seeing her. He quizzed her about whether or not she was even real. After the trial concludes, we see Owen draft a letter to Olivia.
Who Is Grace Van Patten, the Actress Who Plays Olivia in Maniac?
Grace Van Patten is an American actress who made her debut at the age of 8 in an episode of The Sopranos. Her father is TV director Tim Van Patten (who was a director on The Sopranos and the guy who directed the very first two episodes of Game of Thrones). Van Patten attended La Guardia High School in New York City, where classmate Ansel Elgort introduced her to her manager.
Van Patten’s two biggest roles to date have also been on Netflix Originals. She co-starred in the critically-acclaimed romantic drama Tramps and appears in a supporting role in The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Old). She currently dates actor Nat Wolff. You can follow her on Instagram.
