Child star Mara Wilson disappeared from Hollywood after playing Matilda. This is her life now.

She was one of the biggest child stars of the '90s, charming us as the six-year-old Natalie Hillard in Mrs. Doubtfire and later as the quirky, magical Matilda Wormwood. But these days, Mara Wilson lives a very different life.

You probably haven't seen her face in a while. Wilson disappeared from our screens for years — and there's a heartbreaking reason for it.

These days, she's a writer, voice actress and mental health advocate, living a quieter life in New York City. Here's what she's been up to.

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From breakout star to Matilda.

Wilson was born on July 24, 1987, in Burbank, California.

Inspired by her older brother's work in commercials, she began acting at just five years old. Her breakout role came as Natalie Hillard in Mrs. Doubtfire before landing the role of Susan Walker in Miracle on 34th Street.

"When I was cast in Mrs. Doubtfire, my parents were proud, but they kept me grounded," Wilson wrote in The Guardian. "If I ever said something like, 'I'm the greatest!' my mother would remind me, 'You're just an actor. You're just a kid.'"

Then came the role that cemented her as a household name: Matilda Wormwood in Matilda, the beloved adaptation of Roald Dahl's novel.

Danny DeVito and Mara Wilson in 1997. Image: Getty.

But behind the scenes, Wilson's world was falling apart. Just after Matilda wrapped, her mother tragically passed away from breast cancer.

"I felt completely lost, completely unmoored," she told The Guardian.

"There was who I was before that, and who I was after that. She was like this omnipresent thing in my life. I really believed that she would never die and as I've gotten older, she's taken on even more of a mythical quality in my mind. To lose her felt like this incredible upheaval. I didn't really know who I was."

After that, acting lost its shine. Wilson took on a few more roles, including Simple Wish (1997) and Thomas and the Magic Railroad (2000), but by her teens, she was done with Hollywood.

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Why Mara Wilson really left Hollywood.

In recent years, Wilson has opened up about why she stepped away from acting.

"I don't think you can be a child star without there being some kind of lasting damage," she told The Guardian.

Growing up in the spotlight wasn't easy — especially when puberty hit.

"I had people sending me inappropriate letters and posting things about me online," Wilson said. "I made the mistake of Googling myself when I was 12 and saw things that I couldn't unsee." Her face was Photoshopped onto pornographic images and shared online.

Mara Wilson in Matilda. Image: Tristar.

And then there was Hollywood's impossible beauty standard.

Within just a few short years of becoming a teenager, she went from a highly sought-after actress to having to audition for the role of the "fat girl", her self-esteem plummeting from the brutal rejection.

"At thirteen, being pretty mattered more than it ever had. Auditions were a lost cause. I knew by then that if I wanted to be in film, I had to be beautiful," she wrote in her first memoir.

Wilson's dad encouraged her to focus on school instead, and eventually, she took his advice.

Watching peers like Scarlett Johansson and Kristen Stewart thrive was hard, but Wilson found her own path. She attended NYU's Tisch School of the Arts, where she fell in love with theatre and playwriting. She graduated in 2009.

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A new chapter.

Wilson reinvented herself as a writer and voice actress. Her 2016 memoir, Where Am I Now? True Stories of Girlhood and Accidental Fame, offered a candid look at her complicated relationship with fame.

She's since voiced characters in BoJack Horseman and the podcast Welcome to Night Vale. Recently, she earned accolades for narrating audiobooks such as Chuck Tingle's Bury Your Gays.

In 2023, she published her second memoir, Good Girls Don't — a coming-of-age story about her time as a child star and the family relationships that shaped her.

Diagnosed with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) at age 12, Wilson has become a vocal mental health advocate. She's worked with organisations like Project UROK to raise awareness about OCD, anxiety, and ADHD.

"I knew from a young age that if I grew up to have any kind of platform, I wanted to use it to speak up about OCD," she told the International OCD Foundation.

"I think it's important to destigmatise OCD and fight the stereotypes about it. It's not a personality quirk or type, it's a debilitating illness."

These days, Mara Wilson lives a quiter life in NYC. Image: Getty.

Where is Mara Wilson now?

These days, Wilson lives in New York City, where she balances writing, voice acting and the occasional stage performance. Narrating audiobooks has become one of her favourite creative outlets.

"Most days, it's the best job I've ever had," she told AudioFile.

And while she's left Hollywood behind, Matilda will always be part of her story. Wilson still attends fan events like Comic-Con, where she's often reminded of the deep connection fans feel to her childhood roles.

Wilson has built a life that feels authentic to her — a life filled with new passions and causes, proving that there's so much more to her than the roles we grew up seeing her in. And claps to her for that.

Feature image: Getty.