Drew Barrymore

Drew Blythe Barrymore, born February 22, 1975, in Culver City, California, is an American actress, producer, talk show host, and businesswoman. She came of age in and around Los Angeles, inside one of the best-known acting families in American entertainment. Her father, John Drew Barrymore, and her mother, Jaid Barrymore, were actors, and her paternal grandparents and great-grandparents were actors as well. Through that family line she was connected to John Barrymore, Dolores Costello, Lionel Barrymore, Ethel Barrymore, and the Drew family of the stage.

Barrymore became famous very young. She appeared in a dog food commercial at eleven months old, made her film debut with a small role in Altered States, and then played Gertie in E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial in 1982. Steven Spielberg, her godfather, felt she had the imagination for the role after she impressed him with a story about leading a punk rock band. The film became the highest-grossing movie of the 1980s and made her one of the most famous child actors of the time. At seven, she also became the youngest person to guest-host Saturday Night Live.

Her early success continued with Firestarter in 1984, in which she played a girl with pyrokinesis, and Irreconcilable Differences, which brought her first Golden Globe nomination. But childhood stardom came with heavy strain. After her parents divorced in 1984, Barrymore grew up between West Hollywood and Sherman Oaks. In the wake of sudden fame, she endured a troubled childhood, became a regular at Studio 54 as a young girl, and was widely covered by the media for nightlife and partying. At thirteen she was placed in rehab and spent eighteen months at Van Nuys Behavioral Health Hospital. A suicide attempt at fourteen led to another rehab stay, followed by three months with David Crosby and his wife, who said she needed to be around people committed to sobriety. After a successful juvenile court petition, she moved into her own apartment at fifteen.

Barrymore wrote about this period in Little Girl Lost, her 1990 memoir and one of her New York Times bestselling books. The book also recounted early memories of her abusive father, who left the family when she was six months old and with whom she never had a significant relationship. These facts give plain context to one of the lines often associated with her: “In the end, some of your greatest pains become your greatest strengths.” In her case, the words sit close to the public record, not as polish over hardship, but as a way of naming survival.

As an adult, Barrymore established herself as a Hollywood leading actress with roles in Poison Ivy, Boys on the Side, and Scream. She starred in The Wedding Singer and 50 First Dates with Adam Sandler, appeared in Batman Forever, Donnie Darko, and He’s Just Not That Into You, and led the Charlie’s Angels films released in 2000 and 2003. She won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Television Film for playing Edith Bouvier Beale in HBO’s Grey Gardens, played Sheila Hammond on Netflix’s Santa Clarita Diet from 2017 to 2019, and began hosting The Drew Barrymore Show in 2020.

Beyond acting, Barrymore founded Flower Films, starred in several of its projects, and made her directorial debut with Whip It in 2009. She later launched cosmetics under the Flower banner in 2013, along with ventures in wine, homeware, and clothing. Her books include the memoir Little Girl Lost and the photobook Find It in Everything. With a Golden Globe Award, an Emmy Award, an Actor Award, and a place on Time’s 2023 list of the 100 most influential people in the world, Barrymore remains a public figure whose words resonate because they come from a life lived in public, tested early, and remade more than once.