Zelda Williams

Actor / Producer / Writer / Director

Birthdate – July 31, 1989 (34 Years Old)

Birthplace – New York City, New York    

Zelda Williams (birthname: Zelda Rae Williams), the daughter of the late comic genius Robin Williams, has emerged in her own right as a busy, multi-faceted actor-director-writer-producer. Williams debuted as a child and teen actor in small roles opposite her father in Nine Months (1995) starring Hugh Grant and David Duchovny’s House of D (2004), and then Williams landed her first major supporting role in director/writer/producer Tom Gustafson’s musical fantasy on gay empowerment, Were the World Mine (2008).

Williams was cast by Hong Kong genre master Fruit Chan in his English-language terror movie, Don’t Look Up (2009), co-written by Hideo Nakata and starring Brian Cox, and then Williams landed a small role in director-writer-producer Adam Mason’s horror movie, Luster (2010). Zelda Williams had a bigger supporting role in another horror movie, Detention (2010), with David Carradine, followed by Williams appearing in director-writer-producer Lee Roy Kunz’s indie comedy, The Frankenstein Brothers (2010).

After a small role in the little-seen comedy, Noobz (2012), with Jason Mewes and Caspar Van Dien, Williams earned her first starring role in writer-director Brett Allen Smith’s indie drama, Never (2014), with Zachary Booth. Williams co-starred under writer-director Stephen Kemp’s helming in the thriller, Girl in the Box (2016), and then joined writer-director Eric Bilitch’s Los Angeles-set indie comedy, Locating Silver Lake (2018).

Zelda Williams launched her career as a cinema-based filmmaker with the short, Shrimp (2018), in which she also co-starred, and which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival. After directing several music videos and TV episodes, Williams was then the director of another short, the sorority-horror Kappa Kappa Die (2020).

Switching back to acting in features, Williams portrayed Portia in the Shakespeare-tinged Julius Caesar Live! (2022), and then returned to the horror genre with a co-starring role in co-writers-directors Matt Leslie’s and Stephen J. Smith’s Don’t Open the Door (date to be announced). Zelda Williams’ breakthrough as a feature filmmaker arrived with the horror comedy, Lisa Frankenstein (2024), marking her debut as a feature director, with Kathryn Newton, Cole Sprouse, Liza Soberano, and Carla Gugino, and released by Focus Features/Universal Pictures.

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Personal Details

Zelda Williams was born and raised in New York City by her late father and famed actor-comedian Robin Williams and Marsha Garces Williams, who is of Filipino and Finnish descent and is Robin’s second wife. Zelda Williams has one younger brother, Cody, and an older half-brother (from her father’s first wife), named Zachary Williams. Williams was in a relationship with Australian actor Jackson Heywood from 2013 to 2016. Williams identifies as bisexual. Williams’s height is 5’ 4”. Williams’s estimated net worth is $20 million.

Filmography

Lisa Frankenstein

(2024)

Nikki ()

Some Facts About Zelda Williams

What’s In a Name?: Zelda Williams’s first name was Robin Williams’s idea—it comes from the character Princess Zelda in the video game series, “The Legend of Zelda.”

Pastimes: Williams enjoys engaging in sports and athletics, as well as playing video games.

 

Awards

Winner, Breakthrough Voice Actor of the Year, Behind the Voice Actors Awards (2015).