When dancer-turned-model-turned-actress Margaret Qualley attended the Golden Globe Awards this week alongside her dad, many people did a double take.
There was something familiar about her date, but few realised Qualley’s parents were famous in their own rights; her dad was a former model while her mother is beloved Hollywood actress Andie MacDowell.
Now the 30-year-old, who has been making her mark on Tinseltown for more than a decade, is proving once and for all she is much more than her ‘nepo baby’ tag after her appearance opposite Demi Moore in the award-winning film The Substance.
READ MORE: Why rom com queen Andie MacDowell quit Hollywood for her kids
Who is Margaret Qualley?
Sarah Margaret Qualley was born in the US state of Montana on October 23, 1994.
Qualley is the third child of former model Paul Qualley and actress Andie MacDowell.
The two met when they appeared in an advertising campaign for Gap and married in 1986 – two years after movie producers cast MacDowell in her first movie role as Jane in the the 1984 film Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes.
Qualley has an older sister Rainey, a musician, and an older brother Justin, who is a Montana real estate agent.
READ MORE: Eli Wallach’s illustrious Hollywood career before The Holiday
The family based themselves on a sprawling 457-acre ranch while MacDowell travelled back and forth for movie roles.
In 1998, the family moved to North Carolina to be closer to MacDowell’s family but divorced a year later when Qualley was just five.
Despite their divorce, both parents maintained a strong presence in their children’s lives, living close to each other other in the town of Asheville.
‘Normal’ childhood
While MacDowell continued to act in movies and on TV throughout the 2000s, she has said her main role was motherhood and she wanted to give her children a normal upbringing.
Qualley told The Evening Standard in 2023 that while she always knew her mother was an actress, she was ‘really lucky’ to enjoy a ‘normal life.’
“It’s weird. It was a strange thing but then I did go to a normal school, [had] normal friends, and have a somewhat normal life,” she said.
“Then my mum would go off and do movies and sometimes I’d go with her and sometimes I’d meet, like, Gérard Depardieu.”
A start in dancing and modelling
Qualley started dancing at a young age and told The London Standard she would travel across the state to take part in jazz dancing competitions.
“I loved dancing that way and loved dance competitions,” she said.
In her early teens she decided to switch to ballet “because it was much more respected.” Despite the late start, she excelled enough to leave home at 14 to board at North Carolina School of the Arts.
At 16, she moved to New York to study dance but quit soon after. Eager to convince her mother to allow her to stay in New York, she followed in her parents’ footsteps and found work as a model.
Then known as Sarah Margaret Qualley, her modelling career took off after she made her debut at New York Fashion Week in 2011, where she modelled for Alberta Ferretti.
By the following year she walked for Valentino and Chanel at Paris Fashion Week.
She appeared in numerous magazines, including Teen Vogue, Elle, Harper’s Bazaar and Vogue Australia, and scored modelling campaigns for Kenzo, Ralph Lauren, Kate Spade, Celine and Chanel.
From the stage and catwalk to the screen
She told The London Standard her interest in acting only came about after she tagged along with a boyfriend to an acting class.
Qualley’s first acting role was in the 2013 Gia Coppola film Palo Alto.
She reportedly won the small role of Raquel after visiting her then-boyfriend, Nat Wolff, on the film set.
The following year, she won a role in the cable drama series The Leftovers, opposite Justin Theroux, who played her dad. She ended up appearing in three seasons of the show.
Her next film credit was in the 2016 Ryan Gosling and Russell Crowe film The Nice Guys.
The following year she was in two films that premiered at The Sundance Film Festival.
A host of roles followed. She was nominated for both a Primetime Emmy Award and Critics’ Choice Television Award for the 2019 mini series Fosse/Verdon.
She was also part of the ensemble cast nominated for a Screen Actors Guild (SAG) Award for the 2019 Quentin Tarantino film Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.
She starred opposite her mother in the 2021 Netflix limited-episode series Maid.
Both received Golden Globe Award nominations while Qualley was also nominated for a SAG.
Qualley has amassed a long list of credits in movies and TV shows.
Most recently, she starred opposite Demi Moore and Dennis Quaid in The Substance.
She also continues to model and is an ambassador for French fashion house Chanel.
For a daily dose of 9honey, subscribe to our newsletter here
Relationship history
Qualley was linked to Pete Davidson in 2019.
The following year she started dating actor Shia LaBeouf after they co-starred in sister Rainey’s music video.
Their relationship ended in 2021, around the time LaBeouf was accused of assaulting former girlfriend FKA Twig.
Qualley is married to singer/songwriter and record producer Jack Antonoff.
It is not known how Qualley and Antonoff met, but they were first spotted eating ice-cream on a date in Brooklyn in August 2021.
Their first public appearance was in March 2022 at the AFI Awards Luncheon in Los Angeles.
That year they also attended the Critic Choice Awards, where Qualley was nominated for best actress. She was his date the following month at the Grammy Awards.
Qualley was spotted wearing a diamond ring on ‘that’ finger in May. People later confirmed their engagement.
They married at a star-studded ceremony in New Jersey on August 19, 2023.
Qualley chose a plunging white halter neck dress by Chanel, which she paired with Chanel flats. Her hair was styled in a chic bob and she wore crystal drop earrings.
The guest list included her parents and siblings, musicians Taylor Swift and Lana Del Rey, Channing Tatum, Zoë Kravitz and Cara Delevingne.
Del Rey wrote the song Margaret about Qualley for her 2023 album Did You Know That There’s a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd.
The lyrics reveal the couple, who live in New York, met “on our rooftop.”
Antonoff was meant to be Qualley’s date at this week’s Golden Globe Awards ceremony but she revealed her father stepped because her husband was unwell.
FOLLOW US ON WHATSAPP HERE: Stay across all the latest in celebrity, lifestyle and opinion via our WhatsApp channel. No comments, no algorithm and nobody can see your private details.