Olivia Cooke's 10 Best Movies & TV Shows, Ranked (2025)

Olivia Cooke may be young, but she has had a streak of standout performances in the projects she has appeared in since beginning her acting career in 2012. Born and raised in the North West of England, Cooke was interested in acting and theater from a young age and successfully landed her first role in a television series before age 20. Since then, Cooke has grown from strength to strength, tackling increasingly challenging and complex performances and meeting the challenge head-on.

Shortly after landing her first acting gig, Cooke was offered a prominent role as Emma Decody in Bates Motel, where she appeared opposite star Freddie Highmore, who had already held several significant acting credits, and Vera Farmiga, an Oscar nominee. Despite the other talented actors on set, Cooke stood out for her performance and asserted her incredible talent and presence. Since the end of Bates Motel, Cooke has gone on to star in several major films and projects, as a rapidly rising star in Hollywood.

10 Ready Player One (2018)

Art3mis / Samantha

In the film adaptation of Ernest Cline's best-selling novel, Ready Player One, Cooke appears opposite Tye Sheridan, who plays Wade Watts, as his friend and biggest competition in the Oasis. Cooke is charming, confident, and bursting with personality in a role where she plays a young woman chasing a better life inside the virtual world of the Oasis. Like Wade, she is one of the all-time greatest players, and Cooke brings the character to life with intelligence, grace, and wit throughout.

Ready Player One

Adapted from Ernest Cline's novel of the same name, Ready Player One follows Wade Watts, an orphan who desperately wants to win a seemingly-impossible video game competition that would see him win ownership of the OASIS, a sophisticated virtual reality game that had revolutionized modern life. Helped by his friends and racing against time to find the hidden clues before the OASIS is claimed by an evil conglomerate, Wade's love of the game is put to the test.

9 The Limehouse Golem (2016)

Elizabeth Cree

The Limehouse Golem is a horror mystery film starring legendary British actor, Bill Nighy. The film sees Cooke step into the role of a grieving widow, but her performance is so much more complex and layered as the film follows a series of twists and turns, and it showcases her outstanding talents. Cooke's performance stands out among a highly talented cast. Her ability to deliver many different sides to a character and expand on a simple brief lifts this movie from being a hollow horror pic to something far greater.

8 Pixie (2020)

Pixie O'Brien

Pixie did not receive a wide release in the US, but it's a standout British heist film starring Cooke as the titular figure. When a young woman who sets out to avenge her mother's death, joins forces with two amateur criminals, the three embark on a wild and hilarious adventure. Cooke is the highlight of the film with her enigmatic performance, great sense of humor, and deadpan delivery. The premise isn't groundbreaking, but the performance makes it absolutely worth watching.

Pixie

Pixie is a 2021 crime comedy thriller directed by Barnaby Thompson. Set in rural Ireland, the film follows Olivia Cooke as Pixie O'Brien, who orchestrates a heist to avenge her mother's death. However, her plans are derailed, leading her to flee across the countryside with two accomplices, played by Ben Hardy and Daryl McCormack. They find themselves pursued by a volatile priest, portrayed by Alec Baldwin, and various criminal factions.

7 Thoroughbreds (2017)

Amanda

Thoroughbreds is a dark comedy movie starring Cooke and Anya Taylor-Joy as two young women who set out to creatively put an end to their individual issues. As Amanda, Cooke delivers an excellent deadpan performance as an emotionally numb young woman who acts pragmatically and is willing to go to any lengths to eliminate her issues, which Cooke delivers spectacularly. Once again, Cooke manages to be a stand-out among several talented actors and command any scene where she appears.

6 Me And Earl And The Dying Girl (2015)

Rachel

Me and Earl and the Dying Girl is an emotional dramedy independent film that won multiple awards at the Sundance Film Festival. Cooke plays Rachel, the dying girl from the title, who is diagnosed with leukemia. Her performance here is a significant shift from many of the other roles mentioned above, as the character is much more vulnerable, and through the film, she develops genuine feelings for Greg, who seeks to give her comfort in her time of need. She is still quirky and witty, but her ability to give an emotional performance is also on full display.

Me and Earl and the Dying Girl

Me and Earl and the Dying Girl centers on Greg (Thomas Mann), whose easygoing life of remaking movies with his friend Earl (RJ Cyler) takes a dramatic turn when he befriends Rachel (Olivia Cooke), a young girl with cancer. The film is based on Jesse Andrews' novel of the same name.

5 Vanity Fair (2018)

Becky Sharp

Vanity Fair is a limited series that starred Cooke as a brilliant young woman by the name of Becky Sharp. As always, Cooke pulls off a captivating and charming performance in this period drama as she infiltrates the highest parts of English Society during the height of the Napoleonic Wars. Cooke pulls together all of her considerable talents to play a multifaceted role which calls on her to exercise every emotion and convince not only the audience but also her peers on screen. Fortunately, thanks to her considerable talents, she does so with natural and simple grace.

4 Little Fish (2020)

Emma

In a world plagued by a memory-consuming virus, Cooke plays a concerned wife, whose husband is slowly losing his memories to the virus. Little Fish is a dramatic romance film with Cooke leading the project and shaping the emotional beats of the story. The film may be based on a fairly far-fetched concept, but Cooke's performance makes it feel incredibly grounded and real, as she seeks to secure the future by restoring the past. Emma's task is Herculean, but with a talented actress like Cooke in the driver's seat, the movie delivers.

Lou

Cooke appears opposite the leading man, Riz Ahmed in this heartfelt and emotional film about love and hearing loss. Cooke plays Lou, the girlfriend and lead singer to Ahmed's Ruben Stone. Once again, Cooke takes down the defenses and hard exterior that are present for several of her other characters to present a much more vulnerable young lady who is deeply concerned about her partner's wellbeing and mental health. The compassion and emotion that Cooke puts on for this performance are intense and raw, in a beautiful way that comes across as absolutely real.

Sound of Metal

Sound of Metal is an Amazon Original movie written and directed by Darius Marder. Starring Riz Ahmed, the plot follows the struggles of a drummer in a Metal band that ends up losing his hearing.

2 House Of The Dragon (2022 - Present)

Queen Alicent Hightower

The spin-off to the immensely popular Game of Thrones, House of the Dragon, explores the power struggles within the House of Targaryen. Cooke plays Alicent Hightower, who marries into House Targaryen to become the second wife of King Viserys I. Cooke delivers a measured performance, as nobility who must uphold and conduct themselves with an air of grace. The character is very different from many others in Cooke's repertoire, considering her usual tendency to play characters who are more free-spirited, sharp, and sarcastic, but Cooke is a professional and natural talent who makes the role appear perfectly natural.

House of the Dragon

1 Bates Motel (2013 - 2017)

Emma Decoda

Cooke's best performance has to come in one of her earliest projects. Emma Decoda is an ill young woman with lasting health conditions, but despite the physical weaknesses of her body, she stands out as the strongest character on the show. Throughout the five seasons of the horror movie inspired, Bates Motel, Olivia Cooke proves her ability to deliver dialogue with emotion, conveying strength in her words, frailness in her movements, and a will to overcome. All of this from someone who at the time had just entered the industry and begun working on bigger titles is too impressive to not be number one.

Bates Motel

Bates Motel is an A&E original series that acts as a contemporary prequel to Alfred Hitchcock’s 1960 horror classic, Psycho. The TV show centers on Norman Bates (Freddie Highmore), who, with his mother Norma (Vera Farmiga), move across the country and buy a motel. However, Norman’s psyche quickly begins to unravel as he struggles with his abnormal relationship with his mother.