Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen were born in 1986 and have been famous for their entire lives. They got started on Full House sharing the role of Michelle, but they quickly developed their own projects and made good use of their cuteness. The actresses always had a love for fashion and brought that into their brand while still children.
The fandom for Mary-Kate and Ashley has never really died down, and everyone wants to know all about the talented twins. There is so much to learn about their lives and careers; they're truly pop culture icons.
How Old Were Mary-Kate & Ashley When They Started Working On Full House?
Most fans of the Olsen twins know that they were just babies when they started Full House, and it's easy to see that much from watching the first season of the sitcom.
Ashley and Mary-Kate were six months old when they were chosen to play Michelle Tanner. Legend has it that the Olsens beat out nine other pairs of twins for the role, and the girls were nine months old in the first few episodes of Full House.
What Was Their Experience On The Full House Set Like?
The Olsen twins had a phenomenal "baby wrangler" and eventual studio teacher named Adria Later. Later worked on ET and was Steven Spielberg's favorite set teacher. Adria Later cared for the twins when they were babies, and once they could speak, she crouched off to the side and fed them their lines.
The twins would sometimes split episodes evenly. On a few occasions, they got to share the screen - a Greek cousin looked a lot like Michelle in season four, and an angel and a devil in Michelle's likeness appeared on her shoulder in season five, for example.
How Old Were Mary-Kate & Ashley When Full House Ended?
Mary-Kate and Ashley were eight years old when Full House's season finale aired. Some fans have never been satisfied with the two-part finale, which is focused on Michelle having amnesia after a horseback riding accident. The final bow was an emotional time for the whole cast, but the twins had plenty of other acting projects ahead of them.
How Many Movies Were The Twins In Together?
Technically, Mary-Kate and Ashley were in fifteen movies together. The only one where they were not the stars was Little Rascals in 1994; they each had a small cameo in a sleepover scene.
Most of the Olsens' film repertoire went straight to video, a few titles were TV movies, and a couple were theatrically released (It Takes Two in 1995 and New York Minute in 2004). The twins didn't take on many projects apart from one another.
How Long Did They Do Their Video Series?
The Olsen twins began their video series in 1993 with Our First Video and started their detective series, The Adventures of Mary-Kate & Ashley, in 1994.
Their You're Invited series began in 1995 and ended in 2000, outlasting the detective video programs by three years. By 2000, the twins had already begun their next phase of movies with Passport to Paris on video and Switching Goals on ABC in 1999.
How Many Television Shows Did They Have After Full House?
Mary-Kate and Ashley had two live-action shows and one animated series after Full House. Two of a Kind was another TGIF sitcom, premiering in 1998 and ending after one season in 1999. Next came So Little Time and Mary-Kate and Ashley in Action! from 2001 to 2002.
The former was a sitcom about the twins' characters' teenage lives, and the latter was an animated series in which the twins voiced special agent versions of themselves. Both twins made guest appearances on other shows, including 7th Heaven in 2000.
What Other Merchandise Did They Sell While Acting?
With the help of lawyer Robert Thorne, the twins created quite an empire in conjunction with their acting through Dualstar, their production company. Their The Adventures of Mary-Kate & Ashley videos were in a packaged deal with a book series by the same name. More books soon followed, and some aligned with other Olsen projects, like Two of a Kind.
With the help of a costume designer named Judy Swartz, Mary-Kate and Ashley focused on their budding interest in fashion and developed a line for Walmart. Clothes, shoes, accessories, body care products, and more flew off the shelves. The acting projects were cross-promotional with the twins' fan club and merchandise, thanks to commercials featured on the videos.
When Did They Stop Acting?
Ashley's last known acting project was in 2010, and Mary-Kate's was in 2011. In the late 2000s, the Olsens started to take on separate roles, distancing themselves from their long lineup of twin movies.
The last movie they did together was New York Minute in 2004. Mary-Kate had a few more credits in her last years of acting than Ashley, including an arc on Weeds in 2007.
Why Did They Stop Acting?
Ashley Olsen told Vogue in 2011, " I am so proud of what we did. We made kids smile every day. But we had done the most we could do." Mary-Kate added, "There was a fear...but also, an exhale." The twins were understandably paranoid from the paparazzi and press of Los Angeles and were so in love with their fashion endeavors.
From such young ages, the twins were heavily involved in their fashion lines. They took that dedication and launched their own brands, Elizabeth and James in 2007 and The Row in 2006.
What Are Their Lives Like Now?
Mary-Kate and Ashley live very private lives now, rarely giving interviews or appearing on camera. They continue to run their business in New York City and have shown no desire to return to acting, despite the nagging they experienced during Fuller House's run.
Fans wait for the twins outside The Row and clamor to photograph them stopping for a smoke break, but everyone hopes they'll sit down and talk about their lives if and when they're ready.