Maria de Lourdes Villiers-Farrow, known as Mia Farrow is an American actress. Farrow has appeared in more than forty films and won numerous awards, including a Golden Globe award (and seven additional Golden Globe nominations), three BAFTA Film Award nominations, and a win for best actress at the San Sebastian International Film Festival. Farrow is also notable for her extensive humanitarian work as a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador. In 2008, she was selected by Time magazine as one of the most influential people in the world.

Farrow was born in Los Angeles, California, the daughter of Australian film director John Farrow and Irish actress Maureen O'Sullivan, and sister of actresses Tisa Farrow and Prudence Farrow. For the most part she grew up in Beverly Hills in Southern California, and often traveled with her parents for films that were produced on location. She made her film debut in a 1947 short subject with her mother; the short was about famous mothers and their children modeling the latest fashions for families.

Farrow screen-tested for the role of Liesl von Trapp in The Sound of Music. That footage has been preserved, and appears on the fortieth Anniversary Edition DVD of The Sound of Music. Farrow began her acting career by appearing in supporting roles in several 1960s films. However, she achieved stardom on the popular primetime soap opera Peyton Place as naive, waif-like Allison MacKenzie, a role she later abandoned at the urging of husband Frank Sinatra. Her first leading film role was in 1968's Rosemary's Baby, which was a major critical and commercial success at the time and continues to be widely regarded as a classic of the horror genre.

Farrow's performance in Rosemary's Baby garnered numerous awards, including the Golden Globe Award for New Star Of The Year - Actress, and established her as a leading actress. Film critic and author Stephen Farber described her performance as having an "electrifying impact… one of the rare instances of actor and character achieving a miraculous, almost mythical match". Film critic Roger Ebert noted that "the brilliance of the film comes more from Polanski's direction and from a series of genuinely inspired performances… The characters emerge as human beings actually doing these things. A great deal of the credit for this achievement must go to Mia Farrow, as Rosemary". Following Rosemary's Baby, Farrow was to be cast as Mattie in True Grit and was keen on the role. However, prior to filming she made Secret Ceremony in England with Elizabeth Taylor and Robert Mitchum. Farrow's other late '60s films include John and Mary, opposite Dustin Hoffman

In the 1970s, Farrow appeared in a number of notable films, including the 1971 thriller See No Evil, legendary French director Claude Chabrol's 1972 film Docteur Popaul, and the 1974 version of The Great Gatsby, in which Farrow played "Daisy Buchanan". She also appeared in director Robert Altman's cult classic A Wedding in 1978. Farrow also appeared in a number of made for television films in the 1970s, most notably portraying the title role in a 1976 musical version of Peter Pan. In 1979, Farrow appeared on Broadway opposite Anthony Perkins in the play Romantic Comedy by Bernard Slade.

In the 1980s and early '90s, Farrow's relationship with director Woody Allen resulted in numerous film collaborations. She appeared in nearly all of Allen's critically acclaimed films during this period, including leading roles in Hannah and Her Sisters (playing the title role of "Hannah"), The Purple Rose of Cairo, Broadway Danny Rose, and 1990s Alice, again as the title character. Farrow also played Alura, mother of "Kara" (Helen Slater), in the 1984 movie Supergirl and voiced the title role in 1982's animated film The Last Unicorn.

Citing the need to devote herself to raising her young children, Farrow worked less frequently during the '90s. Nonetheless, she appeared in leading roles in several notable films, included 1994's Widows' Peak (an Irish film) and the 1995 films, Miami Rhapsody and Reckless. She also appeared in several independent features and made for television films throughout the late 1990s and early 2000s. She also wrote an autobiography, What Falls Away (New York: Doubleday, 1997).

Farrow most recently appeared as "Mrs. Baylock", the Satanic nanny, in the 2006 remake of The Omen. Though the film itself received a lukewarm critical reception, Farrow's performance was widely praised, with the Associated Press declaring "thank heaven for Mia Farrow" and calling her performance "a rare instance of the new Omen improving on the old one." The Seattle Post-Intelligencer described her performance as "a truly delicious comeback role for Rosemary herself, Mia Farrow, who is chillingly believable as a sweet-talking nanny from hell."

Farrow has completed work on several films released in 2007, including the romantic comedy The Ex and the first part of director Luc Besson's planned trilogy of fantasy films, Arthur and the Invisibles. In February 2008, she appeared in director Michel Gondry's Be Kind Rewind, opposite Jack Black Mos Defand Danny Glover

Farrow has been a high profile advocate for children's rights, working to raise funds and awareness for children in conflict affected regions, predominantly in Africa. She is a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador and has worked extensively to draw attention to the fight to eradicate polio, which she survived as a child.