Maggie Gyllenhaal recently received rave reviews, a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress, a National Board of Review Award for "Breakthrough Performance" and an IFP/Gotham Breakthrough Performance Award for her starring role opposite James Spader in Secretary directed by Steven Shainberg. Other recent appearances include Spike Jonze's Adaptation with Nicolas Cage and Penny Marshall's Riding In Cars With Boys with Drew Barrymore, both Columbia Pictures releases.

Gyllenhaal also appeared in John Sayles' Casa De Los Babys with Daryl Hannah and Lily Taylor and Lodge Kerrigan's indie In God's Hands with Peter Sarsgaard.

Also accomplished on stage, Gyllenhaal starred as Alice in Patrick Marber's award-winning "Closer" at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles for director Robert Egan, and prior to that, at the Berkeley Repertory Theatre. This fall she appeared in Tony Kushner's "Homebody/Kabul," also at the Mark Taper Forum. She has also appeared in "Anthony and Cleopatra" at the Vanborough Theatre in London.

Gyllenhaal made her feature film debut in 1992 alongside Jeremy Irons and Ethan Hawke in Waterland. This was followed by a memorable performance as Raven, the Satan-worshipping make-up artist in John Waters' quirky Hollywood satire Cecil B. Demented, which led her to a co-starring role in Donnie Darko, a fantasy-thriller about disturbed adolescence.

In 1999, Gyllenhaal graduated from Columbia University where she had studied Literature and Eastern Religion.