The House of the Dragon is back on our screens with its hotly anticipated third season after a two-year wait. Leading the hit Game of Thrones prequel is Olivia Cooke, known for her work on Line of Duty, Slow Horses and The Girlfriend, who plays the ambitious Alicent Hightower.
While Olivia is becoming an increasingly familiar face on our TV screens thanks to her flourishing acting career, how much do you know about her life away from the cameras?
Keep reading to find out all you need to know about Olivia's life off-screen, including her co-star boyfriend…
© Getty ImagesThe star began acting at eight years old
Olivia's acting career
Olivia, 31, started her career at the young age of eight, when she began performing in an after-school drama programme at the Oldham Theatre Workshop in Greater Manchester.
Destined for the screen, Olivia studied drama at Oldham Sixth Form College, leaving before the end of her A-levels to star in BBC's thriller Blackout in 2012.
Olivia left school before completing her A-levels and while she narrowly missed out on a place at Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) after making it to the final round of auditions, she soon landed a plethora of roles in television after Blackout.
© ITVOlivia played Becky in period drama Vanity Fair
Olivia's TV and film credits
Following her first listed role in Blackout, alongside Christopher Eccleston, Olivia went on to star in The Secret of Crickley Hall (2012), before her breakout role as Emma Decody in the hit show Bates Motel.
From there, Olivia took on many more roles, from Rachel in Me and Earl and the Dying Girl (2015) and Samantha in Steven Spielberg's Ready Player One to Becky Sharp in Vanity Fair (2018) and Lou in Sound of Metal (2019).
© HBOShe stars as Alicent Hightower in House of the Dragon
In recent years, she's established herself as a household name in the industry, starring in the Oscar-nominated Sound of Metal (2020), the hit TV series Slow Horses and the Game of Thrones spin-off series House of the Dragon, where she plays Alicent Hightower.
© Dave J Hogan/Getty ImagesThe young actress worked with legendary director Steven Spielberg in Ready Player One
Life off-screen
At the age of 22, Olivia told The Guardian she had a "full mental breakdown".
Attributing her melancholy to a "cocktail" of factors – including being homesick, feeling lonely and not having stopped working since she was 18 – she admits she used work as an escape.
"It was bad, bad. Awful, actually," she told The Guardian, admitting she worked all the way through it. "I was very good at hiding it." Shooting both Ready Player One and Thoroughbreds at the time, she said: "If anything, I was like, let me escape myself."
Olivia's mental health gradually improved over time, and a significant turning point was moving back to London from New York in early 2020. "Being in London, I just felt like I'd come home," she said.
In a recent interview, Olivia revealed that she's suffered with impostor syndrome in the past. "I've had huge impostor syndrome," she told The Telegraph. "But now I'm 32, my career is okay, I'm in a stable place, I've had lots of therapy, and only this year have I been able to say: 'Olivia, just rest.'
© Getty ImagesOlivia previously dated Girls star Christopher Abbott
Olivia's relationship status
While she was in New York, Olivia lived with her then-boyfriend Christopher Abbott (who played Charlie in Girls). Breaking up just before the pandemic, Olivia said it was "another reason to come home".
© Getty Images for Ralph LaurenShe's now reportedly dating her House of the Dragon co-star
Who is Olivia's co-star boyfriend?
As of summer 2025, Olivia is reported to be in a relationship with her House of the Dragon co-star, Ralph Davis, whom she is believed to have met on the show.
In 2024, the pair were spotted hanging out as friends in Soho, and in July of the same year, the actress shared photos of them on holiday together.
In July 2025, they publicly confirmed their relationship by attending Wimbledon together and were photographed kissing.
