Who

The sister of Jake, Gyllenhaal is an indie actress, vocal liberal, and a recent émigré to baby-crazed Park Slope.

Backstory

Born in New York to showbiz parents Stephen Gyllenhaal (a director) and Naomi Foner (a screenwriter), Gyllenhaal grew up in LA and started acting professionally at 15, getting bit parts in feature films thanks to her director dad. After graduating Columbia, she had unremarkable roles in films like Riding in Cars with Boys and Cecil B. Demented, before attracting attention appearing alongside her brother in 2001's Donnie Darko. But it was her breakthrough performance as a masochistic executive assistant in the pervy 2002 movie Secretary that put her on the map: Soon afterwards, Gyllenhaal landed supporting roles in John Sayles's Casa de Los Babys, Spike Jonze's Adaptation, and chick flick Mona Lisa Smile with Julia Roberts and Kirsten Dunst.

In recent years, Gyllenhaal has continued along the well-worn indie path with The Great New Wonderful and Sherrybaby, but she made a bid for more mainstream attention with her role in Oliver Stone's big budget tearjerker World Trade Center. More recently, she appeared opposite Will Ferrell in the absurdist 2006 comedy Stranger than Fiction, and appeared as Batman's love interest in 2008's The Dark Knight.

On the side

She's lent her offbeat beauty to a 2004 Terry Richardson-lensed series of ads for fashion house Miu Miu, and in 2007 appeared minimally-clothed in a campaign for Agent Provocateur lingerie.

Family ties

Maggie's brother is, of course, the slightly-more-famous actor Jake Gyllenhaal; the two appeared together as brother and sister in Donnie Darko. She's denied any competitiveness between the two, saying "At this point, it's like we're old enough that rivalry seems kind of a waste of time."

Personal

Gyllenhaal married actor Peter Sarsgaard in 2006 and their daughter Ramona was born the following October. They live in a $1.75 million, 3,600 square-foot Park Slope brownstone. The four-story house has a leafy rear garden and seven marble-mantled fireplaces.