Maggie May Baird is an American actress, singer-songwriter, screenwriter, and climate activist, born on March 29, 1959, in Fruita, Colorado.
She is widely recognized as the mother of Grammy-winning musicians Billie Eilish and Finneas O’Connell.
Baird grew up in a musical household, learning piano and guitar as a teenager, and graduated from Fruita Monument High School in 1977.
She studied theater and dance at the University of Utah, earning a BFA, before pursuing performance opportunities in New York City and later Los Angeles.
In 1995, she married actor Patrick O’Connell, whom she met while rehearsing for a play in Alaska in 1984. The couple has two children: Finneas, born in 1997, and Billie Eilish, born in 2001.
Siblings
Maggie has one sibling, an older brother named Brian Norton Baird.
Born on March 7, 1956, in Chama, New Mexico, Brian is a former Democratic politician who represented Washington’s 3rd congressional district in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1999 to 2011.
He later served as president of Antioch University Seattle. The siblings share parents Edith “Edie” Shaw Baird and William “Bill” Norton Baird.
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Career
Baird began her professional acting career in the early 1980s with a role in the soap opera Another World in 1981. She later appeared on As the World Turns and made her film debut in An Innocent Man in 1989.
After moving to Los Angeles in 1991, she took on guest roles in television series including L.A. Law, Murphy Brown, Picket Fences, The X-Files (as Sharon Pearl), Six Feet Under, Bones, and others.
She was a member and teacher at The Groundlings improvisational comedy troupe from 1994 to 2000, working alongside performers such as Will Ferrell, Kristen Wiig, and Melissa McCarthy.
Baird has also contributed voice work to video games, notably voicing the asari Samara in the Mass Effect series and characters in Saints Row and other titles.
In 2009, she released her debut studio album, We Sail, a country-influenced record.
A career highlight came in 2013 when she co-wrote and starred in the independent film Life Inside Out alongside her son Finneas.
The project, which she also co-produced and helped finance through crowdfunding, explores themes of family and music.
She has additionally edited music videos for her daughter, including “Six Feet Under,” and continues to support her children’s careers while engaging in activism and occasional acting and producing work.
Accolades
Baird’s primary formal recognition centers on her work with Life Inside Out.
The film earned the Crystal Heart Award for Dramatic Feature and Best Premiere at the 2013 Heartland International Film Festival.
In 2014, it received further honors including the Cox Audience Award at the Phoenix Film Festival, Best Narrative Feature at the San Luis Obispo International Film Festival, the Reel Rose Award for Best Feature Length Screenplay and the Peoples Festival Award at the John Paul II International Film Festival, the Blue Glass Award for Best Music (Original Score and Songs) at the Blue Whiskey Independent Film Festival, and audience awards at festivals such as the Lighthouse International Film Festival.
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