Liv Rundgren Tyler (born Liv Rundgren; July 1, 1977) is an American actress. She began her career as a model before making her film debut in Silent Fall (1994). She went on to receive critical recognition and attention after her starring roles in various films including Heavy (1995), Empire Records (1995), Stealing Beauty (1996), That Thing You Do! (1996), Inventing the Abbotts (1997), Armageddon (1998), Cookie's Fortune (1999) and One Night at McCool's (2001). She then appeared as Arwen Undómiel in the Lord of the Rings film trilogy (2001–2003), which became one of the highest-grossing film series of all time.
Tyler subsequently appeared in a variety of roles, including the films Jersey Girl (2004), Lonesome Jim (2005), Reign Over Me (2007), The Strangers (2008), Robot & Frank (2012), Space Station 76 (2014), Wildling (2018), and Ad Astra (2019). She has also starred as Betty Ross in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) films The Incredible Hulk (2008) and Captain America: Brave New World (2025). In television, she has starred in the HBO supernatural drama series The Leftovers (2014–2017), the BBC period drama Gunpowder (2017), Harlots (2018–2019) and the Fox series 9-1-1: Lone Star (2020).
Outside of film, Tyler has served as a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador for the United States since 2003, and has been a spokesperson for Givenchy's line of perfume and cosmetics. She is also notable as the daughter of Steven Tyler and Bebe Buell, although she has a very close relationship with her adoptive father Todd Rundgren. Tyler has also performed with composer Howard Shore and covered various songs including "Hey, That's No Way to Say Goodbye" and "Need You Tonight".
Early life
Tyler was born Liv Rundgren at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City on July 1, 1977. She is the only daughter of Bebe Buell, a model, singer, and former Playboy Playmate (Miss November 1974), and Steven Tyler, the lead singer of Aerosmith. Her mother named her after Norwegian actress Liv Ullmann, after seeing Ullmann on the cover of the March 5, 1977, issue of TV Guide. Her ancestry includes Italian (from her great-grandfather), Polish, German, English, Ukrainian, and African-American (from her paternal 4th great-grandfather). Tyler has three half-siblings: Mia Tyler (born 1978), Chelsea Anna Tyler Foster (née Tallarico; born 1989), and Taj Monroe Tallarico (born 1991). Her maternal grandmother, Dorothea Johnson, founded the Protocol School of Washington.
From 1972 to 1979, Buell lived with rock musician Todd Rundgren. In 1976, Buell became pregnant from a brief relationship with Steven Tyler. She gave birth on July 1, 1977, naming her daughter Liv Rundgren. Liv told People Magazine in 1992 that Rundgren was her "spiritual father". At the time of Liv's birth, Rundgren and Buell had ended their romantic relationship. Nevertheless, Rundgren signed Liv's birth certificate and acted as a father figure to her, including paying for her education. She maintains a close relationship with him. "I'm so grateful to him, I have so much love for him," she told Wonderland Magazine in 2009. "When he holds me it feels like Daddy. And he's very protective and strong."
At age 10 or 11, Liv met Steven Tyler. She suspected that he was her father when she observed the resemblance between him and herself. When she asked her mother about her paternity, the secret was revealed. The truth about Tyler's paternity did not become public until 1991, when Liv changed her surname from Rundgren to Tyler; she kept Rundgren as a middle name. Buell's stated reason for having claimed that Rundgren was Liv's father was that Tyler was heavily addicted to drugs at the time of Liv's birth. Liv has developed a close relationship with Steven. They have worked together professionally, once when Liv appeared in Aerosmith's music video for "Crazy" in 1993, and again when Aerosmith performed songs for the film Armageddon (1998), in which Liv starred.
Tyler attended the Congressional School of Virginia, Breakwater School, and Waynflete School in Portland, Maine, before returning to New York City with her mother at age 12. She went to York Preparatory in New York City for junior high and high school after her mother researched the school to accommodate Tyler's ADHD. She also attended the Crossroads School for Arts & Sciences in Santa Monica, California. She graduated from York in 1995 and left to continue her acting career. When asked about her youth, Tyler said: "For me, I didn't get much of a childhood in my teen years because I've been working since I was 14. But that also kept me out of trouble. When everybody was doing acid and partying like crazy, I was at work on a movie in Tuscany... having my own fun, of course, but it was a different kind of thing. I have no regrets. I love the way my life has gone."
Career
1991–1997: Early work
Tyler received her first modeling job at 14 with the assistance of Paulina Porizkova, who took pictures of her that ended up in Interview magazine. She later starred in television commercials. She became bored with her modeling career less than a year after it started and decided to go into acting, although she never took acting lessons. Tyler first became known to television audiences when she starred alongside Alicia Silverstone in the music video for Aerosmith's 1993 song "Crazy".
Tyler made her feature film debut in Silent Fall in 1994, where she played the elder sister of a boy with autism. In 1995, she starred in the comedy-drama Empire Records. Tyler has described Empire Records as "one of the best experiences" she has ever had. Soon after, she landed a supporting role in James Mangold's 1995 drama Heavy as Callie, a naive young waitress. The film received favorable reviews; critic Janet Maslin noted: "Ms. Tyler... gives a charmingly ingenuous performance, betraying no self-consciousness about her lush good looks."
Tyler's breakthrough role was in the arthouse film Stealing Beauty (1996), in which she played Lucy Harmon, an innocent, romantic teenager who travels to Tuscany, Italy, intent on losing her virginity. The film received generally mixed reviews, but Tyler's performance was regarded favorably by critics. Variety wrote: "Tyler is the perfect accomplice. At times sweetly awkward, at others composed and serene, the actress appears to respond effortlessly and intuitively to the camera, creating a rich sense of what Lucy is about that often is not explicit in the dialogue." Empire noted, "Liv Tyler (here radiantly resembling a ganglier young Ava Gardner) with a rare opportunity to enamour, a break she capitalizes on with composure." The film was directed by Bernardo Bertolucci, who chose Tyler for the role after meeting with a number of young girls in Los Angeles, including Tyler's music video co-star Alicia Silverstone. Bertolucci said "there was something missing in all of them". He later said that what he saw in Tyler was a gravitas he described as "a New York aura". During promotion of the film, Tyler said she wanted to separate herself from the character during production: "I tried my damnedest not to think of my own situation. But at one point, after a take, I just started to cry and cry. I remembered when I found out about my dad and how we just stared at each other from head to toe taking in every nook and cranny."
She later appeared in That Thing You Do! (1996), a movie about a fictional one-hit wonder rock band called The Oneders (renamed The Wonders), following their whirlwind rise to the top of the pop charts and, just as quickly, their plunge back to obscurity. The film was written and directed by Tom Hanks. It grossed over $25 million worldwide, and received favorable reviews. In 1997, she appeared in Inventing the Abbotts as the daughter of Will Patton and Barbara Williams' characters. The movie is based on a short story by Sue Miller. Entertainment Weekly declared Tyler's performance as "lovely and pliant". That same year, Tyler was chosen by People magazine…