Meet Olivia Olson - the Love Actually star competing on The X Factor: Celebrity
All Olivia wants for Christmas is… a recording contract courtesy of Simon Cowell
The X Factor is (finally) back for 2019, but this year, prepare for something different.
Instead of our usual roll-call of desperate wannabes hoping to be Britain’s next big pop sensation, this time, 15 celebs will battle it out in front of the (now three) judges in a bid to win a recording contract courtesy of Simon Cowell.
Here’s all you need to know about Olivia Olson – the movie star hoping to shine on The X Factor: Celebrity.
Meet Olivia Olson
Age: 27
Famous for: Acting (primarily in Love Actually) and voiceover work
More like this
Twitter: @OliveOlson
Instagram: @oliviaroseolson
X Factor category: Unders
Where have I seen Olivia Olson before?
The California-based actor may not look immediately familiar – but she’s (actually) a fairly well-known face (and voice).
Olson is likely best-known for playing Joanna Anderson in Richard Curtis’s Christmas classic Love Actually – the young singer at the Nativity that blew crowds away with her rendition of Mariah Carey’s 'All I Want For Christmas Is You'.
While she bagged a singing spot on The Ellen Show and record companies tried to sign her following her breath-taking performance, Olson told Entertainment Weekly she didn’t feel ready to plunge full-time into music.
“Record companies were trying to sign me, but honestly, I just really wasn’t interested in it then. I’ve known since I was two years old that I wanted to be a singer, but I was 10 years old — what really would I be singing about?” she said.
“I was already writing songs, but they were like the songs that I heard on the radio, which were too old for my age. It wouldn’t have worked out. I just wanted to get some sort of life experience. Now, I’ve done high school. I’ve been normal. And I’m over it. Now, I’m trying to kick it into high gear and work on my music.”
She has also lent her voice to the punky and sarcastic Vanessa Doofenshmirtz in the popular cartoon Phineas and Ferb, as well as Marceline in adult-friendly cartoon Adventure Time.
More recent roles include Bliss in the recent Powerpuff Girls reboot, and reprising her role as Joanna for Red Nose Day Actually, Love Actually’s charity-based sequel.
Can Olivia Olson sing?
If her turn in Love Actually wasn't enough to convince you that Olson can really hold a tune, her YouTube channel, which consists of her cover tracks, may turn your head.
Olson also released her very first studio album, titled Nowhere Land, just last year.
The X Factor: Celebrity launches Saturday 12th October on ITV
