Allison Howell Williams is an American actress, who is known for starring as Marnie Michaels on the HBOcomedy-drama series Girls, and for portraying Rose Armitage in the horror filmGet Out, the latter of which earned her critical acclaim.
In 2010, Williams performed a mashup of "Nature Boy" set to RJD2's "A Beautiful Mine", the theme song for the television series Mad Men. The YouTube video of the performance received widespread praise on the Internet, and convinced Judd Apatow that she should be given a part in the HBO seriesGirls. She was cast shortly after and credited her experience at Just Add Water for passing the audition. Girls premiered on April 15, 2012. Williams wrote a series of Funny or Diesketches, in which she starred as newlywed Kate Middleton, with English actor and model Oliver Jackson-Cohen as Prince William, Duke of Cambridge. She has appeared as a recurring character, Cheryl, in the CollegeHumor series Jake and Amir. On December 4, 2014 she starred in the title role on NBC's live television presentation of the musical Peter Pan Live!, opposite Christopher Walken as Captain Hook. In November 2016, Williams appeared in Past Forward, a short film collaboration between David O. Russell and Prada. Williams is an ambassador for Horizons National. She led the 2016 "10 Days of Giving" campaign to raise awareness and funds for the organization's educational goals and is expected to revisit this role in 2017. She has also done work with Product Red to fund HIV/AIDS programs in Africa, and is currently involved with the Transformational Prison Project as an advocate for criminal justice reform. She recently talked about her political views, advocacy, millennial activism, and women in Hollywood on the Politico podcast, Women Rule. In 2017, Williams starred in the horror film Get Out. She was cast in the film by director Jordan Peele, who became convinced she was right for the role of Rose after seeing her performance in Peter Pan Live!. The film received critical acclaim, and the performances of the acting ensemble and Williams were praised, earning her several awards and nominations. In the same year, Williams was cast in the role of Charlotte on the Netflix horror film, The Perfection, which was released on May 24, 2019. In 2018, she was cast in a recurring role as Kit Snicket throughout the second and third seasons of the Netflix comedy drama series A Series of Unfortunate Events. Williams will next star in the upcoming Swedish thriller film Horizon Line, set for release in 2020.
Personal life
Williams began dating Ricky Van Veen, co-founder of CollegeHumor, in 2011. They became engaged in 2014 and married on September 19, 2015 in a private ceremony in Saratoga, Wyoming. Tom Hanks officiated the ceremony. She and her husband lived in Chelsea, New York. On June 27, 2019, they issued a joint statement that they will be splitting up.
