Barrymore's connection to acting runs deep. Her great-grandparents, Maurice Barrymore and Georgiana Drew, were celebrated stage actors in the late 1800s, and their children became legends in their own right: her grandfather John Barrymore was one of the most respected American actors of his era, while her great-uncle Lionel and great-aunt Ethel Barrymore both won Academy Awards. Her father, John Drew Barrymore, also acted, though he was largely absent from her childhood.
She was raised by her mother, Jaid Barrymore, and entered the business almost immediately. At eleven months old she appeared in her first television commercial, and she landed a small role in the 1980 film Altered States before she was old enough for kindergarten. Fame, in other words, was never a choice she made. It was the family inheritance.
Fame at Seven: E.T. and Child Stardom
Everything changed in 1982. Cast as Gertie, the little sister in Steven Spielberg's E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, Barrymore became a global star overnight. The film went on to become the highest-grossing movie of all time at that point, and Spielberg reportedly became her godfather. That same year, at age seven, she hosted Saturday Night Live, making her the youngest host in the show's history — a record she still holds.
The mid-1980s kept her busy. She played a child with dangerous pyrokinetic powers in Firestarter (1984), adapted from Stephen King's novel, and earned a Golden Globe nomination for Irreconcilable Differences (1984), a comedy-drama about a young girl trying to divorce her parents. The irony was hard to miss, and it foreshadowed what came next.
The Turbulent Teenage Years
Barrymore's childhood fame came with real damage. Taken to nightclubs by adults when she was still a child, she began smoking at nine, drinking shortly after, and using harder drugs in her early teens. At thirteen she was placed in a rehabilitation facility. A year later, she petitioned for and won legal emancipation from her parents — an extraordinary step for a fourteen-year-old, but one she has described as necessary for her survival.
Rather than disappearing, she confronted the story head-on. At fifteen, she published Little Girl Lost, a candid memoir co-written with Todd Gold that laid out her experiences in her own voice. That instinct — to own her narrative instead of letting others define it — would shape the rest of her career.
The 1990s Reinvention
Out of rehab and largely on her own, Barrymore worked steadily to shed the "fallen child star" label. Poison Ivy (1992), in which she played a seductive teenage femme fatale, marked a deliberate turn toward mature roles and became a cult hit. She earned another Golden Globe nomination for Guncrazy (1993) and took on the title role in the television movie The Amy Fisher Story the same year.
Supporting parts in major films followed: the western Bad Girls (1994), the ensemble drama Boys on the Side (1995), and a memorable cameo alongside Jim Carrey in Batman Forever (1995). Then came Scream (1996). Wes Craven's horror phenomenon opened with Barrymore's character, Casey Becker, receiving a phone call from a killer — a scene so shocking it revitalized the entire horror genre and announced that Barrymore was back, and back on her own terms.
Romantic Comedies, Charlie's Angels, and Flower Films
The late 1990s established Barrymore as a leading lady with a gift for warmth and comic timing. The Wedding Singer (1998) paired her with Adam Sandler for the first time, and their on-screen chemistry proved so popular that they reunited for 50 First Dates (2004) and Blended (2014). The same year, she starred in Ever After, a smarter, more grounded retelling of Cinderella that remains a fan favorite.
Crucially, Barrymore was building power behind the camera. In 1995 she co-founded Flower Films with her friend Nancy Juvonen, and the company produced many of her biggest hits, including Never Been Kissed (1999), the Charlie's Angels films (2000 and 2003), and He's Just Not That Into You (2009). Producing gave her creative control that child actors rarely get — and made her one of the few former child stars to become a genuine Hollywood executive.
In 2009 she made her directorial debut with Whip It, an underdog roller-derby drama starring Elliot Page, and delivered one of her most acclaimed performances as Little Edie Beale in the HBO film Grey Gardens. That role won her both a Golden Globe and a Screen Actors Guild Award.
Her later acting work included the Netflix comedy Santa Clarita Diet (2017–2019), in which she played a realtor who turns into a zombie with comic consequences, and voice roles in animated projects. By then, however, her center of gravity was shifting again.
The Drew Barrymore Show
In September 2020, Barrymore launched her daytime talk show on CBS — at the height of the pandemic, with no live studio audience. The format suits her. Rather than celebrity small talk, the show leans into empathy, human-interest stories, and segments like Drew's News, where she and guests riff on headlines. Her interviewing style is famously personal: she often cries, hugs, and shares her own struggles on air, which has made her a standout in a genre built on polish.
The show has run for multiple seasons and become a defining part of her public identity, proving that a woman who started performing at eleven months old could still find a new audience at forty-five.
Beauty, Wine, Books, and the Business Empire
Barrymore's entrepreneurial reach extends well past entertainment. In 2013 she launched Flower Beauty, a budget-friendly cosmetics line praised for delivering quality at drugstore prices, and she later expanded the Flower brand into home goods. Her wine label, launched in 2011, grew from a single Pinot Grigio into a broader collection.
She is also a published author several times over: Find It in Everything (2014), a photo book of heart shapes found in everyday scenes; Wildflower (2015), a warm collection of personal essays; and Rebel Homemaker (2021), a book of recipes and reflections. Together, these ventures reflect a consistent brand — approachable, optimistic, and a little unpolished on purpose.
Personal Life
Barrymore has been married three times: briefly to bar owner Jeremy Thomas in the mid-1990s, to actor-comedian Tom Green from 2001 to 2002, and to art consultant Will Kopelman, whom she married in 2012 and divorced in 2016. She and Kopelman have two daughters, Olive and Frankie. After the divorce, Barrymore moved to New York and has spoken openly about stepping back from heavy acting work to be present for her children — a priority that shaped her choice of the talk show, with its steady New York-based schedule.
Why Her Story Endures
Plenty of child stars fade or flame out. Barrymore did neither, and that is what makes her career unusual. She has been a blockbuster star, a tabloid cautionary tale, a romantic comedy lead, a producer, an award-winning actress, a director, and a talk show host — each chapter built on the ruins or successes of the last. Her appeal rests on something simple: she has never pretended to have it all figured out, and audiences have always sensed that. Few public figures have reinvented themselves as many times, or as successfully, as Drew Barrymore.