2001–2008: Early work and music career Larson's first major role came as Emily, the younger daughter of
Bob Saget's character, in
the WB sitcom
Raising Dad, which aired for one season during the
2001–02 television schedule. Hal Boedeker of
Orlando Sentinel criticized the program and wrote that its cast members were "merrily joking through the show". She was next hired for the
ABC sitcom
Hope & Faith, but she and some other cast members were replaced after an unaired
pilot. In 2003, she starred alongside
Beverley Mitchell in the
Disney Channel film
Right on Track, based on the junior
drag race star sisters
Erica and
Courtney Enders, and played minor roles in the 2004 comedies
Sleepover and
13 Going on 30. Larson developed an interest in music at age eleven when she learned to play the guitar. A music executive encouraged her to write her own songs, and she began self-recording and uploading tracks to her own website. After failing to get cast as
Wendy Darling in the 2003 film
Peter Pan, Larson wrote and recorded a song titled "Invisible Girl", which received airplay on
KIIS-FM. In 2005, she released the album
Finally Out of P.E., for which she also co-wrote songs with other songwriters, including Blair Daly, Pam Sheyne,
Lindy Robbins, and
Holly Brook. She titled it after a gym teacher she disliked and has said the songs she wrote were mostly about failed job opportunities. Larson went on tour with
Jesse McCartney for
Teen Peoples "Rock in Shop" mall concerts, opened for him during his
Beautiful Soul tour, and also performed in New York City at the
Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. Even so, the album was not a success, selling only 3,500 copies. Larson later admitted to being disillusioned with her music career, saying, "I wanted to write all my own songs, and [the recording company] were afraid of that. I wanted to wear sneakers and play my guitarthey wanted heels and wind blown hair." She had a small part, the following year, in the
Amber Heard-starring drama
Remember the Daze, and she launched an arts and literature magazine,
Bunnies and Traps, for which she wrote her own opinion columns and accepted submissions from other artists and writers. Larson has said she frequently considered quitting acting at that point, as she found it difficult to find much work, blaming it on filmmakers' inability to
typecast her. To support herself, Larson worked as a club DJ.
2009–2014: Independent films and breakthrough In 2009, Larson began playing Kate Gregson, the sardonic teenage daughter of
Toni Collette's character, coping with her mother's
dissociative identity disorder, in the
Showtime comedy-drama series
United States of Tara.
Portia Doubleday was initially cast in the role but was replaced with Larson after filming the pilot episode. Reviewing the first season for
The New York Times,
Alessandra Stanley took note of how well Larson played a "real teenager" and Tim Goodman of the
San Francisco Chronicle credited her for finding nuance in her role. Larson has said that her character's journey to find meaning in life mirrored that of her own, and she was upset when the show was canceled after three seasons in 2011. Also in 2009, she starred alongside
Rooney Mara in
Tanner Hall, a coming-of-age film about four girls in boarding school. Despite disliking the film, Betsy Sharkey of the
Los Angeles Times commended Larson for providing "one of the film's funniest bits". In her two other film releases that year, she played a scatterbrained cheerleader in
House Broken and a popular high schooler in
Just Peck. '' in 2010 At the
Williamstown Theatre Festival in 2010, Larson appeared in a stage production of
Thornton Wilder's play
Our Town. Directed by Nicholas Martin, it featured her in the role of Emily Webb, a precocious young girl. Reviewing the play for
The Boston Globe, Louise Kennedy thought the production had glossed over the play's darker themes and bemoaned the lack of tragic arc in Larson's character. In film, she featured in
Noah Baumbach's comedy-drama
Greenberg and
Edgar Wright's comedy
Scott Pilgrim vs. the World. A journalist for
Slant Magazine opined that these films helped raise her profile, and Larson has said the latter film, in which she played a rock star named Envy Adams, marked a turning point in her career. In it, Larson performed the song "Black Sheep" with the band
Metric. Although it did not fare well commercially,
Scott Pilgrim vs. the World has since developed a
cult following. She next played the troubled daughter of a corrupt cop (played by
Woody Harrelson) in the drama
Rampart (2011), an emotionally intense part she found herself unable to detach from. A confrontation scene between Harrelson and her proved upsetting for her; the director was surprised by how well it turned out and tweaked the script to further explore the father-daughter relationship. In 2012, Larson expanded into filmmaking by co-writing and co-directing the short film
The Arm with Jessie Ennis and
Sarah Ramos. The film, about societal expectations in the near future, won a special jury prize at the
Sundance Film Festival. after which she played Molly, a high school student, in
21 Jump Street, an adaptation of the 1980s police procedural
television series, co-starring
Jonah Hill and
Channing Tatum. Larson found her acting style to be more rigid than Hill's approach and was challenged by scenes that required her to improvise with him.
Dana Stevens of
Slate labeled Larson "a find of major proportions", adding that "she's not only beautiful but funny, with a scratchy contralto voice, and unlike the usual female in a buddy movie, she comes across as a real person". With a worldwide gross of over $200 million,
21 Jump Street proved to be Larson's most widely seen film to that point. '' at the 2013
South by Southwest Following an appearance in the sitcom
Community, Larson collaborated with Dustin Bowser to co-write and co-direct
Weighting (2013), a short film about a strained relationship, which was screened at
South by Southwest. Larson's breakthrough came in the same year when she starred in
Destin Daniel Cretton's critically acclaimed independent drama
Short Term 12, which marked the first leading role of her career. Set in a
group home for troubled teenagers, the film featured her as Grace, the emotionally distressed supervisor of the institution. To prepare, Larson interacted with staff in a children's home and watched online interviews of people with similar jobs. The film had a production budget of under $1 million, and she was pleased with its intimate and collaborative work environment. Larson's performance was acclaimed by critics.
Manohla Dargis of
The New York Times found her "terrific" and "completely persuasive", and
Ian Freer of
Empire stated that she "builds into a whirling dervish of a performance, making Grace strong but scarred, damaged but compassionate". Jenny McCartney of
The Daily Telegraph predicted that it would "[mark] her out for a stellar career". Larson received a nomination for the
Independent Spirit Award for Best Female Lead; she later remarked that the film prompted directors to offer her a wide variety of parts, but she turned down roles of the unidimensional love interest. Also in 2013, Larson had supporting roles in two romantic dramas,
Don Jon and
The Spectacular Now. In the former, written and directed by
Joseph Gordon-Levitt, she played the sister of Don Jon (played by Gordon-Levitt).
Peter Travers of
Rolling Stone praised the film's exploration of sexual themes and found Larson to be "terrific" in it. In
The Spectacular Now, starring
Miles Teller and
Shailene Woodley, she played Cassidy, the ex-girlfriend of Teller's character. Larson was drawn to the realism she found in the project's depiction of high school experiences. The 2014 crime drama
The Gambler, based on the 1974
film of the same name, featured Larson as a literature student who has an affair with her professor (played by
Mark Wahlberg), a gambling addict. The director
Rupert Wyatt felt the role was underwritten and cast Larson to lend heft to it. Even so,
Claudia Puig of
USA Today wrote that the "talented Larson is given little to do, other than react".
2015–2019: Established actress Larson had three film releases in 2015. Her first appearance was in
Digging for Fire, a largely improvised ensemble comedy-drama featuring
Jake Johnson in the lead role. Filming took place without a script and Larson made several on-set decisions regarding her character's choices, including the removal of a planned romantic subplot involving her and Johnson. She next played the sister of
Amy Schumer's character in the comedy
Trainwreck, which was loosely based on Schumer's own life. Larson modeled her role on Schumer's sister, who served as an associate producer on the film. Tim Grierson of
Screen International labeled the film "a deft blend of laughs, romance and poignancy" and found Larson to be "lively, [but] slightly underused".
Trainwreck grossed over $140 million against a $35 million budget. Larson then starred in
Room, a film adaptation of
Emma Donoghue's
novel of the same name. It featured her as Ma, a young woman held in captivity, who bears a child of rape. The role proved physically and emotionally taxing for her, and she modeled it on her mother's struggle as a single parent. She interacted with specialists on sexual abuse and researched the lack of nutrition that a person in captivity would suffer. Larson collaborated closely with co-star
Jacob Tremblay, who played her son, and spent time performing activities that mirrored those of their characters.
Room was critically acclaimed, with major emphasis on the performances of Larson and Tremblay.
Kenneth Turan of the
Los Angeles Times called her performance "astonishing", stating that the "reality and preternatural commitment she brings to Ma is piercingly honest from start to finish, as scaldingly emotional a performance as anyone could wish for". She won several awards, including the
Academy Award for Best Actress, as well as a
Golden Globe and
BAFTA in the same category. '' in 2017 Following the success of
Room, Larson played a leading role in
Free Fire (2016), an action-comedy about a shootout in a warehouse. She agreed to the project to call attention to
gun violence. Commercially, the film failed to recoup its $7 million investment. She had filmed a part in
Todd Solondz's comedy
Wiener-Dog, but her scenes were deleted from the final cut as Solondz found her character inessential to the story. The following year, Larson starred alongside
Tom Hiddleston and
Samuel L. Jackson in the second installment of the
MonsterVerse franchise, entitled
Kong: Skull Island. Shot in Vietnam, the film featured her as a photojournalist in the 1970s. It marked her first mainstream big-budget release, and while she was glad to play a role not defined by her looks, she bemoaned the lack of female co-stars.
Kong: Skull Island was a commercial success, grossing over $566 million worldwide. Later in 2017, Larson portrayed
Jeannette Walls in
The Glass Castle, an adaptation of Walls'
memoir, which reunited her with Destin Daniel Cretton. It tells the story of a young woman's relationship with her nonconformist parents (played by
Woody Harrelson and
Naomi Watts). Larson was drawn to the complex depiction of a parent-child relationship and identified with its theme of forgiveness. She collaborated closely with Walls and her siblings and observed their mannerisms.
Peter Bradshaw of
The Guardian disliked the film's sentimentality but noted that "it is saved, just a little, by the robustness of Brie Larson's presence". Also poorly received was the India-set musical romance
Basmati Blues, a project she had filmed in 2013, which received criticism on social media for its
white savior narrative. The
2017 Toronto International Film Festival marked the release of Larson's feature film directorial debut, the comedy-drama
Unicorn Store, in which she also starred. It was later picked for digital distribution by
Netflix in 2019. She played a disillusioned art student fascinated with unicorns. Larson had unsuccessfully auditioned in 2012 to star in the film when
Miguel Arteta was attached to direct. After the production was stalled, Larson was offered to direct and star in it. David Ehrlich of IndieWire disliked the film but took note of Larson's potential as a filmmaker. '' in 2019 After a year-long absence from the screen, Larson starred as
Carol Danvers / Captain Marvel in the
Marvel Cinematic Universe superhero film
Captain Marvel (2019), which marked
Marvel Studios' first female-led film. She was initially skeptical about taking on such a high-profile role, but later accepted the part after viewing it as a platform to empower young women and found a connection with the character's flaws and humanity.
Stephanie Zacharek of
Time wrote that "Larson, a perceptive, low-key actor, carries the whole affair capably" and took note of how much she stood out in the film's quieter moments; David Sims of
The Atlantic bemoaned the lack of depth in her role, but credited the actress for effectively portraying her character's struggle for independence from authoritarian men. Larson reprised her role in
Avengers: Endgame, which she had filmed before
Captain Marvel.
Endgame grossed $2.79 billion worldwide to briefly become the
highest-grossing film of all time, and
Captain Marvel became the first female-led superhero film to gross over $1 billion worldwide. Also in 2019, Larson teamed with Destin Daniel Cretton for the third time in
Just Mercy, based on
Bryan Stevenson's memoir about death row inmate
Walter McMillian's wrongful conviction, starring
Michael B. Jordan and
Jamie Foxx. She agreed to take on the supporting part of Eva Ansley, an advocate for the
Equal Justice Initiative, to lend her support to Cretton's storytelling.
Owen Gleiberman of
Variety took note of how well she channeled her character's "antsy, cigarette-smoking defensiveness."
2020–present: brief hiatus and career expansion During the
COVID-19 pandemic, Larson took a break from acting, stating that the roles she was being offered were variations of the one she played in
Room. Feeling the need to recalibrate, she instead focused on personal interests such as
podcasting and
vlogging. In 2022, Larson reprised her role as Captain Marvel for the
Disneyland Paris theme park ride
Avengers Assemble: Flight Force and the
Disney Wish cruise ship ride
Avengers: Quantum Encounter. She collaborated with
Disney+ on two projects. She created, directed and hosted the docuseries
Growing Up and starred in the
augmented reality short film
Remembering. She also featured as the character Paradigm in the online video game
Fortnite Battle Royale. After a three-year hiatus, Larson returned to acting in the action film
Fast X (2023), which marked the tenth installment of the
Fast & Furious series. Larson once again played Captain Marvel in the superhero sequel
The Marvels. It received mixed reviews from critics; its receipts were far less than those of
Captain Marvel, and it emerged as a
box-office bomb. She briefly voiced her role as Envy Adams in the animated series
Scott Pilgrim Takes Off. Larson also served as the guest narrator at the 2023
Disney's Candlelight Processional at
Disneyland. Larson hired producer
Lee Eisenberg to develop
Lessons in Chemistry, an adaptation of
Bonnie Garmus's
novel of the same name. The miniseries, which released on
Apple TV+ in 2023, is about chemist Elizabeth Zott who begins hosting a feminist cooking show in 1960s America. Serving as an executive producer, Larson spent two years working on the project, and was pleased by the rare opportunity to prepare for her character while the crew developed the show.
Slant Magazine Ross McIndoe took note of Larson's "commanding presence" and appreciated her ability to not turn Zott into a "caricature". She received nominations for the
Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress and
Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Miniseries. Larson made her
West End debut in 2025 at the
Duke of York's Theatre in
Anne Carson's translation of the
Sophocles play
Elektra. To play the title role of the vengeful
Elektra, she got a
buzz cut. She said that she accepted the opportunity to engage with "audiences who are not on their phones".
Evening Standards Tim Bano dismissed the production as an "impenetrable slog", but was appreciative of Larson for "bringing layers of bitterness, resentment and desperation to the lines". Writing for
The New York Times, Houman Barekat was more critical, writing, "Larson, for all her energy, has a weirdly perfunctory, one-note intensity". In 2025, Larson released a cook book titled
Party People: A Cook Book for Creative Celebrations co-authored with Courtney McBroom. In December 2025, Larson was a celebrity guest narrator at the
Walt Disney World Candlelight Processional. During the
Nintendo Direct in November 2025, it was announced that Larson will voice
Rosalina in the 2026 film,
The Super Mario Galaxy Movie. Larson had previously expressed being a fan of the
Super Mario franchise and the game
Super Mario Galaxy in 2020. ==Advocacy==