Rebecca Mader

Rebecca Leigh Mader was born on April 24, 1977, in Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, England. She began her career as a model in New York City, appearing in advertisements for companies including L’Oréal, Colgate, and Wella Hair. Her television acting career started with roles in ABC daytime soap operas like ‘All My Children’ as Morgan Gordon and ‘One Life to Live’ as Margaret Cochran. She also had an appearance on ‘Guiding Light’ in 2003. Mader transitioned to film acting in 2003 with ‘Mimic 3: Sentinel’, a direct-to-DVD release, followed by an uncredited cameo in ‘Hitch’ in 2005. A significant early film role was Jocelyn in ‘The Devil Wears Prada’ in 2006, where she played an assistant editor.

In 2006, Mader secured a regular role on the Fox legal drama ‘Justice’. Her career gained further recognition when she was cast as anthropologist Charlotte Lewis in the ABC series ‘Lost’ from 2008 to 2010. Following her time on ‘Lost’, she had a recurring role in ‘No Ordinary Family’ in 2011 and guest-starred in ‘Fringe’ in 2012 as Jessica Holt. Mader also appeared in the ABC comedy series ‘Work It’ in 2012. In 2013, she made her stage debut in ‘The Third Date’ at the Hollywood Fringe Festival and had a role as a Sweat Shop Agent in ‘Iron Man 3’. A pivotal role in her career came in December 2013 when she was cast as Zelena, the Wicked Witch of the West, for the third season of ABC’s ‘Once Upon a Time’. She was later promoted to a series regular for the fifth and sixth seasons, appearing in 67 episodes from 2014 to 2018. She reprised her role in a recurring capacity for the seventh season, including the series finale.

More recently, Mader has continued to work in television, appearing in ‘Fire Country’ in 2023 as Faye Stone for four episodes, and in ‘Poppa’s House’ in 2024 as Headmistress Susan Pierce. In April 2024, she had 727 airings in nationally aired TV ad campaigns. In May 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown, she co-created the “At Home with Sean and Bex” interview series on YouTube with ‘Once Upon a Time’ co-star Sean Maguire, demonstrating her engagement beyond traditional acting roles.