Mary Neely

Mary Connor Neely (born April 10, 1991) is an American actress, writer, director, and editor. She rose to prominence during the 2020 coronavirus pandemic with a series of self-filmed lip-sync videos reenacting scenes from well-known musicals. She published her videos on Twitter to broad acclaim. Neely has also appeared in MGM's remake of Valley Girl, Netflix's Happiness for Beginners, and 20th Century Studios' Swiped, based on the life of Bumble founder and CEO Whitney Wolfe Herd. Along with 'SubwayTakes' creator Kareem Rahma, Neely co-wrote and co-stars in the independent film Or Something.

Early life Mary Connor Neely was born on April 10, 1991, in Los Angeles, California, to Mark Neely, an actor, and Polly Neely (née Johnson), a commercial producer. Her parents divorced when she was young and she was raised equally between them. Neely is an only child.

"My dad was a taxi driver in LA in the 70s, so growing up he would drive me around, he knew the city like the back of his hand. He would tell me stories from when he was a cab driver and it colored the city for me.” — Mary Neely — "I-D" (August 2018) She cites the exposure to so many different kinds of people and places as a catalyst for her interest in performing. saying her love for musicals was akin to a religion.

During summers in high school, Neely attended drama programs at UCLA and Carnegie Mellon. Neely graduated from The Archer School for Girls in 2009 before studying acting at UCLA's School of Theater Film and Television on scholarship.

Career Beginning (2012–2019)

During her junior year at UCLA, Neely was scouted by a commercial casting director at a barbecue and began auditioning while still enrolled in school. She graduated from UCLA in 2013 with a major in Theater and a minor in Scandinavian culture.

Neely has been cast in over twenty national commercials, and as the bubbly Tide Pods Waitress, which ran in the U.S. and Canada from 2015 to 2019.

Frustrated by the lack of depth written into female TV and film roles, Neely began creating her own projects, learning how to edit using YouTube tutorials. A comedy about Sofia, a young actress grappling with her control issues by trying and failing to hook up with a co-star, Neely wrote, directed, edited, produced, and starred. and was well-received, with over 500,000 views. a short film that follows two young women, Julie and Lucy, as they housesit for Lucy's grandmother but keep getting visited by a foreboding neighbor. The film premiered at the South by Southwest film festival and opened Palm Springs ShortFest to positive reviews, Refinery29 comparing it to Greta Gerwig's Lady Bird. In 2019 Pink Trailer played as a pre-feature short before Olivia Wilde's Booksmart at the Oriental Theater in Milwaukee.

In 2018 Neely directed and edited her first music video, Margaret, for LA band Pinky Pinky. Deemed a “masterpiece” by Paper Magazine, stars Teresa Ganzel as a lonely, pill-popping, Chardonnay-drinking mother of a teenage girl.

The last in Neely's video series was Belle, the opening number from Disney's Beauty and the Beast. Neely plays over 40 characters After wrapping up the initial thread of love song covers in April, Neely came back in May with a full song-by-song reenactment of The Sound of Music to raise money for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS. After meeting her $7,000 fundraising goal in one hour, Neely managed to raise $25,000 for theater performers seeking COVID relief.

The New York Times and The Washington Post and named a New Face at the Just for Laughs Comedy Festival in Montreal.

Post Pandemic (2021–present)

Neely was cast in supporting roles in Sony's live-action/animated musical fantasy comedy film Lyle Lyle Crocodile and Netflix's romantic comedy film Happiness for Beginners, in 2022 and 2023 respectively. Neely was offered a guest star role in a 2022 Law & Order: Special Victims Unit episode by showrunner Warren Leight, who had discovered Neely during the making of her COVID musical videos on Twitter.

In 2023 Neely was cast in The Room Returns! starring Bob Odenkirk and in 2024 Neely was cast in the 20th Century Studios feature Swiped starring Lily James, the latter of which premiered at the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival ahead of its September 2025 Hulu release.

Or Something (2025)

A few months after moving to New York City in 2021, Neely met Kareem Rahma at a rooftop comedy show in Brooklyn. The pair immediately started debating various topics, such as dating and male/female relationships. spending the rest of 2021 and most of 2022 meeting up to work out the script.

Or Something was shot in 6 days on a microbudget around Brooklyn and Manhattan with no permits at the end of 2022. The film also stars David Zayas and Brandon Wardell in supporting roles. Pete Ohs signed on to edit the film in 2023 and in 2024 Or Something had its world premiere at The Downtown Festival. The screening at Roxy Cinema in Tribeca was followed by a conversation with Jeremy O. Harris.

In 2025 Or Something was acquired by Factory 25 before premiering theatrically at Quad Cinema in Manhattan. Critics have said the dialogue heavy film is similar to an East Coast version of a Duplass Brothers Mumblecore movie and praise Neely and Rahma's chemistry. Critic Emily DuGranrut said of the film: "It truly captures an earnest, almost quaint experience of meeting someone in a pre-Internet style that the self-curatorial culture of the 21st century doesn’t allow for much anymore." Or Something became available to stream on Mubi New Year's Eve 2025.

In February of 2026 it was announced that Neely joined the cast of the Broadway revival of Arthur Miller's Pulitzer winning drama Death of a Salesman starring Nathan Lane, Laurie Metcalf, Christopher Abbott and Ben Ahlers directed by Joe Mantello. The acclaimed revival won four Drama Desk Awards, four Outer Critics Circle Awards, and six Tony Awards, including 'Best Revival of a Play.' After 36 previews and 129 performances at The Winter Garden Theater Death of a Salesman closed on August 9th, 2026.

Personal life Neely lives in New York City. 2014 The Dresser (short) 2017 Pink Trailer (short) 2020 ASMR (short) 2020 Valley Girl 2022 Lyle Lyle Crocodile 2025 The Room Returns! 2022 Law & Order: Special Victims Unit Episode: "Did You Believe in Miracles?" 2016 Welcome to the Shadow Zone 5 episodes Music Videos YearTitleCredited asRef Actor Director Editor2018"Margaret" by Pinky Pinky

Theater

Awards and nominations