Celebrity veganism usually happens in captions and cookbooks. Rooney Mara’s version involved hidden cameras inside British factory farms.
In December 2019 she traveled to the UK with the organization Animal Equality, walked undercover into pig and chicken farms, and narrated what she saw in the short film With My Own Eyes. Not a voiceover recorded in a Los Angeles studio. Her, physically there, in the sheds. There might be no lower-key A-lister than Mara, and no celebrity vegan who has gone further to see the thing for herself.
QUICK ANSWER
Yes, Rooney Mara is vegan, since around 2011. She runs the vegan fashion label Hiraeth, went undercover in factory farms for a 2019 film, and shares a vegan household with Joaquin Phoenix. No source has ever reported her quitting.
Last fact-checked: July 7, 2026
The YouTube rabbit hole
Mara had been vegetarian on and off since she was nine. The final push came around 2011, and she described it with unusual honesty to Coveteur: “someone sent me this horrible undercover video of a pig, which led me to another horrible video and another horrible video. I went down the YouTube rabbit hole.”
Most people climb out of that rabbit hole and change their lunch. Mara changed her industry. In February 2018 she launched Hiraeth Collective, a luxury fashion label with a hard rule: no leather, no wool, no silk, nothing animal-derived, all made in LA. The name is a Welsh word for a longing for a home that may never have existed, which is the most Rooney Mara brand name conceivable.
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On and off through her childhood and twenties, the foundation gets laid early.
Around 2011: the rabbit hole
One undercover pig video leads to the next. She goes fully vegan and stays.
February 2018: Hiraeth launches
Her luxury vegan fashion label bans every animal-derived material. Stranger Things' Sadie Sink, also vegan, models the line.
December 2019: undercover in the sheds
She enters UK pig and chicken farms with Animal Equality and narrates With My Own Eyes.
2021: The End of Medicine
She executive-produces the health documentary with Joaquin Phoenix, from the team behind Cowspiracy.
2020s: the vegan household
Two kids with Phoenix, raised in a fully vegan home. At TED's climate summit she calls being vegan “a privileged choice that we get to make every day, multiple times a day, that we know will make a huge impact.”
The power couple math
Her partner Joaquin Phoenix has been vegan since 1977, the full 49-year story is here. Between them, the household carries over 60 years of veganism, an Oscar speech about dairy cows, a rescued cow named Liberty, an undercover film and a fashion label. Their son River’s first birthday cake was presumably the most scrutinized vegan bake in Hollywood history.
Health played its part for her too, as she told Peaceful Dumpling: “I’ve always had a pretty sensitive stomach, but when I cut animal products out of my diet, I felt so much better.”
Fact or fiction?
Her fashion label allows silk but not leather. Fact or fiction?
Fiction. Hiraeth bans all animal-derived materials: no leather, no wool, no silk. Zero exceptions.
She physically went into factory farms for a film. Fact or fiction?
Fact. UK pig and chicken farms, December 2019, with Animal Equality, for With My Own Eyes.
A documentary on Netflix made her go vegan. Fact or fiction?
Fiction. It was an undercover pig video and the YouTube rabbit hole that followed, around 2011.
Quiz: how well do you know vegan Rooney?
Five questions, no cheating
1. What does “Hiraeth”, her brand name, mean?
2. What pushed her from vegetarian to vegan around 2011?
3. How old was she when she first went vegetarian?
4. What did she do for With My Own Eyes in 2019?
5. Which documentary did she executive-produce with Phoenix?
Is Rooney Mara still vegan in 2026?
Yes, by every available signal. She doesn’t do frequent interviews, so there’s no fresh 2026 soundbite, but the structural evidence is overwhelming: an active vegan fashion label, an undercover activism record, a fully vegan household with two kids, and current vegan celebrity roundups that still list her without a footnote. People who build their career, wardrobe and family around a conviction rarely misplace it.
Her fashion label allows silk but not leather. Fact or fiction? Fiction. Hiraeth bans all animal-derived materials: no leather, no wool, no silk. Zero exceptions. She physically went into factory farms for a film. Fact or fiction? Fact.
Is Rooney Mara still vegan in 2026?+
Yes, by every available signal. She doesn’t do frequent interviews, so there’s no fresh 2026 soundbite, but the structural evidence is overwhelming: an active vegan fashion label, an undercover activism record, a fully vegan household with two kids, and current vegan...
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