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.
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
Contents6 chapters
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.
The vegan timeline, tap to expand
Around 1994: vegetarian at 9
Around 2011: the rabbit hole
February 2018: Hiraeth launches
December 2019: undercover in the sheds
2021: The End of Medicine
2020s: the vegan household
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?
She physically went into factory farms for a film. Fact or fiction?
A documentary on Netflix made her go vegan. Fact or fiction?
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.
More vegan celebrity checks:
- Is Joaquin Phoenix vegan? The other half, 49 years deep
- Is Natalie Portman vegan? Vegan fashion pioneer number two
- Is Alicia Silverstone vegan? The 1998 original
Photo: aphrodite-in-nyc, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
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