Short answer: No. Margot Robbie is an Australian actress born on the Gold Coast, Queensland, and her published biography documents paternal Scottish heritage with no Jewish ancestry on either side. She has not spoken publicly about her own religious beliefs, and no reputable source has ever reported a Jewish parent, grandparent, or conversion.
What the record actually shows
- Born 2 July 1990 on the Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia. Her father, Doug Robbie, is a former farm-owner and sugarcane grower, and her mother, Sarie Kessler, is a physiotherapist. She is the third of four children and lived in rural Dalby until age five, with much of her childhood spent on her grandparents' farm in the Currumbin Valley (biography).
- Her documented ancestry is Scottish on her father's side. That is the only heritage named in her published biography. No Jewish ancestry appears anywhere in it.
- Her documented schooling was at a non-denominational Christian school. She attended Somerset College in Mudgeeraba, Queensland, described as an independent, non-denominational Christian day school, where she studied drama (Somerset College). It was not a Jewish day school.
- She has never discussed her own religion on the record. There is no interview, profile, or post in which Robbie talks about faith, Jewish identity, or conversion. She has never publicly identified as Jewish.
- Jewish press covering Barbie placed her outside the Jewish cast. Hey Alma's roundup of the film's Jewish cast and crew, published ahead of Barbie's July 2023 release, named Kingsley Ben-Adir, Ariana Greenblatt, Ana Cruz Kayne and Hari Nef, writing that "At least four Jewish actors are featured alongside Margot Robbie, Ryan Gosling, Issa Rae, Simu Liu, Kate McKinnon, Dua Lipa and more" (Hey Alma).
- Her documented philanthropy is Australian, not religiously affiliated. She has supported Youngcare, a Brisbane charity helping young people with high care needs live independently, and shared the inaugural RAD Impact Award with the organization, reported 23 April 2021 (ABC News).
Why people ask
Two things drive the question. The first is her mother's surname. Sarie Kessler's family name is also a common Ashkenazi Jewish surname, and that resemblance alone sends people searching. A surname is not evidence of ancestry. The documented heritage in Robbie's family is Scottish on her father's side, and nothing Jewish is documented on her mother's. Claims of a Jewish grandmother do circulate on ethnicity-aggregator and AI-generated pages, but no reputable source documents any Jewish ancestry in her family, and those pages contradict every serious biography.
The second driver is Barbie. The doll was invented by Ruth Handler, born in Denver to Jewish immigrant parents, who with her husband Elliot helped found Temple Isaiah in Los Angeles. When the film arrived in July 2023, JTA published an explainer on the doll's Jewish history that named Robbie only as the star, "including Margot Robbie as Barbie, Ryan Gosling as Ken and Will Ferrell as a fictional CEO of Mattel" (JTA, 9 July 2023). Playing a Jewish woman's most famous invention pulled Robbie into a wave of Jewish-press coverage, and the search question followed. It is worth noting that the same online mill also insists she was raised Catholic or in a churchgoing Christian household. That claim traces only to celebrity-religion aggregators and AI content farms, with no interview or mainstream profile behind it, so we do not repeat it.
Margot Robbie and Israel
Robbie has not made any public statement about Israel, antisemitism, or Jewish communal issues. The closest thing to a connection is a casting story: in a 2023 Vogue profile ahead of Barbie, she said she had wanted Gal Gadot for the title role, but Gadot was tied up with other projects, describing the Israeli actress as "so impossibly beautiful, but you don't hate her for being that beautiful, because she's so genuinely sincere, and she's so enthusiastically kind, that it's almost dorky" (CFJC Today). Gadot returned the warmth in an August 2023 Flaunt interview: "I adore Margot. Margot is one of those women who you just want to be friends with. She is so funny, warm, fun and smart and obviously so talented" (Collider). That is mutual professional affection, not a political position. Full details in our companion piece Does Margot Robbie Support Israel?.
The bottom line
Margot Robbie is not Jewish. No reputable source documents Jewish ancestry on either side of her family, she has never identified as Jewish, and the only documented religious-institutional fact in her life is the non-denominational Christian school she attended in Queensland. Her connection to Jewish stories is professional: she played Barbie, a doll invented by a Jewish woman, and she wanted an Israeli actress for the part.
As of August 2026 she is married to British producer Tom Ackerley, with whom she co-founded LuckyChap Entertainment. Their son was born in October 2024 and she has kept his name private. She starred as Cathy Earnshaw in Emerald Fennell's Wuthering Heights, released 13 February 2026, which took $241.6 million worldwide against an $80 million budget (details), and she is currently filming an Ocean's Eleven prequel with Bradley Cooper, set in 1962 Monte Carlo and scheduled for release 25 June 2027.
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Last updated August 2026. We update these profiles as the record changes.
