Where Is Liesel Matthews Now? From Sara Crewe to Impact Investor

By CelebPaid Research · Updated October 7, 2026 · 8 min read

Thematic illustration: a charity donation drive, evoking Matthews' philanthropic work. This is a generic image, not a photo of the subject.Image via Wikimedia Commons

She was Sara Crewe — the little princess who believed that "all girls are princesses" even when the world tried to convince her otherwise. Liesel Matthews (born Liesel Anne Pritzker) gave one of the defining child performances of the '90s in Alfonso Cuarón's A Little Princess (1995). Then she did something almost no child star does: she walked away at 16 and never came back. This is the verified story of where Liesel Matthews is now.

The Peak: Sara Crewe (1995-2000)

Born Liesel Anne Pritzker on March 14, 1984, in Chicago, Illinois, she was a member of the Pritzker family (Hyatt hotels fortune). She started acting as a child, but A Little Princess was the breakthrough.

As Sara Crewe in the 1995 film — the imaginative girl sent to a brutal boarding school who maintains her dignity through storytelling — Matthews carried the entire film at age 11. The performance earned critical acclaim and a Young Artist Award nomination. It's still considered one of the best child performances of the decade.

She followed with Air Force One (1997) as Alice Marshall, the President's daughter, opposite Harrison Ford. Two major films, both critically and commercially successful. She was 13.

Then: nothing. Her last credit was in 2000, at age 16. No announcement, no farewell — she just stopped.

The Investor: Philanthropy and Impact (2000s-)

Matthews didn't just leave Hollywood; she left the Pritzker name behind professionally (she acts under "Liesel Matthews," a stage name). She attended Columbia University and built a career in impact investing and philanthropy — using capital to fund social enterprises and nonprofits.

She co-founded the IDP Foundation and has been involved in various philanthropic initiatives focused on education and economic development. This isn't celebrity charity work; it's serious finance-meets-philanthropy, deploying her family's resources toward systemic change.

In 2011, she married Ian Simmons. They have two daughters. She lives a private life focused on family and philanthropy, far from the entertainment industry.

The Person: The Anti-Nepo Baby

Matthews is the rare "nepo baby" who rejected both the nepotism and the baby part. She had the family fortune and the Hollywood credits, and she chose neither as her identity. She built a career in impact investing — a field where her name opens doors but her work has to stand on its own.

She has never done a reunion, never traded on Sara Crewe nostalgia, never given the "where are they now" interview. The privacy is absolute. The little princess grew up and became a queen of a different kind — not on screen, but in the world of social finance.

The Lawsuit That Made Headlines (2002)

What happened next is the stuff of business-school case studies. In 2002, Liesel and her brother Matthew sued their father and other family members, alleging that money had been misappropriated from trusts established for them. The case was settled in 2005, with the siblings each receiving roughly $500 million in cash and trust assets — making them, in their early twenties, among the wealthiest young adults in America. Forbes has since listed her among its billionaires, with an estimated fortune above $2 billion derived from the family's Hyatt Hotels and industrial holdings.

The lawsuit could have been the story — heiress sues family, wins fortune. Instead, Matthews made it a footnote. She took the money and pointed it at the world's problems. In 2008, she gave her mother $50 million to start the IDP Foundation, focused on educating underprivileged children. The throughline from Sara Crewe — the girl who imagined a better world from a boarding-school attic — to a woman deploying hundreds of millions toward education is almost too neat. But it's documented, not imagined.

Before all of that, there was a wandering period that the tabloids never quite knew what to do with. Drawing inspiration from her A Little Princess character, she traveled to India, taught at a nursery school, and immersed herself in charitable and spiritual work. She returned to the United States, enrolled at Columbia University in New York, and earned her bachelor's degree — the education that would underpin her second career.

Blue Haven and The ImPact: Investing With Purpose

In 2012, Matthews and her husband Ian Simmons — whom she married in 2011 after meeting at a global philanthropy gathering — founded the Blue Haven Initiative, one of the first family offices built entirely around impact investing: deploying capital into businesses and funds designed to generate measurable social and environmental returns alongside financial ones. She also helped build The ImPact, a network encouraging wealthy families to align their investments with their values.

This is not celebrity charity — gala appearances and oversized checks. Impact investing is a discipline: due diligence, portfolio construction, metrics. Matthews operates in rooms with finance professionals, not film people, and her reputation there rests on the work, not the surname. She attended New Trier High School in Winnetka, Illinois, before Columbia; the education was real, and so is the career.

She and Simmons have two daughters. The family keeps an exceptionally low profile — no red carpets, no "former child star" profiles, no leveraging of the Sara Crewe nostalgia that would undoubtedly open doors. The privacy appears to be a deliberate philosophy: the work is the point, and the work doesn't need a premiere.

Where Is Liesel Matthews Now?

As of 2026, Liesel Matthews (née Pritzker) is an impact investor and philanthropist. She retired from acting in 2000 at age 16, earned her bachelor's degree from Columbia University, married Ian Simmons in 2011, and has two daughters. She co-founded the Blue Haven Initiative (2012) and the IDP Foundation, deploying capital toward education and social enterprise.

Sara Crewe believed all girls are princesses. Liesel Matthews grew up and proved that princesses can change the world without a crown.

The Legacy: A Little Princess Endures

A Little Princess (1995) was not a box-office smash — it earned a fraction of its budget in theaters — but it became one of the most beloved children's films of the decade through home video and television. Directed by Alfonso Cuarón (years before Gravity and Roma made him one of cinema's most decorated auteurs), the film is a visual marvel: a storybook India rendered in saturated color, a boarding school that feels like a gothic fairy tale. And at its center, 11-year-old Liesel Matthews carrying nearly every scene.

Critics at the time singled out Matthews's performance — the rare child turn that doesn't feel like a child performing, but like a person thinking. Her Sara Crewe is imaginative without being cloying, dignified without being stiff. The film's famous thesis — "all girls are princesses" — lands because Matthews believes it, and makes you believe it. The performance earned her a Young Artist Award nomination and a permanent place in '90s cinema history.

The film's afterlife has been extraordinary: anniversary retrospectives, critical reappraisals, and a devoted following among viewers who grew up on it. Air Force One (1997), her second film, was the commercial counterpoint — a $315 million global hit in which she played the President's daughter opposite Harrison Ford, holding her own in one of the decade's defining action films. Two films, two genres, both memorable. Then she walked away — and the performances, frozen in time, have only grown in stature.

Then vs Now: Two Chapters

Liesel Matthews gave one of the great child performances of the '90s and then did the most radical thing possible: she left. Not for scandal, not for burnout, but for purpose. The girl who played a princess became a woman who funds education for real children. Sara Crewe imagined a better world; Liesel Matthews invests in one.

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