Tragic Details About Kaitlin Olson

Though she has been a working actor for decades, Kaitlin Olson's star is reaching new levels thanks to her hit series "High Potential," which has become one of broadcast TV's biggest successes in decades. In fall 2025, the show became the first 10 p.m. drama to top the broadcast primetime ratings chart since "ER" did it way back in 1999-2000. That is a huge feat, and much of it has to do with Olson's on-screen charm and incredible acting abilities. Fans were, of course, aware of these abilities well before "High Potential." Olson first gained fame when she began playing Dee Reynolds on "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" in 2005. The show has been on the air for 17 seasons and has a devoted cult-like following. It is also where Olson met Rob McElhenney, the co-star she married in September 2008 and with whom she shares two sons — Axel Lee McElhenney, born 2010, and Leo Grey McElhenney, born 2012.

Olson's other credits include her starring roles in "The Mick" and "Flipped," and a bunch of voiceover work in vehicles such as "Agent Elvis." She has also gained notice for playing memorable recurring characters in shows such as "Curb Your Enthusiasm," "The Drew Carey Show," "New Girl," and "Hacks," receiving Primetime Emmy Award nominations for the latter in 2022 and 2024. (She also has an earlier nomination for "Flipped.") But along with these highs, Olson has experienced some lows. Let's take a look at some of these tragic details about Kaitlin Olson's life.

As you will soon find out, Kaitlin Olson is prone to injury — and this is not something that began in adulthood. In fact, Olson's most serious and most emotionally traumatic injury occurred when she was just a tween, on the verge of entering junior high. She was 12 and about to finish sixth grade, which is a hard transitional time for any child, and the horrific bike accident she endured led to significant physical damage as well as mistreatment from other kids (more on that later). Olson's skull was fractured, leaving her with permanent scars. "Yeah, that was a doozy," the actor said in a 2017 interview with Glamour. "I still have a hole in my head. It was the size of a lime. Now it's the size of a quarter. It was bad."

In addition to her skull fracture, Olson also suffered injuries to her face that were so severe they required surgery. This all resulted in a temporary change to her facial appearance while healing took place, and none of the aesthetic aspects of the accident helped a shy Olson's confidence as she approached the terrifying world that we call middle school. "No 12- or 13-year-old girl wants to walk into her first day of junior high with a swollen face and a shaved head and a [huge] scar. It was bad," Olson said in that same interview.

Though the physical pain of her bike accident was surely excruciating, Kaitlin Olson has also spoken candidly about the emotional pain that resulted from the crash, via the bullying she endured at the hands of other children. "They're the worst! I don't know what that is about. They were SO mean to me," Olson told Vulture of her middle school peers. "I had, like, a hole in my head, and Casey Johnson threw jelly beans at me in the lunch line, trying to make them go into the hole in my head," she added. Olson was already being bullied in elementary school, so the shaved head and scar were just a new avenue for abuse. It also did not help that one of her biggest bullies was also her crush.

Olson has not alluded to being bullied in high school, although she has said she was extremely shy and introverted — a shocker, given her current vibe and the extroverted characters she plays on screen. She did not have many friends and kept to herself in the halls, but things shifted for the better once Olson found acting as an outlet. "When I found the theater department and felt comfortable there, I was suddenly able to [rely on humor to cope]," she said to Glamour. "I certainly didn't have the confidence, and I certainly didn't think I was attractive in any way, so all I had was my sense of humor. You just kind of go with it."

If you have seen anything Kaitlin Olson has done — be it "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia," "Hacks," "The Mick," or some other comedy — then chances are you already know she is a gifted comedic actor. It even shines through on "High Potential," which is not technically a comedy but still highlights Olson's mastery of snarky jabs, sarcastic comebacks, and top-notch physical comedy. Sure, she says she was shy in high school, but that comes as more of a surprise than the fact that Olson was at one point a member of The Groundlings. Kinda.

The Groundlings is, of course, the iconic sketch comedy and improv troupe that started as a workshop in 1972, quickly became a theater company, and totally exploded in the 1980s thanks to legendary characters such as Paul Reubens' Pee Wee Herman and Cassandra Peterson's Elvira. The Groundlings has helped launch the careers of hundreds of comedic actors including Will Ferrell, Lisa Kudrow, Jennifer Coolidge, Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Wiig, Will Forte, and Maya Rudolph.

But you won't find Olson listed on the alumni page of the troupe's website — because she never made the main troupe. "I did the whole program and then I was in the Sunday company and then I got kicked out — with Dax Shepard," Olson shared in a 2015 interview for "Conan O'Brien Needs A Friend." Why both stars were not asked to continue on remains a mystery, although Olson and Shepard speculated about possible reasons on a 2018 episode of "Armchair Expert."

While it is true that Kaitlin Olson is injury prone, most of her adulthood injuries have occurred on set — perhaps inevitably, since she is known to do her own stunts. She does, however, have one instance where she can fully blame someone else for a bad call, which resulted in a terribly painful broken back. This was back in the earliest years of "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia," during a summer hiatus going into Season 4.

"Well, it was the Fourth of July," Olson said to CheatSheet years later. "My neighbor decided to pick me up. I was just sitting there drinking beer and probably minding my own business. Here's how I broke it. He picked me up way over his head and then he dropped me on the cement on my hip and it broke my lower back. It sucked."

Olson did not let her injury stop her from returning to set on time and, aside from one episode where she was meant to fall down the stairs, filmed all of the planned content despite moments of intense pain. "That waterboarding scene? They did not do a great job of that. They put wetsuit material over my face thinking that would block it, but I got waterboarded," Olson told Elle. "I had recently broken my back so I was laying on a broken back, inverted, being waterboarded. I was like, 'I'm a team player, but I can only hang in there a few more minutes.'"

As previously stated, Kaitlin Olson loves to do her own stunts — which makes sense, given her excellence in physical comedy. This has at times led to dangerous injuries and extreme pain (a trend for Olson, if you have not noticed). One such injury occurred years ago on the set of "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia," resulting in a bloody mess so bad that Olson's co-stars could not even stomach to be around her as help was on its way. "I went to the emergency room this year," Olson told Yahoo! News in 2013 (via Slash Film). "I ripped my leg completely wide open on a steel grate that we were running on. It was a mess. Poor Glenn [Howerton] was like, 'I'm sorry, I have to walk away. I can't see this.' It was a lot of blood."

Luckily, Olson was not quite as freaked out about the wound as those around her, having dealt with pain and blood plenty of times in the past. "I've had two babies, so I was extremely calm," she said in that same interview. "I was like, 'Alright, well, this is a real problem, but let's get the ambulance here, and I'll apply pressure, and we'll figure this out. Don't worry, everyone. It's just a skin thing.' You could see my bone, though ... my shin bone." That sounds completely yucky, and we cannot blame Howerton for being squeamish!

Kaitlin Olson's ripped-open leg is not the only injury she suffered on the set of "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia," only the most extreme. She also had to visit a chiropractor after smashing her head against a car door repeatedly, all in the name of comedy. "We had a stuntwoman do it, and it didn't look very real, and then Kaitlin did it, and actually ran into the car, probably almost breaking her neck," "Sunny" co-star Charlie Day told Buzzfeed for a profile on Olson. He added, "It's just one of the funniest moments of physical comedy I think in the history of the show."

Olson has taken that no-holds-barred approach to physical comedy with her onto other sets. When she headlined the sitcom "The Mick," for instance, Olson similarly went all-in with the stunts. At one point, this resulted in her breaking a rib. Ironically, it was not some elaborate stunt that anyone was worried about, but a small little thing that resulted in the painful injury. "It was so stupid ... It was just throwing the rock onto the car. We just changed the camera angle so I had to walk around to a different side of the car," Olson said to The Wrap. "I had to reach a little bit further to get the windshield and I smashed my rib on the front corner of the car. It was just the easiest, quickest little thing but it took about eight weeks before I could sleep well again."

While this last fact on our list is a tragic one, we have to acknowledge that things could have been a whole lot worse. Unlike many others, Kaitlin Olson did not lose her home when horrific wildfires hit the Los Angeles area in 2025. Nonetheless, we should not downplay the trauma of thinking you might lose your home, and of having to evacuate your safe space for weeks or months without knowing when you can return. That's the boat that Olson and her husband Rob McElhenney found themselves in amidst the devastating wildfire situation, but we are glad that they — and their home — are still standing strong. 

Olson and McElhenney built their dream home, located in Brentwood, from the ground up and with a focus on indoor/outdoor living. Though they had no clue if their beloved house would survive after they evacuated, the couple expressed nothing but gratitude. McElhenney posted an update to social media where he acknowledged the devastation in his neighborhood but highlighted the bravery of the first responders and thanked those in his life who had reached out. Olson made a similar post and also directed followers to resources such as Airbnb's free housing for evacuees.