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Episodes with focus on her: 20, 45, 67, 77, 90, 91

• Olivia D'Abo left the permanent staff in episode 91, after Karen's marriage to Michael she moves to Alaska. But she is still listed to the end of the season and appeares in end titles of last episode as special appearance.
• Young Karen Arnold is played by Jodie Rae 20, 24, 30, 33, 35.

Biography:

Trivia:

• Olivia d'Abo spent her first eight years in London and attended a French school. Her father Michael remembers: "She used to compose songs at the age of 3. I remember riding in the car and she would make up songs about cats." But until the family left England in 1976 for an artists' colony of Taos, New Mexico, all her songs were in French. Olivia recalls: "I went to a French school, and it was more or less my first language. I didn't know how to read and write English until I came to this country." At the artists' colony she got involved in theatre music and dance. At the age of 13, she moved to Los Angeles.
• She has done her first commercial (for McDonald's) at the age of 13.
• Olivia bought a house with her cousin, actress Maryam d'Abo, whom she calls "Grandma". That was a levelheaded real-estate investment she made at the age of 19 to avoid "piddling my money down the toilet every month."
• Later, when "The Wonder Years" was produced, she often asked Jason Hervey and Fred Savage for spontaneous rap sessions. "All my music is very simple, just piano and voice," she says. "It's like Carole King or Rickie Lee Jones, a lot of ballads and honky-tonk."
• When Olivia's agent brought her the first script for "The Wonder Years" in 1987, she knew it was something special. ("The script just had so much wonder and mysticism to it.") To win the part of Karen Arnold, she spent weeks researching the '60s and showed up for the auditions in tie-dyed duds and love beads.
• About the same time the fourth season of "The Wonder Years" started, Olivia went off to college. Later, she studied at the London Royal Ballet Theatre for a short time. She also participated in Robert Redford's acting workshops at the Sundance Institute.
• When D'Abo and Julian Lennon were introduced by mutual friends at Olivia's 21st-birthday party, they immediately hit it off. "When we met each other, we spent the whole evening playing different things on the piano together," she says. "I've never met anyone who was as much like me as Julian. He's like a male version of me." She thinks one of the reasons is the similarity of their childhoods. "We have the same background and influences, coming out of the 1960s from our parents," she says. "It's funny." Olivia has a background-vocals credit on his 1991 album "Help Yourself."
• She is a master of foreign accents and of physical comedy.
• She refused a regular spot on NBC's "Saturday Night Live," because she didn't want to make the five-year commitment. Instead, she appeared on stage in the Mark Taper Forum production of "Scenes from an Execution" and in L.A. Theater's a capella musical "It's a Girl." 
• In 1996, Dan Ireland directed "The Whole Wide World" starring Vincent D'Onofrio and Renee Zellweger. Zellweger's role was originally developed with Olivia d'Abo in mind. But Olivia was five months pregnant when the film went into production, and, as a result, was unable to appear. 
• Olivia plays a role on "Party of Five," in which Neve Campbell's character (Julia) "experiments" with lesbianism with Olivia's character. "Entertainment Weekly" (April 30, 1999, #483) contained a short article about Olivia (with a

picture) that quotes her regarding PO5, in which she plays a gay professor: "There's no big lesbian affair ... We do share one rather nice kiss but, like, GET OVER IT already." Olivia will also portray a porn star in the upcoming independent film "The Velocity of Gary."  Though she only has seven minutes of screen time, "Olivia steals every scene she's in," according to the film's director, Dan Ireland. The article also contained some background bio info (growing up, who her parents are, her McDonald's commercial at age 13) which are consistent with this bio. 
• On the web it was mentioned that Olivia went to Apple school and is now a former scientogist.
• There is a fanclub: 

Olivia D'Abo 
1122 South Robertson Boulevard 
Suite Suite 15 
Los Angeles, CA 90035