My favorite Australian and New Zealand actors and actresses
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Geoffrey Roy Rush was born on July 6, 1951, in Toowoomba, Queensland, Australia, to Merle (Bischof), a department store sales assistant, and Roy Baden Rush, an accountant for the Royal Australian Air Force. His mother was of German descent and his father had English, Irish, and Scottish ancestry. He was raised in Brisbane, Queensland, after his parents split up.
Rush attended Everton Park State High School during his formative years. His early interest in the theatre led to his 1971 stage debut at age 20 in "Wrong Side of the Moon" with the Queensland Theatre Company.
Known for his classical repertory work over the years, he scored an unexpected hit with his Queensland role as Snoopy in the musical "You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown". A few years later he moved to France to study but subsequently returned to his homeland within a short time and continued work as both actor and director with the Queensland company ("June and the Paycock," "Aladdin," "Godspell," "Present Laughter," "The Rivals"). In the 1980s Rush became a vital member of the State Theatre Company of South Australia and showed an equally strong range there in such productions as "Revenger's Tragedy," "A Midsummer Night's Dream," "Mother Courage...and Her Children," "Blood Wedding," "Pal Joey," "Twelfth Night" and as The Fool in "King Lear".
Rush made an inauspicious debut in films with the feature Hoodwink (1981), having little more than a bit part, and didn't carry off his first major role until playing Sir Andrew Aguecheek in a movie production of Twelfth Night (1986). Yet, he remained a durable presence on stage with acclaimed productions in "The Diary of a Madman" in 1989 and "The Government Inspector" in 1991.
Rush suffered a temporary nervous breakdown in 1992 due to overwork and anguish over his lack of career advancement. Resting for a time, he eventually returned to the stage. Within a few years film-goers finally began taking notice of Geoffrey after his performance in Children of the Revolution (1996). This led to THE role of a lifetime as the highly dysfunctional piano prodigy David Helfgott in Shine (1996). Rush's astonishing tour-de-force performance won him every conceivable award imaginable, including the Oscar, Golden Globe, British Film Award and Australian Film Institute Award.
"Shine" not only put Rush on the international film map, but atypically on the Hollywood "A" list as well. His rather homely mug was made fascinating by a completely charming, confident and captivating demeanor; better yet, it allowed him to more easily dissolve into a number of transfixing historical portrayals, notably his Walsingham in Elizabeth (1998) and Leon Trotsky in Frida (2002). He's also allowed himself to have a bit of hammy fun in such box office escapism as Mystery Men (1999), House on Haunted Hill (1999), The Banger Sisters (2002), Finding Nemo (2003) and Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003). More than validating his early film success, two more Oscar nominations came his way in the same year for Quills (2000) (best actor) and Shakespeare in Love (1998) (support actor) in 2000. Geoffrey's amazing versatility continued into the millennium with his portrayal of the manic, volatile comedy genius Peter Sellers in the biopic The Life and Death of Peter Sellers (2004). He also merited attention as Lionel Logue in The King's Speech (2010), Basil Hunter in The Eye of the Storm (2011), Hans Hubermann in The Book Thief (2013), artist/sculptor Alberto Giocometti in Final Portrait (2017) and Michael Kingley Storm Boy (2019).
Rush's intermittent returns to the stage have included productions of "Marat-Sade," "Uncle Vanya," "Oleanna," "Hamlet" and "The Small Poppies". In 2009 he made his Broadway debut in "Exit the King" co-starring Susan Sarandon. His marriage (since 1988) to Aussie classical actress Jane Menelaus produced daughter Angelica (1992) and son James (1995). Menelaus, who has also performed with the State Theatre of South Australia, has co-starred on stage with Rush in "The Winter's Tale" (1987), "Troilus and Cressida" (1989) and "The Importance of Being Earnest" (as Gwendolyn to his Jack Worthing). She also had featured roles in a few of his films, including Quills (2000) and The Eye of the Storm (2011).- Actor
- Producer
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David Wenham is an Australian actor who is known for his portrayals of Faramir from The Lord of the Rings trilogy, Friar Carl from the Van Helsing franchise and Dilios from 300. He also acted in Moulin Rouge, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales, Dark City, Top of the Lake, SeaChange and Peter Rabbit.- Harry Richardson was born on 3 March 1993 in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. He is an actor, known for Dunkirk (2017), The Gilded Age (2022) and Poldark (2015).
- Actor
- Script and Continuity Department
- Soundtrack
Noah George Taylor, the elder of two boys, was born in 1969 in London, England, to Maggie (Miller), a journalist and book editor, and Paul Taylor, a copywriter and journalist. His family lived in both England and New Zealand before returning to his parents' native Australia in 1974. His parents divorced when he was a teenager and his father remarried--to theatre publicist, Suzie Howie. Noah left home at age 16 before graduating from University High School in Melbourne when he fell into acting. He decided to pursue his craft at St. Martin's Youth Theater. Despite his intense studies, the remote, slim-framed actor did not make his professional theater debut until March 1997 with Chekhov's "The Seagull."
His work at St. Martin's led to an auspicious debut playing the painfully shy and sensitive teen Danny Embling in the coming-of-age film The Year My Voice Broke (1987). This affecting performance lost none of its heart-tugging appeal when the sequel Flirting (1991) came out four years later. Noah won awards for both films. Unconventionally typecast as the gawky, gloomy-eyed, somewhat manic depressive, directors started lining up to use the young actor. It all culminated in what is arguably the best known performance of his career--as the young, tortured genius, pianist David Helfgott, in Shine (1996). Working in tandem with Oscar-winner Geoffrey Rush, who played Helfgott as an older adult, Noah's scenes with Armin Mueller-Stahl, who played the pianist's egregiously abusive father, were incredibly powerful and helped him to win the Film Critics Circle of Australia and Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival awards. The variety of Noah's performances have been stunning over the years. He played a young Adolf Hitler in the drama Max (2002), a "what-if" spin on Hitler growing up as an angry tortured artist instead of a Fascist dictator following World War I. He played the darkly humorous protagonist in He Died with a Felafel in His Hand (2001) and the titular Jewish outcast in Simon Magus (1999).
Music, songwriting and art have been other strong passions for Noah. In 1994 he became part of a band called "The Honky Tonk Angels. A singer-guitarist, included in this band were Noah's co-stars from previous movies Loene Carmen and Kym Wilson. He has also formed other bands with such names as Cardboard Box Man, Flipper & Humphrey and The Thirteens, a country-western rock group.
American audiences have taken an equal "shine" to Noah recently, particularly as the manager of Stillwater in the popular film Almost Famous (2000); as Bryce in the popular adventure film Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2001) and its sequel which both starring Angelina Jolie; a featured role in Vanilla Sky (2001) which starred Tom Cruise; and in the "Willy Wonka" extravaganza Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005) as Mr. Bucket.- Actor
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Richard Roxburgh is an Australian actor, writer and producer who is known for portraying Dracula in the 2004 cult classic monster movie Van Helsing starring Hugh Jackman, Hugh Stamp in Mission: Impossible 2 and for his collaborations with Baz Luhrmann, particularly Moulin Rouge. He is married to his Van Helsing co-star Silvia Colloca since 2004 and has three children with her.- Actor
- Producer
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Originally from Wellington, New Zealand, Karl Urban now lives in Auckland. Born on June 7, 1972, he is the son of a leather-goods manufacturer (who had hoped that Karl would follow in his footsteps). His first acting role was when he was 8 -- he had a line on a television series. However, he did not act again until after high school. He was offered a role in the NZ soap opera Shortland Street (1992) as he was preparing to attend Victoria University. After appearing on the series for the 1993-1994 season, he attended the university for one year, then left to pursue his acting career. Over the next few years, he landed several theater roles in the Wellington area. Eventually, he moved to Auckland, where a number of guest roles in NZ television followed. One of his first roles was that of a heroin addict in the drama series Shark in the Park (1989). He was in a movie as well, entitled Once in Chunuck Bay (aka Chunuk Bair (1992)). Other television roles followed, including a guest-starring role in the series White Fang (1993). Karl's biggest roles include Éomer in the Lord of the Rings trilogy, as well as Dr. Leonard "Bones" McCoy in Star Trek (2009), William Cooper in RED (2010) and Judge Dredd in Dredd (2012).- Actor
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Bill Hunter was one of Australia's acting legends, having worked with almost every notable Australian director and actor of the last thirty years - evidence of his genuine popularity among the public and acting fraternity alike.
He started out in Australian television in the '60s (a hotbed of well written and directed drama), and rapidly became a favorite of directors during the boom in the Australian movie industry in the '70s. He has often played the strong, opinionated, stereotypically gruff Australian who ultimately betrays a softer heart.
Some of his notable movie roles include the Australian officer Major Barton, who will only ask his troops to do as he would, in Gallipoli (1981), Peter Weir's groundbreaking movie starring the young Mel Gibson; the meddling Barry Fife in Strictly Ballroom (1992), Baz Luhrmann's first international hit; scheming politician and failure as a father and husband Bill Heslop in Muriel's Wedding (1994), P.J. Hogan's first international hit; the lovable country battler in the international megahit The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert (1994), starring Terence Stamp, Guy Pearce, and Hugo Weaving.- Actor
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Hugh Michael Jackman is an Australian actor, singer, multi-instrumentalist, dancer and producer. Jackman has won international recognition for his roles in major films, notably as superhero, period, and romance characters. He is best known for his long-running role as Wolverine in the X-Men film series, as well as for his lead roles in the romantic-comedy fantasy Kate & Leopold (2001), the action-horror film Van Helsing (2004), the drama The Prestige and The Fountain (2006), the epic historical romantic drama Australia (2008), the film version of Les Misérables (2012), and the thriller Prisoners (2013). His work in Les Misérables earned him his first Academy Award nomination for Best Actor and his first Golden Globe Award for Best Actor - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy in 2013. In Broadway theatre, Jackman won a Tony Award for his role in The Boy from Oz. A four-time host of the Tony Awards themselves, he won an Emmy Award for one of these appearances. Jackman also hosted the 81st Academy Awards on 22 February 2009.
Jackman was born in Sydney, New South Wales, to Grace McNeil (Greenwood) and Christopher John Jackman, an accountant. He is the youngest of five children. His parents, both English, moved to Australia shortly before his birth. He also has Greek (from a great-grandfather) and Scottish (from a grandmother) ancestry.
Jackman has a communications degree with a journalism major from the University of Technology Sydney. After graduating, he pursued drama at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts, immediately after which he was offered a starring role in the ABC-TV prison drama Correlli (1995), opposite his future wife Deborra-Lee Furness. Several TV guest roles followed, as an actor and variety compere. An accomplished singer, Jackman has starred as Gaston in the Australian production of "Beauty and the Beast." He appeared as Joe Gillis in the Australian production of "Sunset Boulevard." In 1998, he was cast as Curly in the Royal National Theatre's production of Trevor Nunn's Oklahoma. Jackman has made two feature films, the second of which, Erskineville Kings (1999), garnered him an Australian Film Institute nomination for Best Actor in 1999. Recently, he won the part of Logan/Wolverine in the Bryan Singer- directed comic-book movie X-Men (2000). In his spare time, Jackman plays piano, golf, and guitar, and likes to windsurf.- Actress
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Keisha Castle-Hughes was born on 24 March 1990 in Donnybrook, Western Australia, Australia. She is an actress and producer, known for Whale Rider (2002), The Nativity Story (2006) and Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith (2005).- Actress
- Additional Crew
Georgia Ann Flood was born on November 29, 1992 in Phillip Island, Australia. Georgia started modeling as a child in the United Arab Emirates, before returning to Melbourne with her family. At age 14 Georgia began to pursue her acting career and has continually worked in the Australian TV, film and theatre industry ever since. She is known for Wentworth, Anzac Girls, and Here Come The Habibs. Georgia stars in the Jenji Kohan produced television series for Lifetime, American Princess.- Actress
- Executive
Jessica McNamee was born in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Jessica is an actor and executive, known for The Meg (2018), Battle of the Sexes (2017) and The Vow (2012). Jessica has been married to Patrick Caruso since April 2019.- Laura Brent is an Australian actress. She was born in Melbourne but then moved to U.S. at the age of 5 with her mother. She has appeared in Australian T.V. Series: Chandon Pictures (2009), Legend of the Seeker (2010) and Rescue: Special Ops(2010).
- Actress
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Caroline was born in Victoria, Melbourne. She went to Geelong Grammar School and then later to Melbourne Girls Grammar School (alongside Blue Heelers (1994) co-star Jane Allsop). She says she was always destined to have a career in the arts as she was surrounded by music from an early age. Her parents, noticing her interest, enrolled her at St. Martin's Youth Arts Centre for kids at the age of 10 and Caroline loved it! Graduating with her VCE in 1992 she had to decide whether to enrol for law or acting. Not surprisingly her parents encouraged her to enrol in the law degree. Wanting to keep her options open she applied for Law in Tasmania and for an Arts degree at Melbourne University. However, during her two day orientation for Law students, Caroline realised that Law was not for her and so she left. After a brief spell living in London, Caroline returned to Australia and took up her place on the Arts degree. She got involved with the drama department and formed an all girl band called Vinyl Discharge, which played gigs around Melbourne. She was the lead singer. However, having been bitten by the acting bug, and inspired by her idols, Cate Blanchett, Jacqueline McKenzie and Toni Collette, she sacrificed her musical career and was accepted into the National Institute of Dramatic Art in Sydney. Whilst studying acting, Caroline played a part in the Silverchair music video 'Miss You Love' from the album Neon Ballroom. She played the female French actress on the cinema screen. After graduating from NIDA (National Institute of Dramatic Arts) in 1999, Caroline got herself an agent and shortly after an audition for Blue Heelers (1994). After two further auditions, she secured the role and began filming on 28th February 2000 and her first episode, 'On The Road' was screened on Wednesday 24th May.- Actress
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Kerry Fox was born on 30 July 1966 in Wellington, New Zealand. She is an actress and writer, known for Shallow Grave (1994), Bright Star (2009) and Cloudstreet (2011). She has been married to Alexander Linklater since 2004. They have two children. She was previously married to Jaime Robertson.- Actress
- Producer
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Tara Morice was born on 23 June 1964 in Hobart, Tasmania, Australia. She is an actress and producer, known for Strictly Ballroom (1992), Dance Academy (2010) and Oranges and Sunshine (2010).- Anna-Louise Plowman is a graduate of the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art and the Lecoq School in Paris. Originally from New Zealand, she has worked in theatre, film & television in London, Tokyo, Hong-Kong, Dublin, Sydney & Paris.
- Actress
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Anna McGahan was born on 2 May 1988 in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. She is an actress and writer, known for Anzac Girls (2014), Underbelly (2008) and 100 Bloody Acres (2012). She has been married to Jonathan Weir since April 2017. They have one child.- Actress
- Producer
- Soundtrack
Esther Davis is an Australian actress and singer, best known for her roles as Phryne Fisher in Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries and its film adaptation, Miss Fisher & the Crypt of Tears, and as Amelia Vanek in The Babadook. Other major works include a recurring role as Lady Crane in season six of the television series Game of Thrones, Sister Iphigenia in Lambs of God, and the role of Ellen Kelly in Justin Kurzel's True History of the Kelly Gang.- Actress
- Producer
- Executive
Margot Elise Robbie was born on July 2, 1990 in Dalby, Queensland, Australia to Scottish parents. Her mother, Sarie Kessler, is a physiotherapist, and her father, is Doug Robbie. She comes from a family of four children, having two brothers and one sister. She graduated from Somerset College in Mudgeeraba, Queensland, Australia, a suburb in the Gold Coast hinterland of South East Queensland, where she and her siblings were raised by their mother and spent much of her time at the farm belonging to her grandparents. In her late teens, she moved to Melbourne, Victoria, Australia to pursue an acting career.
From 2008-2010, Robbie played the character of Donna Freedman in the long-running Australian soap opera, Neighbours (1985), for which she was nominated for two Logie Awards. She set off to pursue Hollywood opportunities, quickly landing the role of Laura Cameron on the short-lived ABC series, Pan Am (2011). She made her big screen debut in the film, About Time (2013).
Robbie rose to fame co-starring alongside Leonardo DiCaprio, portraying the role of Naomi Lapaglia in Martin Scorsese's Oscar nominated film, The Wolf of Wall Street (2013). She was nominated for a Breakthrough Performance MTV Movie Award, and numerous other awards.
In 2014, Robbie founded her own production company, LuckyChap Entertainment. She also appeared in the World War II romantic-drama film, Suite Française (2014). She starred in Focus (2015) and Z for Zachariah (2015), and made a cameo in The Big Short (2015).
In 2016, she married Tom Ackerley in Byron Bay, New South Wales, Australia.
She starred as Jane Porter in The Legend of Tarzan (2016), Tanya Vanderpoel in Whiskey Tango Foxtrot (2016) and as DC comics villain Harley Quinn in Suicide Squad (2016), for which she was nominated for a Teen Choice Award, and many other awards.
She portrayed figure skater Tonya Harding in the biographical film I, Tonya (2017), receiving critical acclaim and a Golden Globe Award nomination for Best Actress - Motion Picture Comedy or Musical.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Antonia has been acting professionally since she was 12. Her debut role was in 1997 playing Mandy McFarlane, one of the leads in the television series, Mirror Mirror - Series 2. This was followed by the role of Jem in William Shatner's A Twist in the Tale. Antonia's next project was the immensely popular series The Tribe in which she played one of the leading roles, Trudy, from 1998 until 2003.
As a young adult, Antonia worked on three separate seasons of Power Rangers and then, in 2005, Antonia began her six season stint playing Loretta West in the award winning series Outrageous Fortune. After filming completed on Outrageous, Antonia went on to have roles in the tele-movies Spies and Lies and The Women's Vote.
In the last few years, she played leading roles in four feature films: Timeslow, The Cure, White Lies - which was selected by New Zealand as its entrant into the 2014 Academy Awards - and Pork Pie in 2016. She also took on two presenting roles, first for the travel show My Kinda Place and next for the tv series that follows the journey of the contestants in the Smokefree Rockquest.
Television-wise, Antonia played leading roles in both The Blue Rose (2012) and in the World War One drama Anzac Girls (2013). She featured as a guest lead on the WGN flagship show, Salem (2014) and in 2016 she joined Rebecca Gibney in the Australian series Winter, playing Detective Alesia. Antonia then returned home to star in the Outrageous Fortune prequel, Westside. In 2017, she filmed the Netflix Original series Sisters, and in 2019 completed filming on Westside, season 6.
Antonia loves to perform in the theatre. Her notable roles include Kate Hardcastle in She Stoops to Conquer (2009), numerous characters in The Vagina Monologues (2010), Sally Bowles in Cabaret (2010-2011) and Laura Wingfield in The Glass Menagerie (2013).
Antonia has received a number of accolades for her work. In 2018 she was awarded "Best Actress" for her portrayal of Rita West in Westside at the New Zealand TV Awards. She was nominated for the same award in 2017. In 2014, alongside the rest of the cast of Anzac Girls, she won "Best Ensemble" at the Equity Awards in Australia. In 2013, Antonia was awarded the "Best Actress" award at the Women's Institute of Film and Television Showcase in America for her work in White Lies, and received a nomination for the same award at the New Zealand Film Awards that same year. Also that year, Antonia was nominated for "Best Actress" in the Seoul International Drama Awards for The Blue Rose. In 2012, Antonia received a "Best Actress" nomination for her work in The Cure at the NZ Film Awards and Antonia's portrayal of Laura Wingfield in The Glass Menagerie was judged the "Best Theatrical Performance of 2013" in Auckland's Best Of Awards. In 2008 she was awarded "Best Supporting Actress" at the NZ Film and Television Awards for Outrageous Fortune, and prior to this win she had received nominations in the same category in 2006 and 2007. She was also nominated for "Best Actress" in the TV Guide Peoples Choice Awards in 2015 for her work on Anzac Girls, in 2014 for her work on The Blue Rose, and in 2005 and 2011 for her work on Outrageous Fortune.
Antonia has completed a two-year acting course studying the Stanford Meisner technique in New Zealand (2005-2007) and has also studied acting with Philippe Gaulier at his school in Paris (2007), and with Ivana Chubbuck at her studio in Los Angeles in 2014-15. She has also completed a Bachelor of Arts degree, majoring in English Literature.- Actor
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Brandon McClelland was born on 12 January 1992 in Penrith, New South Wales , Australia. He is an actor and writer, known for The Nightingale (2018), Anzac Girls (2014) and Love Child (2014).