Elizabeth Debicki

Elizabeth Debicki (born 24 August 1990 ) is an Australian actress.

Debicki (original Polish surname Dębicki: [dɛmˈbʲit͡skʲi]) was born on 24 August 1990 in Paris to a Polish father and an Australian mother of Irish descent.

Her parents were both ballet dancers, who met while performing in a show together.

When she was five, the family moved to Glen Waverley in Melbourne, Australia.

The eldest of three children, she has a younger sister and a brother.

Debicki became interested in ballet at an early age and trained as a dancer until deciding to switch to theatre.

A student at Huntingtower School in eastern Melbourne, she achieved two perfect study scores in Drama and English and was the school's dux when she graduated in 2007.

In August 2009, she was the recipient of a Richard Pratt Bursary for outstanding acting students in their second year of training.

In 2010, she completed a degree in drama at the Victorian College of the Arts.

After studying drama at the Victorian College of the Arts, she made her film debut in the Australian comedy A Few Best Men (2011).

Debicki made her feature film debut in the 2011 Australian film A Few Best Men, with a brief appearance as a secretary.

This was her first role after graduating from drama school.

After seeing her audition reel, director Baz Luhrmann, who was casting for his upcoming film adaptation of The Great Gatsby, flew her to auditions in Los Angeles, where she screen tested with actor Tobey Maguire.

In May 2011, Luhrmann announced that she had been cast as Jordan Baker in his 2013 film The Great Gatsby.

She would go on to receive rave reviews for her portrayal of the character, winning an AACTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role.

In December 2012, Debicki was the subject of a photo shoot for Vogue Australia.

Her role in Baz Luhrmann's The Great Gatsby (2013) won her the AACTA Award for Best Supporting Actress.

From June to July 2013, Debicki played Madame in the Sydney Theatre Company's production of Jean Genet's play The Maids, with Cate Blanchett starring as Claire and Isabelle Huppert as Solange.

She won the best newcomer award at the Sydney Theatre Awards for her performance.

On television, Debicki appeared in the Australian series Rake (2014), starred in the BBC limited series The Night Manager (2016), for which she received a Critics' Choice Television Award nomination, and the HBO television film The Tale (2018).

Debicki's acclaimed portrayal of Diana, Princess of Wales in the Netflix drama series The Crown (2022–2023) won her a Golden Globe Award, Critics Choice Award, Screen Actors Guild Award, and a nomination for a Primetime Emmy Award.

In 2014, the play transferred off-Broadway at the New York City Center.

Around this same time, Debicki also starred in a 13-minute short film called GÖDEL, incomplete and made an appearance as a guest star in the third season of the Australian television series Rake.

In 2015, Debicki played supporting roles in three major motion pictures.

She played the villain in Guy Ritchie's film adaptation of The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (2015), learning to drive on set.

She also appeared in Australian film director Justin Kurzel's adaptation of Macbeth, as well as the biographical adventure film Everest, which would gross $203 million worldwide.

The following year, she starred as Mona Sanders alongside Mark Strong and Hope Davis in the world première stage adaptation of Georges Simenon's novel The Man on the Bench in the Barn titled The Red Barn by David Hare at the National Theatre's Lyttelton Theatre in London.

The play ran from October 2016 to January 2017.

In 2016 Debicki played major roles in two television shows.

She played the lead role of Dr. Anna Macy in the eight-part Australian television series The Kettering Incident, which was shot almost entirely on location in Tasmania.

A few months after shooting on that show ended, Debicki headed to Switzerland to begin shooting the television miniseries The Night Manager; she played the role of Jed in the adaptation of the John le Carré novel of the same name.

The show aired in the United States in April 2016.

Following the success of The Night Manager, Debicki landed a supporting role in the Marvel Studios film Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, in which she portrayed Ayesha, leader of the Sovereign people.

She returned for its sequel and the final installment in the film series, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3.

She played Ayesha in the Marvel films Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017) and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (2023).

In June 2017, she was added to the cast of director Luc Besson's Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets in an undisclosed voice-over role.

The film would arrive in theatres around two months later, at which time her role was revealed to be that of Emperor Haban-Limaï.

She gained critical attention for her performance in Steve McQueen's heist thriller Widows (2018).

The following year, she received the Cannes Film Festival's Trophée Chopard.

She then co-starred in Christopher Nolan's science fiction thriller Tenet (2020).