Rose Byrne

She obtained her first leading film role in The Goddess of 1967 (2000), which brought her the Volpi Cup for Best Actress, and made the transition to American cinema in the small role of Dormé in Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones (2002), followed by parts in Hollywood productions of Troy (2004), 28 Weeks Later (2007) and Knowing (2009).

Mary Rose Byrne (born 24 July 1979 ) is an Australian actress.

Throughout the 1990s, she appeared in several Australian television shows, such as Wildside (1997) and Echo Point (1995), and starred as an alterna-girl love interest in the film Two Hands (1999), opposite fellow up-and-coming actor Heath Ledger.

She made her screen debut in the film Dallas Doll (1994), and continued to act in Australian film and television throughout the 1990s.

Byrne obtained her first film role in Dallas Doll (1994) when she was 15 years old.

In 1999, she studied acting at the Atlantic Theater Company, which was developed by David Mamet and William H. Macy.

A role in the award-winning film My Mother Frank (2000) was followed by her first leading role in Clara Law's The Goddess of 1967 (also 2000), which gained her the Volpi Cup for Best Actress at the 57th Venice International Film Festival.

Byrne revealed in a post-award interview that, prior to winning the Venice Film Festival Award, she was surprised by her own performance and found it confronting watching the film because her acting was "too depressing".

Byrne admitted that "watching myself is confronting because I'm convinced I can't act and I want to get out, that's how insecure I am."

On stage, Byrne starred in La Dispute and in a production of Anton Chekhov's classic Three Sisters at the Sydney Theatre Company.

In 2002, she appeared in a brief appearance as Dormé, the handmaiden to Natalie Portman's Senator Padmé Amidala, in George Lucas's Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones.

She then transitioned to Hollywood as she appeared in the 2002 thriller City of Ghosts, with Matt Dillon.

Byrne had flown to the UK to shoot I Capture the Castle (2003), Tim Fywell's adaptation of the 1948 novel of the same title by Dodie Smith.

In it, she portrayed Rose Mortmain, the elder sister of Romola Garai's Cassandra.

In 2003, Byrne starred in three Australian films; The Night We Called It a Day, with Melanie Griffith and Dennis Hopper; The Rage in Placid Lake, with Ben Lee; and Take Away, alongside Vince Colosimo, Stephen Curry, John Howard and Nathan Phillips.

All films were comedies and opened to varying degrees of success at the box office, but The Rage in Placid Lake earned Byrne an AACTA Award nomination for Best Actress.

In the epic drama Troy (2004), she took on the role of Briseis, the captured priestess presented to "amuse" Brad Pitt's Achilles.

Variety's review of the film stated: "Byrne's spoils-of-war chattel plays more as a convenient invention than as a woman who could possibly turn Achilles’ head and heart around".

In her other 2004 film release, the thriller Wicker Park, Byrne appeared, opposite Josh Hartnett and Diane Kruger, as the girlfriend of a young advertising executive's old friend.

Wicker Park director Paul McGuigan described her as the best actress he has worked with, and her Troy co-star Peter O'Toole described her as "beautiful, uncomplicated, simple, pure actress and a very nice girl".

Byrne reunited with Peter O'Toole, playing a young servant, in the BBC TV drama Casanova (2005), a three-episode production about 18th century Italian adventurer Giacomo Casanova.

In 2005, she also starred with Snoop Dogg in The Tenants, based on Bernard Malamud's novel.

In 2006, Byrne portrayed Gabrielle de Polastron, duchesse de Polignac, a French aristocrat and friend of Marie Antoinette, in Sofia Coppola's Marie Antoinette, with Kirsten Dunst; and appeared as a medical examiner who thinks the dead woman she is prepping is her missing sister in the critically acclaimed thriller The Dead Girl, directed by Karen Moncrieff.

Byrne appeared as Ellen Parsons in the legal thriller series Damages (2007–2012), which earned her nominations for two Golden Globe Awards and two Primetime Emmy Awards.

In a 2009 interview, Byrne said that her mother was an atheist, while both she and her father were agnostic. Her family was described by The Telegraph as "close-knit", and frequently kept her grounded as her career took off.

"At one point one of my sisters had a word with me saying, 'Watch yourself'", she once remarked.

"But they were really supportive."

Byrne attended Balmain Public School, Australian Theatre for Young People (at age eight, encouraged by one of her sisters), and Hunters Hill High School before attending Bradfield Senior College for years 11 and 12.

She later moved lived in the Sydney suburbs of Newtown and Bondi.

Growing up, she experienced "plenty of rejection" from film schools.

"I auditioned for a few of the big drama schools—Nepean, WAAPA, NIDA—and didn't get in to any of them. I was really disappointed with myself. I wasn't quite sure if I'd be legitimate without training for three years in a more traditional sense".

Instead, she studied an arts degree at Sydney University.

"I still have great memories of those days: studying, working, auditioning. Just being a jobbing actor trying to figure out life after high school".

Roles in Get Him to the Greek (2010), Bridesmaids (2011), Spy (2015) and Instant Family (2018) established her as a comedic actress.

She has since starred in the horror film Insidious (2010) and its sequels Insidious: Chapter 2 (2013) and Insidious: The Red Door (2023) ; the superhero film X-Men: First Class (2011) and its sequel X-Men: Apocalypse (2016); and the family film Peter Rabbit (2018) and its sequel Peter Rabbit 2: The Runaway (2021).

Byrne also portrayed Gloria Steinem in the miniseries Mrs. America (2020) and led the comedy series Physical (2021–2023) and Platonic (2023).

Byrne was born in Balmain, a suburb of Sydney, New South Wales.

She has Irish and Scottish ancestry.

Her parents are Jane, a primary school administrator, and Robin Byrne, a semi-retired statistician and market researcher.

She is the youngest of their four children; she has an older brother, George, and two older sisters, Alice and Lucy.