Isla Fisher

Isla Lang Fisher (born 3 February 1976) is an Australian actress and writer.

Isla Lang Fisher was born in Muscat on 3 February 1976, the daughter of Scottish parents Elspeth Reid and Brian Fisher.

At the time, her father was working there as a banker for the United Nations.

Fisher and her family returned to their hometown of Bathgate, then moved to Australia when she was six years old and settled in Perth.

She has four brothers and said that she had a "great" upbringing in Perth with a "very outdoorsy life".

She has stated that her "sensibility is Australian", she has a "laid-back attitude to life", and that she feels "very Australian".

Her parents later separated; her mother and brothers now live in Athens, while her father lives in Frankfurt.

Fisher attended Swanbourne Primary School and Methodist Ladies' College in Perth.

She appeared in lead roles in school productions such as Little Shop of Horrors.

At the age of 21, she attended L'École Internationale de Théâtre Jacques Lecoq in Paris, where she studied clown, mime, musical theatre, and commedia dell'arte.

Fisher made her first on-screen appearances in commercials on Australian television at the age of 9, and made her professional acting debut in 1993 with two guest-starring roles in the children's television shows Bay City and Paradise Beach.

At 18, with her mother's help, she published two teen novels, Bewitched and Seduced by Fame.

Born in Oman to Scottish parents who moved with her to Australia during her childhood, she began appearing in television commercials and came to prominence for her portrayal of Shannon Reed on the Australian soap opera Home and Away (1994–1997), for which she received two Logie Award nominations.

Between 1994 and 1997, Fisher played Shannon Reed, a young, unconfident bisexual woman who develops anorexia, on the Australian soap opera Home and Away.

For her performance in the series, Fisher received nominations for Most Popular New Talent at the 1995 Logie Awards, and for Most Popular Actress at the 1997 ceremony.

After leaving the soap, Fisher enrolled at L'École Internationale de Théâtre Jacques Lecoq, a theatre and arts training school in Paris, and went on to appear in pantomime in the United Kingdom.

In a 1996 interview with The Sun-Herald, she spoke of her success and experiences on the show: "I would be stupid to let it go to my head because it could all end tomorrow and I would just fade back into obscurity. I like working on Home and Away but it's a heavy workload so I get stressed out a lot. We work about 15 hours a day, including the time it takes to learn lines. I know a lot of people work those sort of hours but I think we really feel it because most of us are young and fairly inexperienced. But I am very grateful because it is good experience. It's like an apprenticeship, but we do it in front of 20 million people so all our mistakes are up for the world to see."

Her other notable credits include Swimming Pool (2001), I Heart Huckabees (2004), London (2005), Wedding Daze (2006), The Lookout (2007), Hot Rod (2007), Definitely, Maybe (2008), Burke & Hare (2010), Visions (2015), Grimsby (2016), Keeping Up with the Joneses (2016), Tag (2018), The Beach Bum (2019), Greed (2019), and Blithe Spirit (2020).

She also toured with Darren Day in the musical Summer Holiday; appeared in the London theatre production of Così, and played an ill-fated member of an elite group of international students in the German slasher film Swimming Pool (2001).

Fisher transitioned to Hollywood with her portrayal of Mary Jane in the live-action adaptation of Scooby-Doo (2002) and has since starred in films such as Wedding Crashers (2005), Confessions of a Shopaholic (2009), Bachelorette (2012), The Great Gatsby (2013), Now You See Me (2013), and Nocturnal Animals (2016).

Fisher transitioned to Hollywood in 2002, with the part of the love interest of a cowardly slacker Shaggy Rogers in the live-action film Scooby-Doo.

Although Scooby-Doo received negative reviews, the film was a commercial success, grossing US$275.7 million worldwide.

On that early stage in her career, Fisher remarked: "I only came out on the back of the movie for the premiere of Scooby Doo. And then, I ended up getting representation and ended up getting a job, almost straight away. So, I was fortunate, in that I didn't have to come out to L.A. and join a queue of however many people, and try to get work. I came in on the back of what was deemed as a big studio movie that had had extraordinary success".

She subsequently played supporting roles in the independent film Dallas 362 (2003) and the Australian comedy The Wannabes (also 2003).

In his review for the latter, David Rooney of Variety felt that Fisher "adds easy charm and a thinly developed hint of romantic interest", in what he summed as an "uneven but endearing farce about breaking into showbiz".

In the comedy I Heart Huckabees (2004), directed by David O. Russell, she played what was described as a "punchy little part", by newspaper The Age.

In a 2005 interview with Sunday Mirror, she said that had she not been successful as an actress, she would probably have been a full-time writer.

Fisher's breakthrough came with the comedy Wedding Crashers (2005), opposite Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson, taking on the role of the seemingly sexually aggressive and precocious younger daughter of a politician falling in love with an irresponsible wedding crasher.

On her part in the film, she remarked: "It was an interesting character to play, because she was so crazy and lacking in any kind of social etiquette. She doesn't care what anyone thinks."

For one particular scene, involving sexual content, she used a body double.

"I negotiated that from the beginning, trying to analyse why. I find pornographic violence, just gratuitous and unnecessary than nudity, because there's nothing more peaceful and beautiful".

The film was favourably received by critics and made US$285.1 million worldwide.

Empire magazine found Fisher to be an "unexpected, scene-stealing joy", and her performance earned her the Breakthrough Performance Award at the MTV Movie Awards and two Teen Choice Awards nominations.

Fisher appeared as a Manhattan party host in the independent drama London (2005), opposite Jessica Biel, Chris Evans and Jason Statham.

She next starred in the romantic comedy Wedding Daze (2006), with Jason Biggs, playing a dissatisfied waitress who spontaneously gets engaged to a grieving young man.

While Wedding Daze opened in second place on its UK opening weekend, the film received mediocre reviews from critics.

She has also voiced characters in animated films such as Horton Hears a Who! (2008), Rango (2011), Rise of the Guardians (2012), and Back to the Outback (2021).

Fisher had a recurring role on the fourth and fifth seasons of the sitcom Arrested Development (2013–2019) and stars on the comedy drama series Wolf Like Me (2022–present).

She has authored two young adult novels and the Marge in Charge book series.

She is married to English comedian Sacha Baron Cohen, with whom she has three children.