Australian screen and stage actress, known for her expressive and highly malleable face, distinctive versatility, physical transformations and accents. She has worked in independent films as well as supporting roles in studio films, for which she has received numerous accolades. Her breakthrough role came in the comedy-drama film Muriel’s Wedding (1994), for which she earned a Golden Globe Award nomination and won the AACTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role. Collette achieved greater international recognition for her role in the horror film The Sixth Sense (1999), for which she was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.
Her Broadway performances include the lead role in The Wild Party (2000), which earned her a Tony Award nomination. On television, she has starred in the Showtime comedy-drama series United States of Tara (2008–2011) and the Netflix drama miniseries Unbelievable (2019). For the former, she won a Primetime Emmy Award and a Golden Globe Award. She has won five AACTA Awards, from eight nominations.
Collette’s films include diverse genres, such as the period comedy Emma (1996), the action thriller Shaft (2000), the period drama The Hours (2002), the romantic drama Japanese Story (2003), the comedies In Her Shoes (2005) and The Way, Way Back (2013), the horror films Krampus (2015) and Hereditary (2018), and the mystery film Knives Out (2019).
The eldest of three siblings, with two younger brothers, she was a tomboy and a bit of a rebel when young. She found acting at age 14, when she was cast in a school performance of Godspell. Two years later she convinced her parents to let her enroll in the National Institute of Dramatic Arts but after 18 months of the three-year program, she dropped out. Just afterwards, she managed to land her first part in a movie, Spotswood (1992). The cast included Anthony Hopkins and Russell Crowe with whom she has had an enduring friendship. Live stage beckoned and she joined the Sydney Theatre Company. In 1992, she won a critics’ circle award as Best Newcomer for her performance as Sonya in Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya. That year she won the lead in the film, Muriel’s Wedding (1994), putting on 18 kg (40 lb) for the role. While she stayed in Australia for her next two roles, Hollywood ultimately called, and she had a minor role in The Pallbearer (1996) and then landed a part in Emma (1996). Though she was kept very busy in movies, it wasn’t until she played the mother of the young boy in The Sixth Sense that her name and face became really well known to American audiences.
Collette married Dave Galafassi, drummer of the Australian band Gelbison, in January 2003. The couple have two children together. Their first child, a girl named Sage Florence, was born in Sydney on 9 January 2008, and their son, Arlo Robert, was born on 22 April 2011. As the lead singer of Toni Collette & the Finish, she wrote all 11 tracks of their sole album, Beautiful Awkward Pictures (2006). The band toured Australia, but have not performed nor released any new material after 2007. In 2017, Collette and Jen Turner co-founded the film production company Vocab Films.
Link to Wikipedia biography