Essie Davis

Essie Davis, born Esther Davis on 19 January 1970 in Hobart, Tasmania, is an Australian actress who has worked across stage, film, and television in Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The youngest of seven children born to artist George Davis and Mary Davis, she grew up in suburban Hobart in a family connected to the founding of the Australian Green movement, raising and growing their own food. Her earliest stage experience came at age five, when she made her debut at Hobart's Theatre Royal playing a moonbeam in a community theatre production.

Davis was educated at Clarence High School, Rosny College, the University of Tasmania — where she was a member of the Old Nick Company — and the National Institute of Dramatic Art in Sydney. Upon graduating from NIDA, she joined the Bell Shakespeare Company, where she was cast as Juliet in its 1993 production of Romeo and Juliet. That same year she performed in the company's productions of Hamlet and Richard III, followed by Macbeth and The Taming of the Shrew in 1994.

Her film career began with the 1995 Australian production Dad and Dave: On Our Selection, which starred Geoffrey Rush, Leo McKern, and Joan Sutherland. Subsequent film roles included Richard Flanagan's 1998 Tasmanian film The Sound of One Hand Clapping, Girl with a Pearl Earring, and The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions. Davis continued to work on stage in Australia during this period, playing Gwendolen Fairfax in a national tour of The Importance of Being Earnest in 2000 and appearing in The School for Scandal for the Sydney Theatre Company in 2001.

In 2003, Davis won the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Supporting Actress for her portrayal of Stella Kowalski opposite Glenn Close in Trevor Nunn's production of A Streetcar Named Desire at the National Theatre in London. The following year, she made her Broadway debut in Tom Stoppard's Jumpers at the Brooks Atkinson Theatre, earning a Tony Award nomination for Best Featured Actress in a Play. In 2005, she appeared as Mrs. Nellie Lovett in the BBC production of Sweeney Todd alongside Ray Winstone.

Davis appeared in the 2008 Baz Luhrmann film Australia with Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman, and that same year played Maggie in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof for the Melbourne Theatre Company. Also in 2008, she returned to Tasmania to help establish the Tasmanian Theatre Company, with a focus on supporting local theatre and youth participation in the arts. In 2011, she received a Logie Award nomination for her role as Anouk in the Australian miniseries The Slap.

From 2012 to 2015, Davis played Phryne Fisher in the ABC Television costume drama Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries, a role she reprised in the 2020 feature film Miss Fisher and the Crypt of Tears. Her performance as Amelia Vanek in Jennifer Kent's 2014 debut feature The Babadook brought her nominations for an AACTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role, an AACTA International Award for Best Actress, and a Fangoria Chainsaw Award for Best Leading Actress. In 2016, she joined the cast of the HBO series Game of Thrones in its sixth season as Lady Crane, and that same year began filming The White Princess, in which she played Dowager Queen Elizabeth.

Davis played Sister Iphigenia in the 2019 Foxtel miniseries Lambs of God, a performance that earned her an AACTA Award nomination for Best Lead Actress in a Drama Series. That same year, she played Ellen Kelly in Justin Kurzel's True History of the Kelly Gang, which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival on 11 September 2019. In early 2019, she filmed the comedy-drama Babyteeth, playing the role of Anna; the film had its world premiere at the 76th Venice International Film Festival, where it competed for the Golden Lion. In 2020, she completed filming on The Justice of Bunny King, in which she plays the title role alongside Thomasin McKenzie.

Davis met film director Justin Kurzel while performing as Catherine in Belvoir Street Theatre's production of A View from the Bridge in 1996, at which time Kurzel was working as the production's costume and set designer. The two married in 2002 and have twin daughters together, and have collaborated on multiple stage and screen projects.