Rose Byrne

Rose Byrne is an Australian actress born Mary Rose Byrne on 24 July 1979 in Balmain, a suburb of Sydney, New South Wales. The youngest of four children born to Jane and Robin Byrne, she has an older brother, George, and two older sisters, Lucy and Alice. She has Irish and Scottish ancestry. Byrne attended Balmain Public School, where she began studying at the Australian Theatre for Young People at age eight, encouraged by one of her sisters. She later attended Hunters Hill High School and Bradfield Senior College for years eleven and twelve. After auditioning unsuccessfully for several major Australian drama schools, including Nepean, WAAPA, and NIDA, she pursued an arts degree at Sydney University. In 1999, she studied acting at the Atlantic Theater Company, which was developed by David Mamet and William H. Macy.

Byrne's screen career began at age fifteen with a role in the Australian film Dallas Doll in 1994. Throughout the remainder of the decade she appeared in Australian television productions including Echo Point in 1995 and Wildside in 1997, and starred opposite Heath Ledger in Two Hands in 1999. Her first leading film role came in Clara Law's The Goddess of 1967 in 2000, which earned her the Volpi Cup for Best Actress at the 57th Venice International Film Festival. That same year she appeared in the award-winning film My Mother Frank. In 2002, she made a brief appearance as Dormé, handmaiden to Natalie Portman's Senator Padmé Amidala, in George Lucas's Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones, and transitioned further toward Hollywood with a role in the thriller City of Ghosts alongside Matt Dillon. She also traveled to the United Kingdom to film I Capture the Castle, Tim Fywell's adaptation of Dodie Smith's 1948 novel, in which she portrayed Rose Mortmain, the elder sister of Romola Garai's Cassandra.

In 2003, Byrne appeared in three Australian comedies: 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. The Rage in Placid Lake earned her an AACTA Award nomination for Best Actress. The following year she took on the role of Briseis in the epic drama Troy alongside Brad Pitt, and appeared in the thriller Wicker Park opposite Josh Hartnett and Diane Kruger. In 2005, she reunited with Troy co-star Peter O'Toole in the BBC television drama Casanova, playing a young servant in the three-episode production about Giacomo Casanova, and also starred with Snoop Dogg in The Tenants. In 2006, she portrayed Gabrielle de Polastron, duchesse de Polignac, in Sofia Coppola's Marie Antoinette alongside Kirsten Dunst, and appeared in the critically acclaimed thriller The Dead Girl, directed by Karen Moncrieff.

Byrne's breakthrough period began in 2007, when she appeared in two studio science fiction thrillers: Danny Boyle's Sunshine, in which she played a space vessel's pilot alongside Cillian Murphy and Chris Evans, and Juan Carlos Fresnadillo's 28 Weeks Later, in which she portrayed an army medical officer. The latter grossed over US$64.2 million globally. Also in 2007, she began starring as Ellen Parsons, a young attorney, in the FX legal thriller series Damages alongside Glenn Close. She appeared in all 59 episodes through the series finale in September 2012, and received two consecutive Primetime Emmy Award nominations for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series, in 2009 and 2010, as well as Golden Globe Award nominations for Best Supporting Actress in a Series, Miniseries, or Television Film in 2008 and 2010. In 2009, she appeared alongside Nicolas Cage in the science fiction thriller Knowing, which grossed US$186.5 million worldwide.

Byrne established herself as a prominent comedic film actress beginning with Get Him to the Greek in 2010. She followed that with Bridesmaids in 2011, Neighbors in 2014, Spy in 2015, Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising in 2016, and Instant Family in 2018. Concurrently, she starred in the horror franchise Insidious, which ran from 2010 to 2023, and appeared in the X-Men prequel films between 2011 and 2016. She also voiced a lead role in the family comedy films Peter Rabbit in 2018 and Peter Rabbit 2: The Runaway in 2021. On television, she portrayed Gloria Steinem in the miniseries Mrs. America in 2020, led the Apple TV comedy series Physical from 2021 to 2023, and has starred in Platonic since 2023. For her performance in the psychological drama If I Had Legs I'd Kick You in 2025, Byrne received the Silver Bear for Best Leading Performance, the Independent Spirit Award for Best Lead Performance, the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy, and a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress.

On stage, Byrne performed in productions of La Dispute and Anton Chekhov's Three Sisters at the Sydney Theatre Company. Her Broadway career spanned from 2014 to 2026, during which she starred in You Can't Take It With You and appeared in Angels Fall. Her accolades across her career include a Golden Globe Award, an Independent Spirit Award, three AACTA Awards, a Silver Bear, and a Volpi Cup, in addition to nominations for an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, two Actor Awards, and two Primetime Emmy Awards.