Toby Schmitz

Toby Schmitz, born on 4 May 1977 in Perth, Western Australia, is an Australian actor, playwright, director, and novelist. He grew up in the suburb of Swanbourne as the elder of two brothers and attended Scotch College, where he took part in a school production of Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. At fifteen, he encountered comic performer Tim Minchin at Midnite Youth Theatre Company, where the two appeared together in a 1992 production of The Wind in the Willows. Both subsequently enrolled at the University of Western Australia, where Schmitz briefly studied law and co-hosted a cabaret show with Minchin featuring Beat poems and Beatles medleys. He went on to train at the National Institute of Dramatic Art, graduating in 1999.

Following his graduation, Schmitz built an extensive stage career across several of Australia's leading theatre companies, including Sydney Theatre Company, Company B at Belvoir St Theatre, and Griffin Theatre Company. His STC work encompassed The School for Scandal, directed by Judy Davis, and the premiere and national tour of David Williamson's The Great Man, directed by Robyn Nevin. He also took on leading roles in Major Barbara, Hanging Man, The Great, Rabbit, and Travesties. In 2000, playwright Brendan Cowell cast Schmitz in the premiere of Men at Sydney's Old Fitzroy Theatre after meeting him at an STC audition, initiating a series of collaborations that included Self Esteem in 2007 and the title role in Ruben Guthrie for Company B in 2008 and 2009.

For Griffin Theatre Company, Schmitz portrayed the central character Luke Boyce across Louis Nowra's The Boyce Trilogy — The Woman with Dog's Eyes in 2004, The Marvellous Boy in 2005, and The Emperor of Sydney in 2006 — all directed by David Berthold. In 2009, he played Coleman in The Lonesome West at Belvoir, and the following year took the title role in a La Boite Theatre production of Hamlet in Brisbane, also directed by Berthold. He played Hamlet again in 2013, and that same year appeared opposite Minchin in a Sydney Theatre Company production of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead — a play the two had previously performed together in minor roles during a 1996 university production. In 2012, Schmitz played Elyot Chase in Noël Coward's Private Lives in Sydney and Canberra, and also appeared in Strange Interlude.

In 2015, Schmitz appeared in Andrew Upton's adaptation of Chekhov's Platonov, titled The Present, for Sydney Theatre Company, alongside Cate Blanchett, Jacqueline McKenzie, Marshall Napier, and Richard Roxburgh. The production transferred to New York City's Ethel Barrymore Theatre in 2016, marking Schmitz's Broadway debut. He returned to Broadway in 2017 in the play The Passing Present. In later years, Schmitz played Benedick in Bell Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing in 2022, and took on the role of Emperor Joseph II alongside Michael Sheen as Salieri in a production of Amadeus at the Sydney Opera House, performing the role of Salieri for one performance in January. He also played the dual roles of Dad and Crow in his own adaptation of Grief Is the Thing with Feathers for Belvoir, a production that won the Sydney Theatre Awards for Best New Australian Work and Best Mainstage Production, with Schmitz receiving a nomination for Best Performance in a Leading Role in a Mainstage Production. Beginning in February 2026, he appeared as Yvan in a national touring production of Yasmina Reza's Art, opposite Damon Herriman and Richard Roxburgh.

On television, Schmitz made his first appearance in the 1996 drama series Sweat, playing Cameron alongside Heath Ledger and Martin Henderson. He held a lead role as Gabe Francobelli in The Cooks beginning in 2004, and in 2010 appeared in the Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks-produced war drama miniseries The Pacific. In 2011, he portrayed notorious drug smuggler David McMillan in Underbelly Files: The Man Who Got Away and played Barry Humphries opposite Asher Keddie as Ita Buttrose in the two-part miniseries Paper Giants: The Birth of Cleo. From 2014, Schmitz played historical pirate John Rackham across all four seasons of the Starz series Black Sails, a prequel to Robert Louis Stevenson's 1883 novel Treasure Island. In 2017, he starred opposite Claudia Karvan in the ABC legal drama Newton's Law as Lewis Hughes. Subsequent television work included recurring roles in Bloom and Reckoning in 2020, a role in Mexican horror series S.O.Z. Soldados o Zombies in 2021, and Otto Bell in the first season of The Twelve in 2022. In 2024, he played corrupt detective Tim Cotton in the miniseries Boy Swallows Universe, based on Trent Dalton's 2018 semi-autobiographical novel, appearing alongside Simon Baker, Bryan Brown, Travis Fimmel, and Phoebe Tonkin. Additional television credits include McLeod's Daughters, The Heartbreak Tour, White Collar Blue, Water Rats, Fat Cow Motel, Home and Away, and Temptation.

Schmitz's film work includes the 2002 short Heaven with Rose Byrne, the 2003 comedy The Rage in Placid Lake opposite Ben Lee and Byrne, and a minor role in the 2004 romantic drama Somersault with Abbie Cornish and Sam Worthington. That same year, he played Gary in Right Here Right Now alongside Matthew Newton and Ewen Leslie, a film he also co-wrote and co-produced with Newton. In 2006, he appeared in Solo opposite Colin Friels and Vince Colosimo, and reunited with Newton and Leslie in the 2008 film Three Blind Mice, which screened at numerous international film festivals and received the 11th FIPRESCI International Critics Award at the London Film Festival. In 2010, he appeared in Griff the Invisible opposite Ryan Kwanten, and the following year played the lead character Goodchild in LBF.

As a playwright, Schmitz wrote his first play, dreamalittledreamalittle, while studying at NIDA; it was presented there in 1998 and later restaged at Belvoir St Theatre. In 2000, he directed Howard Korder's Boys' Life at Sydney's Bondi Pavilion for the Sydney Fringe Festival. He won Sydney Theatre Company's Patrick White Playwrights' Award in 2002 for his play Lucky, which was subsequently produced by the Australian Theatre for Young People. His play Chicks Will Dig You! was performed as part of Company B's 2003 B Sharp season and won the Australian National Playwrights' Centre's New Dramatists Award in 2004, having also been shortlisted for the 2003 Philip Parsons Young Playwrights Award. In 2004, he co-wrote the satirical Christmas pantomime This Blasted Earth with actor Travis Cotton, staged at Sydney's Old Fitzroy Hotel, with Minchin again involved in the production.