| Rachel Griffiths |
| Born |
Rachel Anne Griffiths
18 December 1968 (age 44)
Melbourne, Australia |
| Occupation |
Actress |
| Years active |
1991–present |
| Spouse(s) |
Andrew Taylor (2002-present) |
Rachel Anne Griffiths (born 18 December 1968) is an Australian film and television actress. She came to prominence with the 1994 film
Muriel's Wedding and her
Academy Award nominated performance in
Hilary and Jackie (1998). She is best known for her portrayals of
Brenda Chenowith in the
HBO series
Six Feet Under and
Sarah Walker Laurent on the
ABC primetime drama
Brothers & Sisters. Her work in film and television has earned her a
Golden Globe Award, two
Screen Actors Guild Awards and three
Australian Film Institute Awards.
Early life
Griffiths was born in
Melbourne, but spent her early childhood on the
Gold Coast. She is the daughter of Anna, an art teacher and arts/education consultant, and Edward Griffiths.
[1]
She moved to Melbourne at the age of five, with her mother and two
older brothers. When she was 11, her father left home with an 18-year
old woman.
[2]
After earning a
Bachelor of Education degree in drama and dance at
Victoria College, Rusden, she began her career as a member of Woolly Jumpers, a
Geelong-based
community theatre group. She had her first success as the creator and performer of
Barbie Gets Hip, which played at the
Melbourne International Film Festival in 1991.
Career
Griffiths and
Toni Collette were relative unknowns when they were cast as best friends and fellow outcasts in the 1994 film
Muriel's Wedding. Her performance won her critical acclaim and both the
Australian Film Critics Award and the
Australian Film Institute Awards
for Best Supporting Actress. She followed this triumph in 1996 with the
role of an earthy, ill-mannered pig farmer's daughter in
Michael Winterbottom's
Jude.
In 1997, Griffiths sparked a controversy after attending the opening of the
Crown Casino in
Melbourne,
Australia.
Topless and uninvited, her stated reasoning being the protest of the
views taken by the media and state government towards the new casino,
and inspired by the story of
Lady Godiva.
[3][4][5]
Griffiths joined forces again with
Muriel's Wedding director
P. J. Hogan for her American film debut,
My Best Friend's Wedding, in 1997. That same year she starred in
My Son the Fanatic, a British film in which she portrayed a tough
Yorkshire prostitute who becomes involved with a considerably older
Pakistani taxicab driver, played by
Om Puri.
Griffiths received an
Academy Award nomination for
Best Supporting Actress for her portrayal of real-life flautist
Hilary du Pré opposite
Emily Watson as her sister, famed cellist
Jacqueline "Jackie" du Pre, in
Hilary and Jackie (1998). She then appeared in 2001's
Blow, opposite
Johnny Depp and
Ray Liotta.
In 2001, Griffiths was cast as one of the leads in
Six Feet Under. Her performance as emotionally scarred
massage therapist Brenda Chenowith earned her
Golden Globe and
Screen Actors Guild Awards, as well as two
Emmy Award
nominations. In the third season, she missed four episodes due to her
first pregnancy. Her second pregnancy was written into the show's final
season and she appeared in almost every episode of the series.
[6] She also played a supportive housewife in the film
The Rookie opposite
Dennis Quaid for which she garnered generally good reviews.
As of 2006, she became part of the ensemble cast, co-starring alongside
Sally Field,
Calista Flockhart,
Balthazar Getty and
Matthew Rhys, of the dramatic series
Brothers & Sisters, in which she portrays
Sarah Walker, who inherits control of the family business after her father's death. Griffiths received a 2007
Emmy
nomination and a 2008 Emmy nomination for her work on the series.
Griffiths received 2008 and 2009 Golden Globe nominations for her work
on
Brothers & Sisters. Additionally, she appeared as "Inez Scull" in the 2008 mini-series adaptation of
Larry McMurtry's
Comanche Moon.
Griffiths made her Broadway debut in
Other Desert Cities, directed by
Joe Mantello and co-starring
Judith Light, which began previews on 10 October 2011, opening on 3 November 2011.
[7]
Personal life
Griffiths married Australian artist
Andrew Taylor
on 31 December 2002 in Gardenvale at her high school, Star of the Sea
College. They have three children, son Banjo Patrick (born 22 November
2003, Melbourne) and daughters Adelaide Rose (born 23 June 2005, Los
Angeles) and Clementine Grace (born 21 June 2009). In 2000 she stated in
a
Madison magazine interview that she is an
atheist.
[8]
Filmography
References
External links
No comments:
Post a Comment