Rose Byrne

She is one of the few actors to be nominated for the Triple Crown of Acting. Byrne made her screen debut in the film Dallas Doll (1994), and continued to act in Australian film and television throughout the 1990s and early 2000s. She gained her first leading film role in The Goddess of 1967 (2000), which earned her the Volpi Cup for Best Actress at the 57th Venice International Film Festival. She further demonstrated her range as an actress with roles in the comedy The Rage in Placid Lake (2003), the historical drama Marie Antoinette (2006), and the horror film 28 Weeks Later (2007). Byrne established herself as a prominent comedienne with roles in films such as Get Him to the Greek (2010), Bridesmaids (2011), Neighbors (2014), Spy (2015), Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising (2016), and Instant Family (2018). During this period, she also starred in the horror franchise Insidious (2010–2023), the X-Men prequel films (2011–2016), and the family comedy films Peter Rabbit (2018) and Peter Rabbit 2: The Runaway (2021). For her performance as a troubled mother in the psychological drama If I Had Legs I'd Kick You (2025), she received the Silver Bear and the Golden Globe Award as well as a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress. On television, Byrne starred as Ellen Parsons in the legal thriller series Damages (2007–2012), which earned her two consecutive Primetime Emmy Award nominations. She portrayed Gloria Steinem in the miniseries Mrs. America (2020), and led the Apple TV comedy series Physical (2021–2023) and Platonic (2023–present). She starred on Broadway in a revival of the screwball comedy You Can't Take It With You (2014–2015) and in the Noël Coward farce Fallen Angels (2026), the latter of which earned her a Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play nomination.

Rose Byrne studied at University of Sydney, Hunters Hill High School and Australian Theatre for Young People. The recorded working language is English. Residence is recorded at Melbourne and Los Angeles. Works named in the authority record are Peter Rabbit, Peter Rabbit 2: The Runaway and If I Had Legs I'd Kick You. Distinctions recorded are MTV Movie Award for Best Jaw Dropping Moment, Australian Film Institute International Award for Best Actress, AACTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role and Volpi Cup for Best Actress.

Mary Rose Byrne was born on 24 July 1979 in the Sydney suburb of Balmain. She has Irish and Scottish ancestry. Byrne is the youngest of four children born to Jane and Robin Byrne. She has an older brother, George, and two older sisters, Lucy and Alice. In a 2009 interview, Byrne said that her mother was an atheist, while both she and her father were agnostic. Her family was described by The Daily Telegraph as "close-knit", and frequently kept her grounded as her career took off. Byrne attended Balmain Public School, Australian Theatre for Young People (at age eight, encouraged by one of her sisters), and Hunters Hill High School before attending Bradfield Senior College for years 11 and 12. She later lived in the Sydney suburbs of Newtown and Bondi. She auditioned for several major Australian drama schools, including Nepean, Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA), and National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA), but was not accepted into any of them. Instead, she studied 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 obtained her first film role in Dallas Doll (1994) when she was 15 years old. Throughout the 1990s, she appeared in several Australian television shows, such as Wildside (1997) and Echo Point (1995), and starred as the love interest in the film Two Hands (1999), opposite fellow up-and-coming actor Heath Ledger. A role in the award-winning film My Mother Frank (2000) was followed by her first leading role in Clara Law's The Goddess of 1967 (also 2000), which gained her the Volpi Cup for Best Actress at the 57th Venice International Film Festival. Byrne revealed in a post-award interview that, prior to winning the Venice Film Festival Award, she was surprised by her own performance and found it confronting watching the film because her acting was "too depressing". Byrne admitted that "watching myself is confronting because I'm convinced I can't act and I want to get out, that's how insecure I am." On stage, Byrne starred in La Dispute and in a production of Anton Chekhov's classic Three Sisters at the Sydney Theatre Company. In 2002, she made a brief appearance as Dormé, the handmaiden to Natalie Portman's Senator Padmé Amidala, in George Lucas's Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones. She then transitioned to Hollywood as she appeared in the 2002 thriller City of Ghosts, with Matt Dillon. Byrne had flown to the UK to shoot I Capture the Castle (2003), Tim Fywell's adaptation of the 1948 novel of the same title by Dodie Smith. In it, she portrayed Rose Mortmain, the elder sister of Romola Garai's Cassandra. In 2003, Byrne starred in three Australian films; 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. All films were comedies and opened to varying degrees of success at the box office, but The Rage in Placid Lake earned Byrne an AACTA Award nomination for Best Actress. In the epic drama Troy (2004), she took on the role of Briseis, the captured priestess presented to "amuse" Brad Pitt's Achilles. Variety's review of the film stated: "Byrne's spoils-of-war chattel plays more as a convenient invention than as a woman who could possibly turn Achilles' head and heart around". In her other 2004 film release, the thriller Wicker Park, Byrne appeared, opposite Josh Hartnett and Diane Kruger, as the girlfriend of a young advertising executive's old friend. Wicker Park director Paul McGuigan described her as the best actress he has worked with, and her Troy co-star Peter O'Toole described her as "beautiful, uncomplicated, simple, pure actress and a very nice girl". Byrne reunited with Peter O'Toole, playing a young servant, in the BBC TV drama Casanova (2005), a three-episode production about 18th century Italian adventurer Giacomo Casanova. In 2005, she also starred with Snoop Dogg in The Tenants, based on Bernard Malamud's novel. In 2006, Byrne portrayed Gabrielle de Polastron, duchesse de Polignac, a French aristocrat and friend of Marie Antoinette, in Sofia Coppola's Marie Antoinette, with Kirsten Dunst; and appeared as a medical examiner who thinks the dead woman she is prepping is her missing sister in the critically acclaimed thriller The Dead Girl, directed by Karen Moncrieff.

Byrne had four film releases and one short film in 2013. She obtained the part of the newlywed wife, opposite Rafe Spall, in I Give It a Year, a comedy about the trials and tribulations of a couple during their first year of marriage. The Hollywood Reporter found Byrne and Spall to be "mismatched", while Variety praised their chemistry and noted: "Year will do nothing but enhance the reputations of its core actors, especially Byrne, who's shaping up into an ace comedienne perfectly suited to screwball". The film was a commercial success in the UK and Australia, where it was given a wide release in theatres. In The Place Beyond the Pines, a generational drama directed by Derek Cianfrance, she appeared with Ryan Gosling and Bradley Cooper, as the wife of a police officer who shoots a bank robber and has to deal with the consequences. She played a Google executive in the film The Internship, opposite Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson, as she was drawn to "the way it addressed the generational gaps and the ever-changing landscape of the technological world". Byrne filmed The Turning, a short film installment in a Tim Winton omnibus feature, and worked again with fellow Australians Wan and Whannell for the sequel Insidious: Chapter 2, reuniting with Patrick Wilson and Lin Shaye. The film received mixed reviews from critics and became the biggest opening day in North America box office history for the month of September following its release. It eventually made over US$160 million against a budget of US$5 million. 2014 saw Byrne star in the family dramedies Adult Beginners and This Is Where I Leave You as well as the comedy Neighbors, alongside Seth Rogen and Zac Efron, in which she played one half of a couple who come into conflict with a fraternity that has recently moved in next door. Critics highlighted her performance in Neighbors, with The Atlantic writing: "Byrne walks away with the film by making [her character] a well-rounded, conflicted person, rather than the film's fun cop who has to tell everyone the boring truth". The film was a box office success, taking in US$270.1 million worldwide. A critically panned but commercially successful remake of the 1982 classic Annie was released in December 2014 and featured Byrne playing the role of Grace Farrell, the titular character's mother figure and Mr. Stacks' faithful personal assistant. In 2015, Byrne reunited with Melissa McCarthy and starred with Jude Law and Jason Statham in the hit comedic action film Spy, playing the daughter of an arms dealer, and also starred with Susan Sarandon in the dramedy The Meddler as the daughter of an ageing widow who moves to Los Angeles in hopes of starting a new life after her husband passes away. The film was acclaimed by critics and found an audience in limited release. In 2016, she reprised her roles in Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising and X-Men: Apocalypse, The following year she filmed the black comedy I Love You, Daddy (2017) where she played a beautiful Hollywood actress. The film was directed by and also starring Louis C.K. which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival but was dropped by its distributor following sexual misconduct accusations made against C.K. Byrne said of the experience that "Louis was very sweet with me, and I had a very respectful experience. But it's obviously very complicated" adding, "I think it will be a while before that film can be seen, and I think that's right." In 2018, Byrne voiced Jemima Puddle-Duck and played a local woman named Bea who spends her time painting pictures of the rabbits in the live-action comedy Peter Rabbit, which made US$351.2 million worldwide. She reprised her role in the 2021 sequel Peter Rabbit 2: The Runaway. In Juliet, Naked (also 2018), a romantic comedy adapted from Nick Hornby's novel of the same name, she appeared as a woman dating an obscure rock musician (played by Ethan Hawke). The film was an arthouse success, with Rotten Tomatoes' critical consensus reading: "Juliet, Naked's somewhat familiar narrative arc is elevated by standout work from a charming cast led by a well-matched Rose Byrne and Ethan Hawke." Byrne appeared as the voice of the titular character in I Am Mother (2019), a thriller and sci-fi movie with Clara Rugaard and Oscar winner Hilary Swank. Byrne costarred with Adam DeVine, Alexandra Shipp, and Wanda Sykes, voicing a virtual assistant in the movie Jexi (2019). She voiced Brandy Cattle in season 3 of Bluey in the episodes, "Onesies" and "The Sign".

In 2020, she starred opposite her husband Bobby Cannavale playing the title role in a revival of the greek tragedy Medea at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. Adam Feldman of Time Out praised the performance describing her as "riveting". Frank Scheck of The Hollywood Reporter noted that while "Byrne has proven herself a fine dramatic actress in the past" she has been overshadowed recently by her onscreen comedic roles. In 2025, Byrne received widespread acclaim for her performance as a troubled mother in the Mary Bronstein directed psychological drama If I Had Legs I'd Kick You, which premiered to positive reviews at the 75th Berlin International Film Festival, winning her the Silver Bear for Best Leading Performance. Her performance was widely praised and it earned her numerous Best Actress awards, including the National Board of Review and Golden Globe, as well as nominations for the Academy, Actor, BAFTA and Critics' Choice Awards. She is the eighth Australian to be nominated for the Oscar in Best Actress. In March of 2026, Byrne appeared on Broadway in the revival of Noël Coward's comedic farce Fallen Angels opposite Kelli O'Hara. She received positive reviews with Jason Zinoman of The New York Times praising their chemistry writing, "The dynamite performances of Byrne and O'Hara are the main event". For her performance she was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play.

Byrne has been considered one of the world's most beautiful women. She ranked 9th and 16th in Australian FHM's "Sexiest Women in the World", in 2001 and 2006 respectively. She has been featured several times in "The Annual Independent Critics List of the 100 Most Beautiful Famous Faces from Around the World", ranking 15th (2004), 3rd (2005), 7th (2006), 5th (2007), 8th (2008), 1st (2009), and 15th (2010). She was also featured in the "Most Beautiful People" list of 2007 in Who Magazine, and ranked 5th in Hallmark Channel's 2008 "TV's Sexiest Leading Woman" poll. She was voted 78th on Ask Men's Top 99 'most desirable' woman of 2012 list, and People ranked her 7th in its "Best Dressed Celebrities" list of 2015. Byrne was the face of Max Factor between 2004 and 2009, and in 2014, she became the face of Oroton, the Australian producer of luxury fashion accessories. Since the beginning of her career, her performances have been acclaimed by critics. In 2018, Byrne was noted for her comedic work. She consciously made the transition to less dramatic material in the late 2000s, finding the idea of being "boxed in" to be "insufferable". "You have to be aggressive in this business,” she noted. "You have always got to push for what you want. Working with Glenn [Close, on Damages], she was the hardest worker ever. She was constantly pushing". Her turn to comedy led to The Hollywood Reporter calling her "the most in-demand supporting actress for comedies". Decider wrote a story titled "How Did Rose Byrne Become One of Our Best Comedic Actresses?", in which it was remarked: "Byrne's emergence as one of the brightest stars in the Apatowverse is all the more remarkable for her lack of a comedy background. [...] Any doubts about Byrne's massive comedic talent—and after Bridesmaids and Neighbors, you'd have to be pretty stubborn to still have doubts—were put to rest with 2015's Spy, where she again steals the show as merciless terrorist Rayna. Byrne and McCarthy's private-plane banter is the highlight of the film and could have gone on another 30 minutes as far as I'm concerned".

In 2013, Byrne lived in New York and said she remained insecure about a stable career: "I don't think that insecurity ever leaves you. You're a freelancer. There's always an element of uncertainty." Byrne has supported UNICEF Australia as the face of the 2007 Designers United campaign, and was a jury member of Tropfest in 2006 and Tropfest@Tribeca in 2007. She is a graduate and ambassador for NIDA's (National Institute of Dramatic Art) Young Actors Studio. Through her brother George's marriage, Byrne is a sister-in-law of New Zealand actress Rose McIver. Byrne was in a relationship with Australian actor Brendan Cowell for over six years. He moved from Sydney to New York City following Byrne's success on Damages. Their relationship ended in January 2010. Byrne has been in a relationship with American actor Bobby Cannavale since 2012. They have two sons, born in February 2016 and November 2017. In 2026, Byrne referred to Cannavale as her husband.