Rachel Griffiths

Not to be confused with the Anglo-American economist Rachel Griffith.
Rachel Griffiths

Born (1968-12-18) 18 December 1968
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Occupation Actress, director
Years active 1992–present
Spouse(s) Andrew Taylor (m. 2002)
Children 3

Rachel Anne Griffiths (born 18 December 1968) is an Australian actress and television director. She came to prominence with the 1994 film Muriel's Wedding and her Academy Award nominated performance in Hilary and Jackie (1998). She portrayed masseuse Brenda Chenowith in the HBO series Six Feet Under and Sarah Walker Laurent on the ABC drama series Brothers & Sisters. Griffiths has received a Golden Globe Award, two Screen Actors Guild Awards and three Australian Film Institute Awards for her work.

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. She attended Star of the Sea College, a high school in Gardenvale.[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 Fringe 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 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 uninvited the opening of the Crown Casino in Melbourne, Australia while topless. She stated a wish to protest the views taken by the media and state government towards the new casino, inspired by the story of Lady Godiva.[3][4]

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.[5] 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.[6] In 2015, Griffiths made her debut as a television director when she directed three episodes of the second series of the Australian teen drama Nowhere Boys.[7][8]

Personal life

Griffiths married Australian artist Andrew Taylor on 31 December 2002 in the chapel of her high school, Star of the Sea College, in Melbourne.[9] They have three children: a son born in 2003, and two daughters, one born in 2005 and the other in 2009.[10]

Griffiths is a devout Catholic.[11]

Filmography

Film

Year Title Role Notes
1994 Muriel's Wedding Rhonda Epinstall
1996 Così Lucy
1996 Jude Arabella
1996 Children of the Revolution Anna
1997 My Son the Fanatic Bettina/Sandra
1997 My Best Friend's Wedding Samantha Newhouse
1998 Among Giants Gerry
1998 Hilary and Jackie Hilary du Pré
1998 Amy Tanya Rammus
1998 Divorcing Jack Lee Cooper
1998 Tulip Writer and Director
1999 Me Myself I Pamela Drury
2001 Very Annie Mary Annie Mary Pugh
2001 Blow Ermine Jung
2001 Blow Dry Sandra
2002 Hard Word, TheThe Hard Word Carol
2002 Rookie, TheThe Rookie Lorri Morris
2003 Ned Kelly Susan Scott
2006 Step Up Director Gordan
2009 Beautiful Kate Sally
2011 Burning Man Miriam
2012 Underground: The Julian Assange Story Christine Assange
2013 Patrick Matron Cassidy
2013 Saving Mr. Banks Aunt Ellie
2016 The King's Daughter Abbess Post-production
2016 Hacksaw Ridge Bertha Doss
2016 Mammal Margaret Completed

Television

Year Title Role Notes
1993–1994 Secrets Sarah Foster 13 episodes
1994 Jimeoin Various 8 episodes
1995 Police Rescue Shelley Episode: "Breaking Strain"
2001–2005 Six Feet Under Brenda Chenowith 60 episodes
2004 Kath & Kim Herself Episode: "The Mango Espadrille"
2005 Angel Rodriguez Nicole Television movie
2006–2011 Brothers and Sisters Sarah Walker 110 episodes
2008 Comanche Moon Inez Scull 3 episodes
2010 Rake Eddie Langhorn Episode: "R vs Langhorn"
2013 Paper Giants: Magazine Wars Dulcie Boling 2 episodes
2013 Camp MacKenzie Granger 10 episodes
2014 Q&A Herself
2014 House Husbands Belle Recurring role
2016 Indian Summers Sirene
2016 Barracuda Samantha Taylor 4 episodes
2017 When We Rise Diane Miniseries
Director
Year Title Episodes
2015 Nowhere Boys Series 2, episode 8
Series 2, episode 9
Series 2, episode 10
2016 Indian Summers Series 2, episode 4

Awards and nominations

Year Award Category Nominated work Result
1994 AACTA Award Best Actress in a Supporting Role
Muriel's Wedding
Won
Film Critics Circle of Australia Award Best Supporting Actress Nominated
1997 British Independent Film Awards Best Performance by an Actress in a British Independent Film
My Son the Fanatic
Nominated
1998 Academy Award Best Supporting Actress
Hilary and Jackie
Nominated
Chicago Film Critics Association Award Best Supporting Actress Nominated
Screen Actors Guild Award Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role Nominated
AACTA Award Best Actress in a Leading Role
Amy
Nominated
1999 British Independent Film Awards Best Performance by an Actress in a British Independent Film
Hilary and Jackie
Nominated
2000 AACTA Award Best Actress in a Leading Role
Me Myself I
Nominated
Film Critics Circle of Australia Award Best Supporting Actress Nominated
2002 AACTA Award Best Actress in a Leading Role
The Hard Word
Nominated
Golden Globe Award Best Supporting Actress – Series, Miniseries or Television Film
Six Feet Under
Won
Primetime Emmy Award Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series Nominated
Screen Actors Guild Award Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series Nominated
2003 Golden Globe Award Best Actress – Television Series Drama Nominated
Primetime Emmy Award Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series Nominated
Screen Actors Guild Award Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series Won
2004 Won
2005 Nominated
2006 Australian Film Institute Awards Best Actress Won
Screen Actors Guild Award Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series Nominated
2007 Primetime Emmy Award Outstanding Supporting Actress – Drama Series
Brothers & Sisters
Nominated
Satellite Award Best Supporting Actress – Series, Miniseries or Television Film Nominated
Australian Film Institute Awards Best Actress Nominated
2008 Golden Globe Award Best Supporting Actress – Series, Miniseries or Television Film Nominated
Primetime Emmy Award Outstanding Supporting Actress – Drama Series Nominated
Australian Film Institute Awards Best Actress Nominated
2009 Golden Globe Award Best Supporting Actress – Series, Miniseries or Television Film Nominated
AACTA Award Best Actress in a Supporting Role
Beautiful Kate
Won
2016
Hacksaw Ridge
Pending

References

  1. "Rachel Griffiths Biography (1968–)". Filmreference.com. Retrieved 2010-03-07.
  2. Clohesy, Bernadette (15 December 2012). "Two of us: Kate Kennedy and Rachel Griffiths". The Sydney Morning Herald.
  3. "Crown protest led to naked ambition". Melbourne Herald Sun.
  4. Feinstein, Howard (18 December 1998). "The Rachel capers | Culture | guardian.co.uk". London: Film.guardian.co.uk. Retrieved 2010-03-07.
  5. McWhirter, Erin. "Family comes first". The Telegraph. Retrieved 5 January 2013.
  6. Gans, Andrew; Hetrick, Adam (21 July 2011). "Rachel Griffiths and Judith Light Will Join Stockard Channing in Broadway's Other Desert Cities".
  7. Mathieson, Craig (13 November 2014). "Nowhere Boys: Rachel Griffiths directs in ABC3's second season". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 14 January 2015.
  8. "Nowhere Boys: Episodes 8–13 Guide (Series 2)". Australiantelevision.net. Retrieved 29 December 2014.
  9. "Griffiths gets hitched". Los Angeles Times. 3 January 2003.
  10. "Rachel Griffiths' Sweet Clementine". 4 August 2009.
  11. 'Haunted house on the hill': Rachel Griffiths describes abuse history at destroyed Melbourne church ABC, 30 March 2015,
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