Antonia "Toni" Collette (born 1 November 1972) is an
Australian actress and
musician, known for her acting work on
stage,
television and
film as well as a secondary career as the
lead singer of the band
Toni Collette & the Finish. She is also known for her role as Tara Gregson on
Showtime's
United States of Tara, for which she won the
Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series.
Collette's acting career began in the early
1990s with comedic roles in films such as
Spotswood (1992) and
Muriel's Wedding (1994), for which she was nominated for a
Golden Globe Award for Best Actress.
Following her performances in
Emma (1996) and
The Boys (1998), Colette achieved international recognition as a result of her
Academy Award-nominated portrayal of Lynn Sear in
The Sixth Sense (1999).
She has since established herself as one of the best-known and highest-paid Australian actresses in
Hollywood, who has had her biggest commercial successes with
thrillers such as
Shaft (2000) and
Changing Lanes (2001) and independent comedy films like
About a Boy (2002) for which she received a
BAFTA nomination,
In Her Shoes (2005) and
Little Miss Sunshine (2006).
Early life
Collette was born in
Blacktown, a working class suburb in western
Sydney, the daughter of Judy, a customer-service representative, and Bob Collette, a truck driver. She has two younger brothers, Ben and Christopher.
[Toni Collette Biography - Yahoo! Movies] From an early age, Collette showed a talent for acting. She faked
appendicitis when she was eleven years old and was so convincing that doctors removed her
appendix, although tests showed nothing wrong with it.
[Sanjiv Bhattacharya meets Hollywood's leading lady Toni Collette | Interviews | guardian.co.uk Film] She attended Blacktown Girls High School until the age of 16, and then later attended both the
Australian Theatre for Young People and
NIDA.
