Joel Edgerton Biography

Joel Edgerton (born 23 June 1974) is an Australian actor, producer, and screenwriter. He is best known for his roles in films such as Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones (2002), Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith (2005), Kinky Boots (2005), Animal Kingdom (2010), The Thing (2011), Warrior (2011), The Odd Life of Timothy Green (2012), Zero Dark Thirty (2012), and The Great Gatsby (2013). He voiced Metal Beak, the main antagonist of Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole (2010). He starred as Ramesses II, the main antagonist, in the 2014 biblical film Exodus: Gods and Kings.

Early life

Edgerton was born in Blacktown, New South Wales, the son of Michael, a solicitor and property developer, and Marianne Edgerton. He graduated from The Hills Grammar School in 1991. He attended the Nepean Drama School at the University of Western Sydney, before moving on to various stage productions, most notably at Sydney Theatre Company.

Career

Edgerton has appeared in such films as Erskineville Kings, King Arthur, Ned Kelly, and as a young Owen Lars in Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones and Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith. He played Will on The Secret Life of Us, for which he was nominated for an AACTA Award. In 2005, he lent his voice to the title character of The Mysterious Geographic Explorations of Jasper Morello, an Academy Award-nominated animated short film. The same year, he appeared as the son of a deceased shoemaker in the British comedy Kinky Boots. He also appeared in Smokin' Aces (2006).

Edgerton appeared in the film Whisper (2007), The Square (which he co-wrote and was directed by his brother), Acolytes, and Separation City. In 2009, he starred alongside as Stanley in the Sydney Theatre Company's acclaimed production of A Streetcar Named Desire. He appeared in a production of the same play at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in December 2009. He starred as an MMA fighter in the MMA film Warrior (2011).

In February 2010, Edgerton was cast in Matthijs van Heijningen Jr.'s 2011 prequel to The Thing, portraying helicopter pilot Sam Carter. He played Tom Buchanan in Baz Luhrmann's 2013 remake of The Great Gatsby. He was honoured for his work in international roles with the 2011 Australians in Film Breakthrough Award. In June 2013, he was added to the Jeff Nichols film Midnight Special. In September 2013, he was reported to be in talks with Warner Bros. to star in the film adaptation of Shantaram.

In 2014, Edgerton starred in the biblical film Exodus: Gods and Kings, as Ramesses II, Moses' adoptive brother, who became a notorious king. He will co-star in the 2015 film Black Mass as John Connolly, FBI contact and childhood friend of notorious gangster Whitey Bulger.

Philanthropy

Edgerton has been an ambassador for The Fred Hollows Foundation for a number of years and has strong personal ties to the organisation, which works to restore sight in poor countries and to improve Aboriginal health. In 2012, he visited Nepal, where he saw sight restored first hand. He has described social activism and his involvement with The Fred Hollows Foundation as "an escape" from the "materialistic life" that often surrounds an actor.

Personal life

Edgerton's brother, Nash, is a stuntman and filmmaker.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1996	Loaded	Frog	Producer
	Race the Sun	Steve Fryman
1998	Never Tell Me Never	Pab
	Praise	Leo
	Bloodlock	Danny	Writer, producer
1999	Dogwatch	Sparrow
	Erskineville Kings	Wayne
	Secret Men's Business	Baz	Television film
2000	The Three Stooges	Tom Cosgrove	Television film
	Sample People	Sem
	2000	Gate
2001	Saturn's Return	Barney
	'	Guy	Writer
2002	'	Shane
	Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones	Owen Lars
2003	'	Rod Blue
	Ned Kelly	Aaron Sherritt
2004	King Arthur	Gawain
2005	Kinky Boots	Charlie
	Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith	Owen Lars
	'	Jasper Morello	Voice
2006	Smokin' Aces	Hugo Croop
	Open Window	Peter
2007	Spider	Paramedic
	Crossbow	The Dad
	Whisper	Vince Delayo
2008	$9.99	Ron
	'	Billy	Writer, producer
	Father	Narrator
	Acolytes	Ian Wright
2009	'	Ben Simmons
	Separation City	Simon
2010	Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole	Metal Beak	Voice
	Animal Kingdom	Barry Brown
2011	Warrior	Brendan Conlon
	'	Sam Carter
2012	Wish You Were Here	Dave
	'	Jim Green
	Zero Dark Thirty	Patrick
2013	'	Tom Buchanan
	Felony	Malcolm Toohey	Writer, producer
2014	The Rover	Writer
	Jane Got a Gun	Dan Frost
	Exodus: Gods and Kings	Ramesses II
2015	Life	John G. Morris
	Midnight Special
	Black Mass	John Connolly

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1995	Police Rescue	Andy	Episode: "Wild Card"
1995-1997	Spellbinder	Bazza	2 episodes
1996-1999	Water Rats	Aaron Lawrence	2 episodes
1997	Big Sky	Pierce Bateman	Episode: "Lost and Found"
	Fallen Angels	Scoob	Episode: "The Faust Lane"
1998	Wildside	Michael Savini	Episode: "Episode #1.15"
2001-2002	'	Will McGill
2002	Dossa and Joe	Robbo	2 episodes
2007	Dangerous	Senior Sergeant Mark Field
2009	Dirt Game	Shane Bevic	6 episodes

Awards and nominations

Year	Award	Category	Work	Result
2000	AACTA Award	Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Telefeature or Mini-Series	'
2002		Best Lead Actor in a Television Drama
	Logie Award	Most Outstanding Actor
	AACTA Award	Best Actor in a Supporting Role	'
	Film Critics Circle of Australia Award	Best Supporting Actor
2003			Ned Kelly
2008	Melbourne Underground Film Festival Award	Best Actor	Acolytes
	AACTA Award	Best Actor in a Supporting Role	'
		Best Screenplay Shared with Matthew Dabner
2009	Film Critics Circle of Australia Award	Best Supporting Actor
		Best Screenplay - Original Shared with Matthew Dabner
	New Zealand Film and TV Award	Best Lead Actor in a Feature Film	Separation City
2010	Film Critics Circle of Australia Award	Best Actor	'
	IF Award
	AACTA Award	Best Actor in a Supporting Role	Animal Kingdom
2011	Film Critics Circle of Australia Award	Best Supporting Actor	Animal Kingdom & '
2012	MTV Movie Award	Best Fight Shared with Tom Hardy	Warrior
	Washington D.C. Area Film Critics Association Award	Best Ensemble Shared with the entire cast	Zero Dark Thirty
2013	AACTA Award	Best Actor in a Leading Role	Wish You Were Here
	Film Critics Circle of Australia Award	Best Actor
2014	AACTA Award	Best Actor in a Supporting Role	The Great Gatsby
	AACTA International Award	Best Actor in a Supporting Role