Rachel Griffiths Biography

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. 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.

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 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.

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. 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.

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.

Filmography

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1994	Muriel's Wedding	Rhonda Epinstall	Australian Film Institute Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role Film Critics Circle of Australia Award for Best Supporting Actress
1996	Così	Lucy
1996	Jude	Arabella
1996	Children of the Revolution	Anna
1997	My Son the Fanatic	Bettina/Sandra	Nominated "? British Independent Film Award for Best Performance by a British Actress in an Independent Film
1997	My Best Friend's Wedding	Samantha Newhouse
1998	Among Giants	Gerry
1998	Hilary and Jackie	Hilary du Pré	Nominated "? Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress Nominated "? British Independent Film Award for Best Actress Nominated "? Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actress Nominated "? Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role
1998	Amy	Tanya Rammus	Nominated "? Australian Film Institute Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role
1998	Divorcing Jack	Lee Cooper
1998	Tulip		Writer and Director Aspen Shortsfest 'Watch It!' Award Aspen Shortsfest Audience Award - Special Recognition Melbourne International Film Festival OCIC Award Palm Springs International ShortFest Award for Best of the Festival
1999	Me Myself I	Pamela Drury	Nominated "? Australian Film Institute Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role Nominated "? Film Critics Circle of Australia Award for Best Actor - Female
2001	Very Annie Mary	Annie Mary Pugh
2001"05	Six Feet Under	Brenda Chenowith	Television series, 60 episodes Australian Film Institute International Award for Best Actress (2006) Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress " Series, Miniseries or Television Film (2002) Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series (2003–04, ) Nominated "? Golden Globe Award for Best Actress " Television Series Drama (2003) Nominated "? Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series (2002) Nominated "? Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series (2003)
2001	Blow	Ermine Jung
2001	Blow Dry	Sandra
2002	'	Carol	Nominated "? Australian Film Institute Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role
2002	'	Lorri Morris	Character and Morality in Entertainment Award (shared with Cast and Crew)
2003	Ned Kelly	Susan Scott
2005	Angel Rodriguez	Nicole
2006"11	Brothers and Sisters	Sarah Walker	Television series, 109 episodes Nominated "? Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress " Series, Miniseries or Television Film (2008"09) Nominated "? Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress " Drama Series (2007"08) Nominated "? Satellite Award for Best Supporting Actress " Series, Miniseries or Television Film (2007) Nominated "? Australian Film Institute International Award for Best Actress (2007"08)
2006	Step Up	Director Gordan
2008	Comanche Moon	Inez Scull
2009	Beautiful Kate	Sally	Australian Film Institute Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role
2010	Rake	Eddie Langhorn	Guest role Episode 6
2011	Burning Man
2012	Underground: The Julian Assange Story	Christine Assange	Pending- TV Week Logie Award for Most Popular Actress
2013	Paper Giants: Magazine Wars	Dulcie Boling	Television series, 2 episodes
2013	Camp	MacKenzie Granger