Toni Collette: The Life Story Behind the Versatile Star
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A Blacktown Girl With a Big Voice
Toni Collette was born in Sydney, Australia, on 1 November 1972, and she grew up in the suburb of Blacktown, in the city’s west, in a family where performance was not a profession but a possibility, because her father was a truck driver and her mother worked in customer service, and the household valued hard work, honesty and a sense of humour over show business. Blacktown in the 1970s and 1980s was a working-class suburb, a long way from the theatres of central Sydney and further still from Hollywood, yet Toni was drawn to acting from a young age, through school plays, through the Australian Theatre for Young People, a youth theatre company in Sydney, and through the sheer force of her own personality, which was bold, funny and unafraid. She has spoken about growing up as a girl who was not conventionally pretty by the standards of the time, who was larger than the other girls, and who learned early that her talent, not her looks, would have to carry her, which is a lesson that many actresses learn late, and that Toni learned early, and that has shaped her career ever since, because she has never relied on beauty to get a role, but on ability, on the power of her voice, her face and her presence. She attended Blacktown Girls High School, and then, after leaving school, she applied to the National Institute of Dramatic Art, known as NIDA, in Sydney, one of Australia’s most respected drama schools, and she was accepted, which was a significant achievement, because NIDA’s acting course is highly competitive, and its graduates include many of Australia’s finest actors. At NIDA, Toni trained in voice, movement, Shakespeare and scene study, and she learned the disciplines that every actor needs, yet she left the course before graduating, because she was offered a role in a professional production, and the opportunity to work was more valuable than the qualification, which is a decision that many drama school students face, and that Toni made with the confidence of a young woman who knew she was ready.
Her first major film role came in 1994, when she was twenty-one, in Muriel’s Wedding, directed by P.J. Hogan, a comedy-drama about Muriel Heslop, a young woman from the Queensland town of Porpoise Spit, who dreams of a better life, of a wedding, of a friend, and of escaping the small town that suffocates her. Toni played Muriel with a vulnerability, a humour and a determination that made the character one of the most loved in Australian cinema, because Muriel was not a heroine in the usual sense, she was awkward, overweight, deluded and desperate, yet the audience loved her, because they recognised themselves in her, in her dreams, her failures and her refusal to give up. The film was a huge success in Australia and around the world, and it made Toni a star, because her performance was praised by critics, won her the Australian Film Institute award for best actress, and showed the film industry that she could carry a film on her own, as a leading woman, which is a rare achievement for a young actress, and rarer still for one who did not fit the conventional image of a leading lady. Muriel’s Wedding also gave Australian cinema one of its most famous lines, Muriel’s declaration that she is not nothing, and the film’s soundtrack, featuring the songs of ABBA, became a phenomenon, because the music, like Muriel herself, was joyful, camp and deeply Australian, and the combination of Toni’s performance, the music and the story made the film a classic that is still watched today. For Toni, Muriel’s Wedding was a turning point, because it proved that she could be a leading actress, and it gave her a career that would take her from Sydney to Hollywood, and back again, for the next thirty years.
After Muriel’s Wedding, Toni took roles in Australian and international films that showed her range, and each of them added to the reputation she had built as Muriel. In 1996 she played Harriet Smith in Emma, a film adaptation of Jane Austen’s novel, starring Gwyneth Paltrow as Emma, and the role required her to play a sweet, naive young woman in Regency England, which was a long way from Porpoise Spit, yet she did it with a charm and a sincerity that made Harriet one of the film’s most likeable characters. In the same year she appeared in the Australian film Cosi, and in 1998 she played a supporting role in Velvet Goldmine, a glam rock drama directed by Todd Haynes, which showed that she was willing to take risks, to work with directors who were making unusual films, and to play characters who were different from Muriel. In 1999 she took the role that would bring her to the attention of Hollywood and of the Academy Awards, playing Lynn Sear, the mother of the young boy Cole, in The Sixth Sense, directed by M. Night Shyamalan, a supernatural thriller starring Bruce Willis, and the role required her to play a mother who is worried about her son, who does not understand what is happening to him, and who loves him fiercely, and Toni played her with a naturalism, a warmth and a fear that made the character feel real, because the audience could see themselves in a mother who is trying to protect her child from something she cannot see. The Sixth Sense became one of the most successful films of 1999, and Toni was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance, which was a significant honour, because it recognised her as one of the finest supporting actresses in the world, and it opened the door to Hollywood, where the offers that followed were for leading roles, supporting roles and everything in between, and Toni, who had never been interested in fame for its own sake, took the roles that interested her, not the ones that paid the most.
The Sixth Sense, Little Miss Sunshine and the American Years
The Sixth Sense nomination changed Toni’s career, because it made her a known name in Hollywood, and the roles that followed showed the range that the nomination had recognised. In 2002 she played Fiona Brewer, a single mother, in About a Boy, a comedy-drama based on Nick Hornby’s novel, starring Hugh Grant as Will, a wealthy, childless man who befriends Fiona’s son Marcus, and Toni played Fiona with a vulnerability and a humour that made the character feel like a real person, a woman who is struggling, who is trying to be a good mother, and who is not perfect, which is why the audience loved her. In 2005 she played Rose Feller in In Her Shoes, a drama about two sisters, played by Cameron Diaz and Toni, who are very different, yet who come to understand each other, and the film showed Toni’s ability to play a character who is intelligent, thoughtful and emotionally complex, which is a quality that many actresses lack, because they play characters who are either strong or vulnerable, while Toni plays characters who are both. In 2006 she played Sheryl Hoover, the mother of the family, in Little Miss Sunshine, a comedy-drama about a dysfunctional family who drive across America so that their young daughter Olive can compete in a beauty pageant, and the film became a critical and commercial success, winning Academy Awards and earning Toni praise for her performance as a mother who is trying to hold her family together, even when the family is falling apart, which is a role that many actresses have played, yet Toni played it with a warmth and a humour that made Sheryl feel like a real mother, not a stereotype. Little Miss Sunshine was an independent film, made on a small budget, and its success proved that Toni could carry a film as part of an ensemble, and that her talent was not limited to leading roles but included the ability to make a supporting character memorable, which is a skill that the best actors possess, and that Toni has in abundance.
While she was building her film career in America, Toni also returned to Australia for roles that mattered to her, because she has always kept a connection to home, and the Australian films she made in the 2000s, including Japanese Story in 2003, in which she played Sandy, a geologist who falls in love with a Japanese businessman, showed that she could carry a quiet, intimate drama as well as a Hollywood comedy, and the film won her another Australian Film Institute award for best actress. She also worked in television, and in 2009 she took the lead in the American series The United States of Tara, created by Diablo Cody, the writer of Juno, in which she played Tara Gregson, a mother with dissociative identity disorder, a condition in which a person has multiple personalities, and the role required her to play not one character but many, including a teenage girl, a 1950s housewife and a redneck man, and she did it with a skill that earned her an Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series in 2009, and a Golden Globe Award, which are among the highest honours in American television. The United States of Tara ran for three seasons, from 2009 to 2011, and it was a demanding role, because each episode required Toni to switch between personalities, sometimes in the same scene, and the performance was praised as one of the most impressive on television, because it showed a range that few actors possess, and that Toni had been developing since Muriel’s Wedding. The show also dealt with mental illness in a way that was honest and compassionate, which mattered to Toni, because she has spoken about the importance of telling stories about mental health, and about the need for television to treat such subjects with respect, which is a cause she has championed throughout her career.
Her work in the 2010s continued the pattern of variety, with roles in films, television and theatre, each of them different, and each of them showing a different part of her range. In 2011 she played the mother in the horror film Fright Night, in 2013 she appeared in the Australian film The Way, Way Back, in 2015 she played the mother in the horror comedy Krampus, and in 2017 she appeared in the film XXX: Return of Xander Cage, yet the role that defined the decade for her came in 2018, in Hereditary, a horror film directed by Ari Aster, in which she played Annie Graham, a mother whose family is haunted by grief, by secrets and by a supernatural force, and the performance was widely praised as one of the best in a horror film, and one of the best performances of the year, because Toni played Annie with a rawness, a grief and a fury that made the character feel terrifyingly real. Hereditary became a critical and commercial success, and Toni’s performance, particularly a scene in which Annie screams at her son at the dinner table, became one of the most talked-about scenes in modern horror, because it showed an actress at the peak of her powers, willing to be ugly, to be angry and to be frightening, which is a bravery that few actresses possess. She followed Hereditary with a role in Knives Out in 2019, a murder mystery directed by Rian Johnson, in which she played Joni Thrombey, a lifestyle guru and the widow of the victim’s son, and the film was a huge success, with a cast that included Daniel Craig, Chris Evans and Ana de Armas, and Toni’s Joni was a comic, self-absorbed character who provided much of the film’s humour, which showed that she could be funny as well as terrifying, often in the same year.
Hereditary, Knives Out and the Later Years
In the years after Hereditary and Knives Out, Toni continued to take roles that interested her, often in prestige television and in independent films, and each of them added to a career that was already one of the most varied in modern acting. In 2019 she appeared in the Netflix series Unbelievable, playing Detective Grace Rasmussen, a detective investigating a series of rapes, opposite Merritt Wever, and the series was praised for its sensitive handling of a difficult subject, and for the performances of its two leads, who played detectives who believed the victims when others did not, which is a story that mattered, and that Toni played with a quiet authority that made Grace feel like a real detective, not a television one. In 2022 she played Kathleen Peterson in the HBO series The Staircase, based on the true story of Michael Peterson, played by Colin Firth, whose wife Kathleen was found dead at the bottom of a staircase, and the series, which told the story from multiple perspectives, required Toni to play a woman whose death is the central mystery, and whose life is examined in detail, and her performance, though she appeared mainly in flashbacks, was praised for its warmth and its complexity, because Kathleen was not only a victim but a person, a wife, a mother and a professional, and Toni made her feel like one. She has also worked in theatre, returning to the stage in Sydney and in London, because theatre is where she began, and where she feels most at home, and her stage work, though less visible than her film and television work, has been praised by critics who have seen it, because the stage demands a different kind of acting, one that is live, immediate and unrepeatable, and Toni’s ability to do it, after thirty years in film, shows a versatility that few actors possess.
Her personal life has been as steady as her professional life has been varied, because she married Dave Galafassi, a musician, in 2003, and they have two children, a daughter Sage, born in 2008, and a son Arlo, born in 2011, and the family lives in Sydney, which is a deliberate choice, because Toni has always kept her home in Australia, even while working in America, and that connection to home has kept her grounded, which is a quality that the audience can see in her performances, because she plays characters who feel like real people, not like celebrities. She has also pursued music, forming a band, Toni Collette and the Finish, and releasing an album, Beautiful Awkward Pictures, in 2006, which showed a different side of her talent, the side that sings, writes and performs music, and that the audience had not seen before, because the band was a personal project, not a commercial one, and it gave her a way to express herself outside of acting. She has spoken about the importance of family, about the difficulty of balancing a career and motherhood, and about the need for the film industry to support working mothers, which is a cause she has championed, because she has lived it, and her honesty about that balance, about the difficulty of it and the joy of it, has made her relatable to millions of women who face the same challenge. As of the 2020s, Toni Collette remains one of the most respected actresses in the world, and her career, which began in Blacktown and passed through Muriel’s Wedding, The Sixth Sense, Little Miss Sunshine, The United States of Tara, Hereditary and Knives Out, is still growing, still changing and still surprising audiences who thought they knew what she could do.
What the Career Adds Up To
Looked at as a whole, Toni Collette’s career has a shape that is easy to miss if you only remember one role, because it is the shape of a person who has played a bride, a mother, a detective, a horror heroine, a lifestyle guru and a woman with multiple personalities, and who has done it all with the same honesty, humour and professionalism, which is why she has lasted while other actresses have faded. She has been nominated for an Academy Award, won an Emmy and a Golden Globe, won multiple Australian Film Institute awards, and has worked in film, television, theatre and music, which is a range that few actors achieve, because most actors are good at one thing and spend their lives repeating it, while Toni has been good at many things and has kept finding new ones. The through-line is not fame but versatility, because Toni Collette has never been typecast, never been limited to one kind of role, and never been afraid to take a risk, whether it was playing Muriel, a character who was awkward and overweight, or Annie in Hereditary, a character who was terrifying, or Tara, a character who was many people at once, and that fearlessness is the mark of a great actress. Her story also says something useful about where actresses come from, because she came not from a wealthy family or a famous school but from Blacktown, from a youth theatre, and from a willingness to work, and that is a story that should encourage any young person from a small place who dreams of a bigger life, because the distance between Blacktown and Hollywood, which once seemed impossible to cross, turns out to have been crossable all along, by a girl who was willing to act.
The Actress Who Can Play Anyone
There is one more part of Toni Collette’s story that deserves attention, and it is the way she has been able to play anyone, from a bride in Queensland to a mother in Chicago to a detective in Colorado, and to make each of them feel real, because that ability, to disappear into a character, is the rarest in acting, and Toni possesses it in abundance. She has played women who are funny, sad, angry, frightened and brave, often in the same film, and the audience believes her, because she does not act the emotion but lives it, which is a distinction that is easy to state and hard to achieve, and that Toni achieves in every role. She has also been willing to be ugly, to be unglamorous, to play characters who are not beautiful, which is a bravery that many actresses lack, because the industry rewards beauty, and Toni, who has never relied on beauty, has shown that talent is more important, and that the audience will love a character who is real, even if she is not pretty, which is a lesson that the film industry needs to learn. Her career is a reminder that an actress is not only a face but a person, and that the person behind the face matters more than the face itself, because the face will age and the person will grow, and the growth is what lasts. Toni Collette, the girl from Blacktown who became Muriel, is now a woman in her fifties, a mother, a musician and one of the finest actresses in the world, and the story of how she got there is a story about talent, hard work and the courage to be oneself, which is a story worth telling.
A Career Without Limits
Toni Collette’s career has no single defining role, and that is its strength, because the actress who can play Muriel, Lynn Sear, Sheryl Hoover, Tara Gregson, Annie Graham and Joni Thrombey is an actress who cannot be limited, and the industry, which loves to limit actresses, has failed to limit her, which is a triumph in itself. She has worked in Australia, in America and in Britain, in film, television, theatre and music, and each of those worlds has recognised her talent, which is why she has won awards in all of them, and why directors continue to seek her out, because they know that she will make any character better, any scene stronger, and any film more honest. She has also been a mentor to younger Australian actresses, who look to her as an example of how to build a career, how to survive Hollywood and how to keep working, and that mentorship, though informal, is part of her legacy, because the actresses who follow her will benefit from the path she paved. Her story is a reminder that a career in acting is not a sprint but a marathon, and that the actresses who finish the marathon are the ones who pace themselves, who learn, who adapt and who never stop acting, which is exactly what Toni Collette has done, for more than thirty years, and counting.
My Take:
When I look at Toni Collette’s career, the first thing that strikes me is the range, because she has played Muriel Heslop, a bride from Porpoise Spit, Lynn Sear, a mother in The Sixth Sense, Sheryl Hoover, a mother in Little Miss Sunshine, Tara Gregson, a woman with multiple personalities, Annie Graham, a mother in Hereditary, and Joni Thrombey, a lifestyle guru in Knives Out, and each of those characters is different, yet each of them feels real, which is a rare achievement, because most actresses are good at one kind of character and spend their lives repeating it, while Toni has been good at many kinds and has kept finding new ones. I think her most important decision was the decision to play Muriel, because Muriel was not a conventional leading lady, she was awkward, overweight, deluded and desperate, yet Toni played her with a vulnerability and a humour that made the audience love her, and that love, which was based on recognition rather than admiration, is the deepest kind of love an audience can give, because it says, I am like you, and you are like me, which is a connection that beauty alone cannot create. Muriel’s Wedding made her a star, and it proved that an actress who did not fit the conventional image could carry a film, which is a lesson that the film industry, which still favours beauty over talent, needs to learn, and that Toni has been teaching it for thirty years, one role at a time.
The Hereditary performance deserves a closer look, because it is the role that many critics consider her finest, and the reason it works is that Toni played Annie Graham with a rawness that few actresses are willing to show, because Annie is a mother who is grieving, who is angry, who is frightened, and who is, at times, terrifying, and Toni did not soften any of it, did not make Annie likeable when the story required her to be unlikeable, and did not flinch from the ugliness of grief, which is a bravery that deserves respect. I notice that the most talked-about scene in Hereditary, the dinner table scene in which Annie screams at her son, works because Toni understood that grief is not polite, that it is loud, that it is unfair, and that a mother who has lost a child will say things she does not mean, and the audience, though it may be shocked, recognises the truth in it, because grief is not a performance but a reality, and Toni made it feel real. The performance earned her praise as one of the best of the year, and though she was not nominated for an Academy Award, which many critics thought was an oversight, the performance has lasted, because it is still discussed, still analysed, and still frightening, years after the film was released, which is a measure of its power. I also think her work in The United States of Tara deserves more attention, because playing a woman with multiple personalities, switching between them sometimes in the same scene, is a technical challenge that few actors could manage, and Toni managed it for three seasons, earning an Emmy and a Golden Globe, which are the highest honours in American television, and proving that her range was not limited to film but included television as well.
What I admire most about Toni Collette is the fearlessness, because she has never been afraid to be ugly, to be unglamorous, to play characters who are not beautiful, which is a bravery that many actresses lack, because the industry rewards beauty, and Toni, who has never relied on beauty, has shown that talent is more important, and that the audience will love a character who is real, even if she is not pretty. Her roles in Muriel’s Wedding, in Hereditary and in The United States of Tara all required her to be vulnerable, to show the audience a woman who is flawed, who makes mistakes, and who is not always likeable, and that willingness to be flawed is what makes her performances feel honest, because real people are flawed, and the actress who hides her character’s flaws is lying to the audience. I also think her decision to keep her home in Australia matters, because it shows that she has not cut herself off from where she came from, and that the Australian film industry, which gave her her start, can still give her roles that Hollywood cannot, like Japanese Story, which won her another Australian Film Institute award. There are limits to what she has done, and I should name them, because she has not had a leading role in a major Hollywood franchise, and her film career, though it includes The Sixth Sense and Knives Out, has been a series of supporting and ensemble roles rather than leading roles in blockbusters, which means the question of whether she can carry a major studio film on her own remains open, yet the fact that she has carried independent films, television series and Australian dramas suggests that she can, and that the industry has simply not given her the chance, which is a failure of the industry, not of the actress.
For young actresses, especially those who do not fit the conventional image of a leading lady, Toni Collette’s career is a useful map, because it shows that talent, not beauty, is what lasts, and that the actress who can play anyone, who can be funny and terrifying, vulnerable and strong, will have a career that the beautiful actress, who can only play one kind of role, will not. Her path, from Blacktown to NIDA to Muriel’s Wedding to Hollywood, is a path that many actresses have taken, and the lesson of it is that the training matters, the small roles matter, and the willingness to take a risk on a character like Muriel matters, because the risky role may become the defining work of your life. My honest view is that Toni Collette is one of the finest actresses of her generation, and that her career, taken as a whole, is stronger than any single film in it, because it is the story of a girl from Blacktown who became one of the most respected actresses in the world, not by being beautiful but by being talented, and that is a story worth remembering. The work continues, and the next chapter, whether it is a film, a series or a stage role, will probably be as surprising as the last one, because Toni Collette has never done the expected thing twice, and she is still, in her fifties, learning, growing and surprising audiences who thought they knew what she could do.
One more thing about Toni Collette deserves to be said, and it is the way she has balanced a career and a family, because she has two children, has been married since 2003, and has lived her life in Sydney, which is a deliberate choice that has kept her grounded, and that grounded quality shows in her performances, because she plays characters who feel like real people, not like celebrities. Her band, Toni Collette and the Finish, is another example of that grounded quality, because it was a personal project, not a commercial one, and it gave her a way to express herself through music, which is a different kind of creativity from acting, and one that she clearly enjoys. I think her honesty about motherhood, about the difficulty of balancing work and family, and about the need for the industry to support working mothers, matters, because it is a conversation that the film industry needs to have, and Toni, who has lived it, is one of the few actresses who is willing to have it publicly. The story of Toni Collette is, in the end, a story about a woman who refused to be limited, by her looks, by her background, or by the industry’s expectations, and who built a career on talent, on versatility and on fearlessness, one role at a time, for more than thirty years, and that is a story worth celebrating, because it shows that an actress can be anyone, if she is good enough, and that Toni Collette is good enough to be anyone.
Finally, I want to say something about Muriel’s Wedding, because it is the film that defines her career, and it deserves to be remembered not only as a comedy but as a landmark in Australian cinema, and the reasons for its importance are worth stating plainly. The film told the story of a young woman who was not beautiful, not successful and not popular, yet who dreamed of a better life, and it told that story with humour, with music and with a compassion that made the audience love Muriel, not despite her flaws but because of them, which is a radical idea in a film industry that usually tells stories about beautiful, successful people. Toni’s performance as Muriel was the heart of the film, because she made Muriel feel like a real person, not a caricature, and the audience, particularly young women who had felt like Muriel, recognised themselves in her, which is why the film has lasted, and why it is still watched today. My honest view is that Muriel’s Wedding will be remembered long after many of the films Toni has made since have been forgotten, because it is a film about hope, about the refusal to give up, and about the belief that a person can change their life, which are universal themes, and Toni’s performance is the reason they feel true. When the history of Australian cinema is written, Toni Collette and Muriel Heslop will be in it, and that is a legacy worth having.
I also want to reflect on The Sixth Sense, because it is the film that brought Toni to the attention of Hollywood and of the Academy Awards, and the performance deserves more attention than it usually gets, because Lynn Sear is a supporting character, a mother who is worried about her son, yet Toni made her feel like the emotional centre of the film, because the audience’s fear for Cole was matched by their fear for Lynn, who did not understand what was happening to her son and who loved him fiercely. The nomination for Best Supporting Actress was a recognition of that work, and though she did not win, the nomination opened doors, and the fact that she has continued to be nominated for awards, for The United States of Tara, for Hereditary and for many others, shows that the industry has continued to recognise her talent, even when the roles have been difficult, which is a sign of respect that few actresses receive. I think the Sixth Sense performance is a lesson in supporting acting, because it shows that a supporting role, when it is played well, can be as important as a leading role, and that the actress who understands that is an actress who will always be in demand, because directors need actors who can make a small part feel large, and Toni can.
One last thought on Toni Collette concerns the future, because she is in her fifties, an age when many actresses find their best work, and the roles that are coming to her now suggest that the industry is beginning to see her differently, not only as Muriel or as Annie but as a mature actress who can play complex, difficult women. The roles for women in their fifties, the mothers, the detectives, the leaders, are the roles she was born to play, and the experience and the talent she brings to them will make them memorable, long after the films themselves have ended. I believe her best work is still ahead, because the actresses who last are the ones who keep learning, and Toni Collette has been learning since the day she first walked onto a stage as a girl in Blacktown, and she has not stopped. When the role comes that finally defines her beyond Muriel, and I think it will, the world will look back at the girl from Blacktown, the bride, the mother, the detective and the horror heroine, and see not a series of roles but a long apprenticeship, and the apprenticeship will have been worth it, because the actress it produced is ready.
Finally, I think Toni Collette’s story offers a lesson about versatility, because she has played so many different kinds of characters, in so many different genres, that the industry has never been able to typecast her, and that freedom, to play anyone, is the greatest gift an actor can have. The actress who can be funny and terrifying, vulnerable and strong, in the same year, is an actress who will always be in demand, because directors need that versatility, and audiences love it, because it means they never know what to expect, and that surprise is part of the pleasure of watching her. My honest view is that her career is a triumph of versatility, of a woman who refused to be one thing, and who became many things, one role at a time, from Blacktown to Hollywood and back again, and that is a story worth telling, because it shows that an actor is always more than the label, and that the work of a life is to keep becoming, one character at a time.
Frequently Asked Questions
Where was Toni Collette born?
Toni Collette was born in Sydney, Australia, on 1 November 1972, and she grew up in the suburb of Blacktown. She trained at the National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA) in Sydney.
What was Toni Collette’s breakthrough role?
She played Muriel Heslop in Muriel’s Wedding (1994), directed by P.J. Hogan. The role won her the Australian Film Institute award for best actress and made her a star in Australia.
Who did Toni Collette play in The Sixth Sense?
She played Lynn Sear, the mother of Cole, in The Sixth Sense (1999), directed by M. Night Shyamalan. She was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for the role.
What is The United States of Tara?
The United States of Tara (2009-2011) is an American series created by Diablo Cody, in which Toni Collette played Tara Gregson, a mother with dissociative identity disorder. She won an Emmy Award and a Golden Globe for the role.
Who did Toni Collette play in Hereditary?
She played Annie Graham, a mother whose family is haunted by grief and a supernatural force, in Hereditary (2018), directed by Ari Aster. Her performance, including the dinner table scene, was widely praised.
Who did Toni Collette play in Knives Out?
She played Joni Thrombey, a lifestyle guru, in Knives Out (2019), directed by Rian Johnson, opposite Daniel Craig, Chris Evans and Ana de Armas.
Who did Toni Collette play in Little Miss Sunshine?
She played Sheryl Hoover, the mother of the family, in Little Miss Sunshine (2006), a comedy-drama about a family driving across America for a beauty pageant.
What is Toni Collette’s band?
She formed a band, Toni Collette and the Finish, and released the album Beautiful Awkward Pictures in 2006.
