Essie Davis
Acting • Born 1970-01-19
Biography
Essie Davis is an Australian actress. Born and raised in Hobart, Tasmania, she is the daughter of locally famed artist George Davis. She emerged from the Old Nick Company at the University of Tasmania in the late 1980s and has gone on to appear in Hollywood movies. She is a graduate of the National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA) in Sydney. Her career started after her role in the all Australian movie Dad and Dave: On Our Selection (1995), also starring other prestigious actors such as Geoffrey Rush, Leo McKern, and Joan Sutherland. Her most famous movie roles are in The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions, Richard Flanagan's 1998 Tasmanian film The Sound of One Hand Clapping, and Girl with a Pearl Earring. In 2003 she won the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Supporting Actress for her UK performance in the Tennessee Williams play A Streetcar Named Desire. In 2004 she starred in a Broadway production of Tom Stoppard's Jumpers, for which she earned a Tony nomination. In 2005 she appeared as Mrs. Nellie Lovett in the BBC production of Sweeney Todd with Ray Winstone. In the 2008 film Hey, Hey, It's Esther Blueburger she plays Esther's controlling mother.
Filmography
54 credits
The Matrix Reloaded
Movie • 2003
Maggie
Girl with a Pearl Earring
Movie • 2003
Catharina Bolnes Vermeer
Blackrock
Movie • 1997
Det. Gilhooley
Australia
Movie • 2008
Katherine
Isolation
Movie • 2005
Orla
Charlotte's Web
Movie • 2006
Mrs. Arable
Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole
Movie • 2010
Marella (voice)
Sweeney Todd
Movie • 2006
Mrs Lovett
Hey Hey It's Esther Blueburger
Movie • 2008
Grace Blueburger
South Solitary
Movie • 2010
Alma Stanley
Burning Man
Movie • 2011
Karen
After the Deluge
Movie • 2003
Beth
The Wedding Party
Movie • 2010
Jane
The Pact
Movie • 2003
Helene Davis
The Ripper
Movie • 1997
Evelyn Bookman
The Babadook
Movie • 2014
Amelia Vanek
Lilian's Story
Movie • 1996
Zara
A Poet in New York
Movie • 2014
Caitlin Thomas
The Custodian
Movie • 1994
Jilly
River Street
Movie • 1997
Wendy Davis
Code 46
Movie • 2003
Doctor
They Call Him Mister Babadook: The Making of The Babadook
Movie • 2015
The Silence
Movie • 2006
Juliet Moore
Mindhorn
Movie • 2016
Patricia Deville
Assassin's Creed
Movie • 2016
Mary Lynch
Fungi: The Web of Life
Movie • 2023
Narrator (voice)
True History of the Kelly Gang
Movie • 2019
Ellen Kelly
Babyteeth
Movie • 2020
Anna
Miss Fisher and the Crypt of Tears
Movie • 2020
Phryne Fisher
The Two-Wheeled Time Machine
Movie • 1997
Young alice
Dad and Dave: On Our Selection
Movie • 1995
The Sound of One Hand Clapping
Movie • 1998
Jean
The Matrix Revolutions
Movie • 2003
Maggie
The Justice of Bunny King
Movie • 2021
Bunny King
Nitram
Movie • 2021
Helen
Alien: Earth - On Set Dispatches
Movie • 2025
Self
The Last Post
TV • 2017
Martha Franklin
After the Deluge
TV • 2003
Beth
Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries
TV • 2012
Phryne Fisher
Cloudstreet
TV • 2011
Dolly Pickles
The Slap
TV • 2011
Anouk
Alien: Earth
TV • 2025
Dame Sylvia
Game of Thrones
TV • 2011
Lady Crane
Philip K. Dick's Electric Dreams
TV • 2017
Vera Herrick
Kings in Grass Castles
TV • 1998
Mary Costello
One Day
TV • 2024
Alison
Faraway Downs
TV • 2023
Cath Carney
Guillermo del Toro's Cabinet of Curiosities
TV • 2022
Nancy Bradley
Play School
TV • 1966
Self
Lambs of God
TV • 2019
Sister Iphigenia
Halifax f.p.
TV • 1994
Alison Blount
Young Lions
TV • 2002
Julie Morgan
The White Princess
TV • 2017
Elizabeth Woodville
Apple Cider Vinegar
TV • 2025
Natalie Dal-Bello