Toni Collette
Collette at the Orange British Academy Film Awards, February 2007
Born	Antonia Collette 1 November 1972 (1972-11-01) (age 37) Blacktown, Sydney, Australia
Occupation	Actress/Musician
Years active	1992–present
Spouse(s)	Dave Galafassi (2003–present)

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.

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.¹ 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).¹ She has since established herself as the second best-known and highest-paid Australian actress in Hollywood (after Nicole Kidman), 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).² Her performance(s) on Showtime's United States of Tara has won her the Primetime Emmy Award and Golden Globe for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series.

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.³ 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.⁴ She attended Blacktown Girls High School until the age of 16, and then later attended both the Australian Theatre for Young People and NIDA.

Career

Collette has won five Australian Film Institute awards, including the Australian Best Actress in a Lead Role for Muriel's Wedding in 1994, a role for which she gained 18kg (40lb) in seven weeks. In 1996, she was part of the ensemble cast of the comedy, Così. She received an Academy Award nomination for her role as the mother of a troubled boy in the U.S. film The Sixth Sense, which also starred Bruce Willis and Haley Joel Osment.

She has also received broad acclaim on Broadway, starring as Queenie in Michael John LaChiusa's musical work, The Wild Party. For this role, Collette received a Tony Award nomination for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical.

Collette at the 2005 Toronto Film Festival

Collette had to turn down the title role in Bridget Jones's Diary because she was committed to perform on Broadway at the time, the role eventually went to Renee Zellweger. She then auditioned for the role of ambitious murderess Roxie Hart in the hit film Chicago. She almost got the part but, because she wasn't a well-known enough actress, she lost that role to Renée Zellweger as well.⁵ On the other hand, some of Collette's success has come at the expense of Naomi Watts career as Collette beat out Watts for roles in the films, Velvet Goldmine, Shaft and The Sixth Sense.

In 2006, she played Sheryl Hoover in Little Miss Sunshine, for which she received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress in a Comedy. After filming three films consecutively in the fall of 2006, Collette said in a recent interview that she wants to take a year off from acting and spend time with her friends and family. She has also stated that she wants to take roles in Australian films rather than mainstream US films.^{citation needed} In October 2006, she began touring Australia to promote her first vocal album Beautiful Awkward Pictures, released on Hoola Hoop Records under the name Toni Collette & the Finish, a band for which her husband drums. Collette recently appeared on the Australian television show Cool Aid and performed the song "Look Up" off of her album. Collette and the Finish were a headlining act at the Sydney show of Live Earth. She sang T-Rex's "Children Of The Revolution" with The Finish.

Collette accepted the leading role in the Showtime series, United States of Tara. The show was created by Steven Spielberg and developed by the Academy Award-winning screenwriter of Juno, Diablo Cody. She plays a wife and mother of two with Dissociative Identity Disorder. Tara and her family cope with her four alters (alternate personalities) who began showing up more frequently after Tara stopped taking her medications (to increase her quality of life). Collette plays opposite John Corbett who portrays her husband Max. Filming began on 14 April 2008.⁷ The series was originally planned for a 12 episode season, but has recently been picked up for an additional 12 episode season (for 2010). She won the Emmy for best leading actress in a comedy on 20 September 2009 for her performance in this show.⁸ At the 67th Golden Globe Awards, Collette won the award for Best Actress in a TV Comedy for her performance on Showtime's United States of Tara.

Personal life

Collette has previously dated Jonathan Rhys Meyers.⁹ She has been married to Dave Galafassi since 11 January 2003 and owns homes in both Australia and the Republic of Ireland. Collette is a supporter of animal rights and PETA. She urged former Prime Minister John Howard to end the Australian sheep farming practice of mulesing, which is considered by many animal rights activists to be cruel.¹⁰ She later revised her position after doing her own research of the Australian wool industry.¹¹ She gave birth to her first daughter Sage Florence in Sydney on 9 January 2008.¹²

Filmography

Discography

• Beautiful Awkward Pictures (2006) - Toni Collette & The Finish

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Toni Collette

• Toni Collette at the Internet Movie Database
• Collette & Sage Photo