17 Best Australian Actresses of All Time

Australia is a hotbed of acting talent. Over the past two decades especially, dozens of actors and actresses have established themselves in Oz before flying the coop for the bright lights of Hollywood. While some struggle to break through initially, the majority soon find themselves up for big roles and working with the best people in the business. Australian actresses are leading the charge when it comes to entertainers from the land Down Under.

Nicole Kidman, Margot Robbie, and Cate Blanchett are just three of the incredible talents who possess beauty, brains, and brawn, along with eye-catching acting abilities that have seen them become Hollywood favorites. Read on and discover more about the best Australian actresses and the impact they are having on the movie industry.

1. Nicole Kidman

Nicole Kidman has been acting for almost four decades, getting her start in the Australian drama Bush Christmas in 1983. She has gone on to star in over 90 movies and TV shows and established herself as one of Australia’s great actresses. Some of her best roles have come in the movies Moulin Rouge!, Dead Calm, The Hours, and Cold Mountain. 

While she continues to make films, Kidman has also found critical acclaim on the small screen, appearing in the HBO mini-series Big Little Lies, The Undoing, and Nine Perfect Strangers. Kidman has also won an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, six Golden Globe Awards, and two Primetime Emmy Awards. She currently splits her time between LA and Sydney with her famous husband Keith Urban and their children. 

2. Toni Collette

ABBA fans will know Toni Collette from the iconic Aussie flick Muriel’s Wedding. Everybody else most likely first saw her in the M. Knight Shyamalan thriller The Sixth Sense. After starring in several Australian productions during the early to mid-90s, Collette then made the move to Hollywood and hasn’t looked back.

She may not be your typical leading lady, but Collette always captivates when on screen. Roles in projects including Little Miss Sunshine, Hereditary, Knives Out, United States of Tara, and The Staircase showcase her talents and why she deserves a place on this list. 

3. Margot Robbie 

Not only is she supremely talented, but Margot Robbie is one of the finest actresses around. She can play any type of character, from the wife of a millionaire in The Wolf of Wall Street to anti-hero Harley Quinn in Suicide Squad, Birds of Prey, and The Suicide Squad.

Although she doesn’t do as well as some of her peers when it comes to awards, Robbie has been nominated for an Academy Award two times, a BAFTA Award twice, and a Golden Globe Award three times. At just 32 years of age, she’s plenty more time to win all the accolades she deserves. 

 4. Olivia Newton John

She might have been born in the United Kingdom but Australians have claimed her as their own. The singer, dancer, and actress was a four-time Grammy Award winner who broke out with the performance as Sandy in the hit musical Grease. Olivia Newton John would release a ton of singles over the journey, including hits “Physical,” “Banks of the Ohio,” and “Magic” from Xanadu. 

Sadly Newton John battled illness during the final two decades of her life. A three-time breast cancer survivor, Newton John lost her fight with the disease when it reared its ugly head in 2022.

5. Isla Fisher

When it comes to Australian actresses getting it done, look no further. Isla Fisher got her start on the Aussie soap opera Home and Away, which is one of the country’s longest-running shows. Taking off for Hollywood in the early 00s, Fisher secured roles in the comedy blockbusters Wedding Crashers and Hot Rod before fully breaking out in the movies in Confession of a Shopaholic.

Typically starring in comedies, it’s no wonder Fisher married comic Sascha Baron Cohen. The two live in Fisher’s hometown in Australia with their three kids. 

6. Natasha Bassett

While her career is still in its infancy, Natasha Bassett is one to watch moving forward. Her first credit was in the direct-to-TV movie Dungoona. She has since found more fame in the comedy Hail, Ceaser!, horror The Pale Door, and Bazz Lurhman’s Elvis.

Bassett is also well known by pop music fans for her portrayal of Britney Spears in the Lifetime biopic Britney Ever After in 2017. As she continues to build her filmography and hit her career goals, there is no doubt Bassett will become a star. 

7. Cate Blanchett 

Cate Blanchett is an incredible talent. The versatile actor can play any type of role and has done so throughout her engaging career. She graduated from the National Institute of Dramatic Art and took to the stage soon after. It wasn’t until she secured the role of Elizabeth I in the drama film Elizabeth that Blanchett got recognized.

Some of Blanchett’s best moves include The Lord of the Rings trilogy, The Aviator, Blue Jasmine, Nightmare Alley, and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. The talented actress has also won a stack of awards throughout her career and is one of the great Aussie actresses. 

8. Emily Browning

Even though it’s a terrible film, the horror Ghost Ship has one shining light, Emily Browning. Appearing in the movie led to a small role in Ned Kelly alongside Heath Ledger before she really got noticed in kiddies flick Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events. Since then she’s appeared in Sleeping Beauty, Pompeii, and Shangri-La Suite.

For the last few years, Browning has appeared in the TV shows American Gods and The Affair but is returning to the big screen with the drama Monica. 

9. Mia Wasikowska

Making her debut on the hit Australian medical drama All Saints, Mia Wasikowska quickly followed this up with her debut movie role in Suburban Mayhem. But it was when the beautiful Australian actress appeared in Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland that everyone in Hollywood sat up and took notice. 

Still living in New South Wales, Wasikowska continues to pick interesting projects where she plays a variety of different characters. Jane Eyre, The Turning, and The Devil All the Time are some of the best movies from the avid photographer.

10. Laura McCulloch

Neither a big name in America nor her home country, Australian actress Laura McCulloch is still waiting for her big break. She has worked and lived in Australia, England, and America and is currently working as an actor, singer, voice-over artist, writer, and producer. 

If McCulloch’s name sounds vaguely familiar, that is because you might remember her from a wild Tinder story earlier this year. McCulloch went missing and her friends and family were so concerned that wanted posters were made up to advertise her disappearance. It turned out she was in jail after being arrested for throwing a drink at a child and resisting arrest. 

11. Ruby Rose

Victorian Ruby Rose began life in the entertainment industry as a model. She has worked with several high-profile brands while also designing her own clothing. She parlayed this fame into being an MTV VJ which helped her transition into acting, something Rose always wanted to try. 

It was her role in Orange is the New Black that saw Rose taken seriously as an actor. She popped up in big-budget actioners Resident Evil: The Final Chapter, XXX: Return of Xander Cage, John Wick: Chapter 2, and The Meg. She also played Batwoman for one season but was fired for questionable behavior on the set. 

12. Katherine Langford

Australian actress Katherine Langford hails from Western Australia and had her big breakthrough on the TV show 13 Reasons Why. Since then she has only appeared in several productions, but each has increased her exposure and demonstrated her acting prowess. Langford appears in the movies Knives Out and Spontaneous and has the main role in both the fantasy drama Cursed and the Aussie crime series Savage River.

While her filmography is small and she’s still in the infancy of her career, Langford is certainly one to watch in the coming years. Until then, be sure to check her out in Savage River if you can find it on your nearest streaming service. 

13. Rose Byrne

Rose Byrne is another Australian actress who has been around for years and had a very successful career in Hollywood. While she might not score the juicy roles like her peers Cate Blanchette and Nicole Kidman, she always delivers and instills her characters with everything she has. 

Mixing up her work-life with movies and TV series, Byrne has done it all, from playing a woman who becomes obsessed with aerobics in the 80s hit Physical to a woman whose family is haunted by evil spirits in the Insidious franchise. There aren’t enough good things you can say about Byrne, who remains one of Hollywood’s underrated actresses. 

14. Teresa Palmer

Born in South Australia, Teresa Palmer has been working steadily as an actress for the past 15 years. Although she now lives in Los Angeles with her husband and four children, Palmer still calls Australia home, as that’s where she got her first acting roles. She appeared as an extra in the serial killer movie Wolf Creek before securing the lead in the Aussie drama 2:37.

Things really took off when she scored a part in horror The Grudge 2 (her first American role), Adam Sandler’s Bedtime Stories, and The Sorcerer’s Apprentice alongside Nic Cage. She has since been in blockbusters Point Break (the remake), Hacksaw Ridge, and Message From the King. 

15. Samara Weaving

The niece of acting great Hugo Weaving, Samara Weaving is carving out her own career in Hollywood that contains a wide selection of movies. Another Aussie who got her start on the Australian soap opera Home and Away, Weaving then left for the bright lights of Hollywood. She scored a role in season one of Ash vs Evil Dead and cameos in hit movies The Babysitter and Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri.

Arguably her big breakthrough came in the movie Ready or Not, which was followed by Bill & Ted Face the Music, Snake Eyes, where she played Scarlett, and the upcoming sixth Scream movie. Things are only going to get better for Weaving. 

16. Radha Mitchell

For more than three decades Radha Mitchell has been quietly going about her business in Hollywood. She got her start in the children’s TV series Sugar and Spice, which led to Mitchell having important roles in movies Pitch Black, Man on Fire, and a couple of the Has Fallen flicks. 

Like many Aussies in show business, Mitchell isn’t big on the press and keeps relatively to herself most of the time. She also has a remarkably diverse filmography covering everything from horrors to dramas and everything in between. 

17. Abbie Cornish 

Growing up in the country as a young girl, Abbie Cornish was a fan of film from a young age. Seeking to expand her skill set, she is the type of actress who chooses vastly different roles for each project she works on. She made an appearance as one of the main characters in John Krasinski’s Jack Ryan, starred alongside Sam Rockwell in indie favorite Seven Psychopaths, and award-winning Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, and is in the action-packed Geostorm.  

Cornish is also a rapper who goes by the alias MC Dusk and released her first EP, Key of the Sun, in 2021