Judy Davis

Judy Davis (b. 1955), actor, director and two-time Oscar nominee, has won many acting accolades, including eight AACTA awards, three Emmy awards, two BAFTAs and two Golden Globes. Davis grew up in Perth and graduated from NIDA in 1977. Renowned for playing complex and edgy women, she launched her career with her performance in Gillian Armstrong's My Brilliant Career (1979). Her success continued with Winter of Our Dreams (1981), Heatwave (1982), Kangaroo (1986) and High Tide (1987). She went on to play major roles in both Australian and Hollywood films, including Barton Fink (1991), Naked Lunch (1992), The Ref (1994), Children of the Revolution (1996), Swimming Upstream (2003), The Eye of the Storm (2011) and The Dressmaker (2015). She received Academy Award nominations for A Passage to India (1984) and Woody Allen's Husbands and Wives (1992); she also appeared in Allen’s Alice (1990), Deconstructing Harry (1997), Celebrity (1998) and To Rome With Love (2012). Her acclaimed television work includes Serving in Silence (1995), Life with Judy Garland (2001), The Starter Wife (2007), Feud (2017), Mystery Road (2018) and Ratched (2020). Davis has also performed in many plays including Hedda Gabler, King Lear and The Seagull, and made her directorial debut for the Sydney Theatre Company with Barrymore (1999), followed by School for Scandal (2001) and Victory (2004). She directed her husband Colin Friels in Faith Healer for the Belvoir St Theatre in 2016, which also had sell-out seasons in Melbourne and Adelaide.