Rachel Griffiths

Biography

Australian actress Rachel Griffiths plays dissatisfied New England mother Ermine Jung in Blow (2001). Griffiths previously received an Academy Award nomination for her stirring performance as cellist Jacqueline DuPre’s devoted sister in Hilary and Jackie (1998). The acclaimed role also garnered Griffiths Golden Globe, Screen Actor’s Guild and British Independent Film Award nominations.

Griffiths first came to international attention with another award-winning performance as best-friend Rhonda in the crowd-pleasing Australian sleeper [Muriel’s Wedding (1994)]. She went on to star in Stephen Elliot’s Welcome to Woop Woop (1997), the hit comedy [My Best Friend’s Wedding (1997)], Michael Winterbottom’s critically-praised adaptation of Thomas Hardy’s Jude (1996), Udayan

Prasad’s My Son the Fanatic (1997) (for which she was nominated for a British Independent Film Award) and two films written by Full Monty, The (1997)’s Simon Beaufoy: Among Giants (1998) and Blow Dry (2001). In Australia, she gave an award-winning performance in Amy (1998), and starred in the comedies Divorcing Jack (1998) and Me, Myself and I (1992). She will next be seen in the HBO series Six Feet Under, the new project from American Beauty (1999) screenwriter Alan Ball.

Griffiths began her career in the theatre. In addition to her acting roles, she wrote Another World, Another Thing and created a one-woman show, Barbie Gets Hip.