81 Facts About Toni Collette

1.

Toni Collette was born on Collett; 1 November 1972 and is an Australian actress and producer.

2.

Toni Collette received further acclaim for her role in the thriller The Sixth Sense for which she received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.

3.

Toni Collette received BAFTA Award nominations for her performances in the romantic comedy About a Boy and the comedy drama Little Miss Sunshine.

4.

Toni Collette made her Broadway debut in The Wild Party, earning a Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical nomination.

5.

Toni Collette married Dave Galafassi, drummer of the band Gelbison, in January 2003.

6.

Toni Collette is the eldest of three children; she has two younger brothers.

7.

Toni Collette was raised in the Sydney suburb of Glebe until the age of six, then in Blacktown.

8.

Toni Collette's father, Bob Collett, was a truck driver, and her mother Judy was a customer-service representative.

9.

Toni Collette has described her family as "[not] the most communicative" but has said that despite her parents' lack of money, they were supportive and made their children feel cared for.

10.

Toni Collette has fond memories of growing up in Blacktown, where she and her mother watched Saturday afternoon movie matinees presented by Bill Collins.

11.

Toni Collette described her younger self as having "crazy" amounts of confidence.

12.

Toni Collette's ambition was to perform in musicals, as she loved to sing and dance.

13.

Toni Collette's first acting role was a high school performance of Godspell at the age of 14; she auditioned by singing Whitney Houston's "Saving All My Love for You".

14.

Toni Collette decided to become an actor the following year, and was influenced by Geoffrey Rush's stage performance in The Diary of a Madman.

15.

Toni Collette made her television debut in 1988 on a comedy, variety show Blah Blah Blah as a singer.

16.

Toni Collette's first acting role was in 1990, a guest appearance as Tracy, on the Seven Network drama series A Country Practice Season 10, Episode 31, "The Sting: Part 1".

17.

Toni Collette performed Cordelia in King Lear and was in stage productions at the Belvoir Street Theatre, directed by Rush.

18.

Toni Collette played Wendy, a factory worker who harbours a secret attraction towards fellow worker Carey.

19.

James Berardinelli of Reelviews called her "vibrant and energetic", while Peter Stack of the San Francisco Chronicle opined that Toni Collette played the lead role with "disarming earnestness".

20.

Toni Collette received her first Golden Globe Award nomination, for Best Actress and won the AACTA Award for Best Actress.

21.

David Stratton of Variety magazine said Toni Collette "[gave] a terrific performance".

22.

Toni Collette won her second AACTA Award, this time for Best Actress in a Supporting Role.

23.

Toni Collette starred alongside Lisa Kudrow, Parker Posey and Alanna Ubach in Clockwatchers which depicted the lives of four friends working in an office.

24.

Toni Collette credited it with revitalising her passion for acting as it had freed her from distress she had been facing.

25.

When Collette received M Night Shyamalan's script for The Sixth Sense, she feared it would be a "formulaic Hollywood action drama".

26.

Toni Collette portrayed Lynn Sear, a mother struggling to raise her son Cole who communicates with ghosts.

27.

Toni Collette was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Leading Actress in a Musical.

28.

Toni Collette turned down the title role in Bridget Jones's Diary due to her Broadway commitments.

29.

Toni Collette followed with a supporting role in the action thriller Shaft.

30.

Toni Collette was nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role and won the Boston Society of Film Critics Award for Best Supporting Actress for both 2002 performances.

31.

Toni Collette played the lead role in Japanese Story as Sandy an Australian geologist who develops an intense relationship with a Japanese businessman.

32.

Toni Collette won her fourth AACTA Award statuette for her portrayal of Sandy Edwards in Japanese Story.

33.

Toni Collette's only film in 2005, In Her Shoes, was a comedy drama about the relationship between two sisters and their estranged grandmother, co-starring Cameron Diaz and Shirley MacLaine.

34.

At a ceremony in August 2006, Toni Collette inducted Helen Reddy into the Australian Recording Industry Association Hall of Fame and described her song, "I Am Woman" as "timeless".

35.

Toni Collette won her fifth AACTA Award for the role of Maggie Mollison in The Black Balloon.

36.

In 2008, Toni Collette accepted the leading role in the Showtime TV comedy-drama series, United States of Tara.

37.

Toni Collette was given the leading role by Spielberg without auditioning.

38.

Toni Collette won both the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series and the Golden Globe for Best Actress in a TV Comedy in 2009 and was nominated for both again in the following year.

39.

Toni Collette was originally set to star in 2009's Away We Go, but dropped out due to scheduling conflicts.

40.

Toni Collette then starred as a single mother of a precocious child in Jesus Henry Christ.

41.

Toni Collette later had a supporting role in the horror-comedy Fright Night.

42.

Toni Collette played Shaz, a hitchhiker who is hired as a nanny to take care of five mentally ill sisters.

43.

Toni Collette received her third AACTA Best Actress nomination for the role.

44.

In 2013 Toni Collette earned critical acclaim for her work in the independent film The Way, Way Back, opposite Steve Carell and Sam Rockwell, and in Enough Said, with Julia Louis-Dreyfus and James Gandolfini.

45.

Later that year, Toni Collette starred in the CBS TV drama, Hostages, which received reviews that were generally favourable, but weak ratings.

46.

Toni Collette took on the role because she felt the script had a realistic and in-depth approach to topics like self-sufficiency and self-realization.

47.

Toni Collette later said that, out of all the roles she had played, Ellie resembled her the most.

48.

In 2014, Toni Collette appeared in three comedy films, Tammy, A Long Way Down and Hector and the Search for Happiness.

49.

Toni Collette starred as Milly, opposite Drew Barrymore as Jess, in the comedy drama Miss You Already, about two women whose friendship is tested when Jess starts a family while Milly falls ill.

50.

In 2017, Toni Collette appeared in several films: to varying degrees of success.

51.

Toni Collette had previously worked as executive producer for the films she appeared in, Like Minds, The Black Balloon, and Hey, Hey, It's Esther Blueburger.

52.

In 2018, Toni Collette gave what some critics considered to be one of her best performances in the horror film Hereditary, in which she played Annie Graham, the matriarch of a family haunted by the supernatural following the death of her mother.

53.

Toni Collette was initially reluctant to take on the role, but became convinced by the script's grounded approach and its exploration of grief and loss.

54.

Toni Collette won the Gotham Independent Film Award for Best Actress and was nominated for the Independent Spirit Award for Best Female Lead for her performance.

55.

Toni Collette starred in Wanderlust, a BBC One drama series about the troubled relationship between Collette's character, Joy Richards, a therapist, and her husband.

56.

Toni Collette served as an associate producer on the series.

57.

That following year, Toni Collette returned to the horror genre in Dan Gilroy's Velvet Buzzsaw, alongside Jake Gyllenhaal and Rene Russo.

58.

Toni Collette had accepted it prior to reading the script, finding the topic "important and so meaningful".

59.

The artist received acclaim for her performance and several critics praised her chemistry with Wever: Jen Chaney of New York wrote, "Wever and Toni Collette both create fully authentic women who ooze integrity but have enough insecurities and make enough mistakes to seem like actual human beings".

60.

Toni Collette starred in the Netflix thriller series Pieces of Her and played Kathleen Peterson HBO Max limited series The Staircase.

61.

Toni Collette has performed songs for soundtracks of About a Boy, A Long Way Down, Miss You Already and Hearts Beat Loud.

62.

Toni Collette has been writing her own songs since early teens.

63.

Toni Collette expressed her support for PETA and, in July 2005, wrote a letter to then Australian Prime Minister John Howard, asking him to ban the practice of mulesing and the live export of sheep.

64.

Toni Collette has raised money for OzHarvest, an organisation which collects excess food from Australian restaurants and redistributes it to the homeless.

65.

Toni Collette sold some of her personal items for an auction to raise money for the charity Cure Our Kids, which is dedicated to raising money for the oncology unit at The Children's Hospital at Westmead.

66.

Toni Collette took part in the promotion of the documentary The Lazarus Effect, being featured in a small clip which sought to raise awareness of the positive impact of free antiretroviral drug therapy for those living with HIV in Africa.

67.

In 2012, Toni Collette has contributed an exclusive blog on the fight against hunger and a call to action for Giving Tuesday and the holiday season to the Huffington Post.

68.

Toni Collette made her first field visit with Concern to Haiti where she met families who, together with Concern, are working to break the cycle of extreme poverty.

69.

Toni Collette had previously raised money for Concern's global campaign to fight hunger and malnutrition.

70.

Toni Collette has taken part in multiple Public Service Announcements by Concern requesting the viewers to donate to Concern's various campaigns.

71.

Toni Collette has expressed her support for the Me Too movement.

72.

Toni Collette prefers working in independent films over blockbusters where the latter prioritize box-office success over telling a story.

73.

Brie Larson, who starred with Toni Collette in United States of Tara, has cited her as an inspiration and praised her for being able to "disappear" into her roles.

74.

Toni Collette remarked that Collette's acting method references the components of Stanislavski's System of Acting.

75.

Toni Collette is particularly known for her expressive and highly malleable face, her ability to convey emotions and messages without dialogue, distinctive versatility, physical transformations and accents.

76.

Toni Collette met musician Dave Galafassi at a 2002 album launch for his then-band Gelbison.

77.

Toni Collette has said that she is an avid camper and enjoys meditating.

78.

On 7 December 2022, Toni Collette announced that she and Galafassi were divorcing.

79.

Toni Collette received nominations for two British Academy Film Awards and the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.

80.

Toni Collette went on to earn BAFTA Award nominations for About a Boy and Little Miss Sunshine.

81.

Toni Collette earned further acclaim for the comedy-drama series United States of Tara, for which she received a Primetime Emmy Award and a Golden Globe Award.