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Essie Davis

Acting Born Jan 19, 1970 Hobart, Tasmania, Australia 24 credits

Biography

Essie Davis is an Australian actress. Born and raised in Hobart, Tasmania, she is the daughter of locally famed artist George Davis. She emerged from the Old Nick Company at the University of Tasmania in the late 1980s and has gone on to appear in Hollywood movies. She is a graduate of the National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA) in Sydney.

Her career started after her role in the all Australian movie Dad and Dave: On Our Selection (1995), also starring other prestigious actors such as Geoffrey Rush, Leo McKern, and Joan Sutherland. Her most famous movie roles are in The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions, Richard Flanagan's 1998 Tasmanian film The Sound of One Hand Clapping, and Girl with a Pearl Earring.

In 2003 she won the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Supporting Actress for her UK performance in the Tennessee Williams play A Streetcar Named Desire. In 2004 she starred in a Broadway production of Tom Stoppard's Jumpers, for which she earned a Tony nomination. In 2005 she appeared as Mrs. Nellie Lovett in the BBC production of Sweeney Todd with Ray Winstone. In the 2008 film Hey, Hey, It's Esther Blueburger she plays Esther's controlling mother.

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Known for

Game of Thrones

as Lady Crane

Alien: Earth

as Dame Sylvia

Teen Titans

as Maggie

Full filmography

  • Game of Thrones (2011) as Lady Crane
  • Alien: Earth (2025) as Dame Sylvia
  • The Matrix Reloaded (2003) as Maggie
  • Guillermo del Toro's Cabinet of Curiosities (2022) as Nancy Bradley
  • Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries (2012) as Phryne Fisher
  • The Matrix Revolutions (2003) as Maggie
  • Halifax f.p. (1994) as Alison Blount
  • Philip K. Dick's Electric Dreams (2017) as Vera Herrick
  • One Day (2024) as Alison
  • Lambs of God (2019) as Sister Iphigenia
  • The White Princess (2017) as Elizabeth Woodville
  • The Babadook (2014) as Amelia Vanek
  • Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole (2010) as Marella (voice)
  • Faraway Downs (2023) as Cath Carney
  • Assassin's Creed (2016) as Mary Lynch
  • Charlotte's Web (2006) as Mrs. Arable
  • Apple Cider Vinegar (2025) as Natalie Dal-Bello
  • The Slap (2011) as Anouk
  • Australia (2008) as Katherine
  • The Last Post (2017) as Martha Franklin
  • Girl with a Pearl Earring (2003) as Catharina Bolnes Vermeer
  • Play School (1966) as Self
  • Young Lions (2002) as Julie Morgan
  • Code 46 (2003) as Doctor