Essie Davis

Acting

Essie Davis

Born 1970-01-19 · Hobart, Tasmania, Australia

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.

Acting credits

The Matrix Reloaded poster
7.1

The Resistance builds in numbers as humans are freed from the Matrix and brought to the city of Zion. Neo discovers his superpowers, including the ability to see the code inside the Matrix. With machine sentinels digging to Zion in 72 hours, Neo, Morpheus and Trinity must find the Keymaker to ultimately reach the Source.

The Matrix Reloaded

2003

The Matrix Revolutions poster
6.8

The human city of Zion defends itself against the massive invasion of the machines as Neo fights to end the war at another front while also opposing the rogue Agent Smith.

The Matrix Revolutions

2003

Charlotte's Web poster
6.2

Wilbur the pig is scared of the end of the season, because he knows that come that time, he will end up on the dinner table. He hatches a plan with Charlotte, a spider that lives in his pen, to ensure that this will never happen.

Charlotte's Web

2006

Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole poster
6.8

When a young owl is abducted by an evil Owl army, he must escape with new-found friends and seek the legendary Guardians to stop the menace.

Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole

2010

The Babadook poster
6.5

A grieving single mother and her child fall into a deep well of paranoia when an eerie children's book manifests in their home.

The Babadook

2014

Girl with a Pearl Earring poster
6.6

This film, adapted from a work of fiction by author Tracy Chevalier, tells a story about the events surrounding the creation of the painting "Girl With A Pearl Earring" by 17th century Dutch master Johannes Vermeer. A young peasant maid working in the house of painter Johannes Vermeer becomes his talented assistant and the model for one of his most famous works.

Girl with a Pearl Earring

2003

Assassin's Creed poster
5.4

Through a technology that unlocks the genetic memories of his ancestor in 15th century Spain, Callum Lynch discovers he is a descendant of an ancient line of Assassins and amasses lethal skills to take on the oppressive Templar Order.

Assassin's Creed

2016

Australia poster
6.6

Set in northern Australia before World War II, an English aristocrat who inherits a sprawling ranch reluctantly pacts with a stock-man in order to protect her new property from a takeover plot. As the pair drive 2,000 head of cattle over unforgiving landscape, they experience the bombing of Darwin by Japanese forces firsthand.

Australia

2008

Code 46 poster
6.2

In a dystopian future, insurance fraud investigator William Gold arrives in Shanghai to investigate a forgery ring for "papelles", futuristic passports that record people's identities and genetics. Gold falls for Maria Gonzalez, the woman in charge of the forgeries. After a passionate affair, Gold returns home, having named a coworker as the culprit. But when one of Gonzalez's customers is found dead, Gold is sent back to Shanghai to complete the investigation.

Code 46

2003

Babyteeth poster
6.9

A terminally ill teen upsets her parents when she falls in love with a small-time drug dealer.

Babyteeth

2020

True History of the Kelly Gang poster
5.9

Set against the badlands of Australia where the English rule with a bloody fist and the Irish endure, Ned Kelly discovers he comes from a line of Irish rebels — an uncompromising army of cross dressing bandits immortalised for terrorising their oppressors back in Ireland. Fuelled by the unfair arrest of his mother, Kelly recruits a wild bunch of warriors to plot one of the most audacious attacks of anarchy and rebellion the country has ever seen.

True History of the Kelly Gang

2019

Mindhorn poster
6.1

A washed up actor best known for playing the title character in the 1980s detective show "Mindhorn" must work with the police when a serial killer says that he will only speak with Detective Mindhorn, whom he believes to be real.

Mindhorn

2016

Nitram poster
6.9

Based on true events, "Nitram" lives with his parents in suburban Australia in the mid-90s. He lives a life of isolation and frustration at never fitting in. As his anger grows, he begins a slow descent into a nightmare that culminates in the most heinous of acts.

Nitram

2021

The Custodian poster
4.5

Detective James Quinlan has left his alcoholic wife, sprouting a bloom of insecurity, anger and self-motivation within him to expose the corrupt police force that surrounds him. He abandons his straight life to join his partner Detective Church in order to get on the inside of the circle of double-agents. He secretly sides with a reporter and an Internal Affairs lawyer to expose them to the press.

The Custodian

1994

Sweeney Todd poster
6.4

A BBC adaptation of the Victorian "penny dreadful" tale of 19th century "demon barber" Sweeney Todd, of Fleet Street, who cuts the throats of unsuspecting clients in his London shop.

Sweeney Todd

2006

Burning Man poster
6.0

Tom is a British chef in a Bondi restaurant who seems to have decided there are no longer any rules he needs to obey. Whatever Tom is up to, his actions seem to be tolerated by those around him. As Tom descends into darkness, fragments of a different story begin to emerge. All the women in his world are trying in their own, very different ways to help put him back together.

Burning Man

2011

Isolation poster
5.5

On a remote Irish farm, five people become unwilling participants in an experiment that goes nightmarishly wrong.

Isolation

2005

South Solitary poster
6.7

Meredith is a 35 year-old unmarried woman who arrives at a remote lighthouse island 1928 with her uncle the new head keeper.

South Solitary

2010

Miss Fisher and the Crypt of Tears poster
6.1

After freeing a young Bedouin girl from her unjust imprisonment in Jerusalem, an Australian adventuress, together with her devoted police detective friend, begins to unravel a decade-old mystery concerning priceless emeralds, an ancient curse and the disappearance of the girl's mother and massacre of her tribe.

Miss Fisher and the Crypt of Tears

2020

A Poet in New York poster
5.1

In 1953 Dylan Thomas went to New York for the last time, his marriage a wreck, his drinking out of control. He was on his way to meet Stravinsky and to wallow in New York acclaim - but what was he escaping? How did such a triumph become a requiem? The last days of a great poet.

A Poet in New York

2014

No artwork available
NR

A young mother, Lil, struggles to connect with her newborn baby. Ashamed and exhausted, she tells no one. An ancient creature, that is drawn to mothers who are struggling, begins to circle, with a primal battle begins between the mother and the force.

Unspeakable

The Ripper poster
5.7

It is 1888, and London is in the grip of one of the most gruesome and mysterious crime sprees in history. Under extreme pressure from the Royal family, the head of Scotland Yard assigns its top man to the grisly case.

The Ripper

1997

Fungi: The Web of Life poster
6.6

Much of life on Earth is connected by a vast, hidden network that we are only just beginning to understand. Out of sight, between the world of plants and animals, another world exists—the kingdom of fungi.

Fungi: The Web of Life

2023

Blackrock poster
5.5

In New South Wales, Jared surfs with his mates and has a first girl. He hosts a beach party for his older pal, Ricko, and witnesses four of his mates gang-rape a 15 year old. He does nothing, and the next day, she's found murdered. At school, the boys and the girls react: the girls with anger at the perpetrators, the boys with jeering at the dead girl's morality. The students' parents have their own responses. Jared retreats into angry silence, disgusted that he did nothing to help the dead girl. Meanwhile, his mother wants to talk to him about her impending cancer surgery, the police want to know what he saw, and his friend Ricko wants an alibi. Jared's cracking under the pressure.

Blackrock

1997