50 facts about Toni Collette, known for her acting work on stage, television, and film

50 facts about actress and musician Toni Collette.

1. Toni Collette is an actress and musician.

2. She is known for her acting work on stage, television, and film.

3. She is also known for her secondary career as the lead singer of the band Toni Collette & the Finish.

4. She is a recipient of the Emmy and Golden Globe Award for Best Actress.

5. Has been nominated for both the Academy Award and the Tony Award.

6. Collette's acting career began in the early 1990s with comedic roles in films such as Spotswood and Muriel's Wedding.

7. For Muriel's Wedding she was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress.

8. She achieved international recognition as a result of her Academy Award-nominated portrayal of Lynn Sear in The Sixth Sense and a year later made her Tony Award-nominated Broadway debut with the leading role in the musical The Wild Party.

9. In the 2000s, she was noted for her roles in independent features including About a Boy.

10. For her role in About a Boy she won several critics' awards and was nominated for a BAFTA Award.

11. Little Miss Sunshine earned her a Screen Actors Guild Award as well as her second Golden Globe and BAFTA nominations.

12. From 2009 to 2011, she played the lead role in the television series United States of Tara, for which she won the Primetime Emmy Award and the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Comedy Series.

13. Collette returned to Broadway in Will Eno's The Realistic Joneses, for which she earned a Drama Desk Special Award.

14. Collette was born in Blacktown, a suburb in Western Sydney.

15. She is the daughter of Judy, a customer-service representative.

16. Her father Bob Collett was is truck driver.

17. She has two younger brothers, Ben and Christopher.

18. From an early age, Collette showed a talent for acting.

19. She faked an appendicitis when she was 11, and was so convincing that doctors removed her appendix, although tests showed nothing wrong with it.

20. She attended Blacktown Girls' High School until the age of 16.

21. Later she attended both the Australian Theatre for Young People and National Institute of Dramatic Art.

22. Her first acting role was onstage in the musical Godspell in Sydney in her early teens.

23. Collette made her television debut in 1990, in a guest appearance on the Seven Network drama series A Country Practice.

24. In 1992, she made her feature film debut as part of the ensemble comedy-drama Spotswood, which starred Anthony Hopkins and which also featured Russell Crowe.

25. Collette soon rocketed to international notice with her performance in the title role for Muriel's Wedding in 1994.

26. For her role in Muriel's Wedding she gained 18 kg in seven weeks.

27. She won the Australian award for Best Actress as Muriel, her first of five Australian Film Institute awards.

28. In 1996, she was part of the ensemble cast of the comedy, Così, and had a leading role in Emma as the naïve Harriet Smith.

29. She has also received broad acclaim on Broadway, starring as Queenie in Michael John LaChiusa's musical work, The Wild Party.

30. For her role as Queenie, Collette was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Leading Actress in a Musical.

31. Collette turned down the title role in Bridget Jones's Diary because she was committed to perform on Broadway at the time.

32. In 1999, she was nominated for an Academy Award for her role as the mother of a troubled boy in the U.S. film The Sixth Sense, which also starred Bruce Willis and Haley Joel Osment.

33. In October 2006, she began touring Australia to promote her first vocal album Beautiful Awkward Pictures, released on Hoola Hoop Records under the name Toni Collette & the Finish.

34. Her husband plays drums for the band , a band Toni Collette & the Finish.

35. Collette appeared on the Australian television show Cool Aid and performed the song "Look Up" from the album.

36. In July 2007, Collette and the Finish were a headlining act at the Sydney show of Live Earth.

37. In 2011 and 2012, Collette took on a slew of supporting roles in independent films, as well as the 2011 remake of Fright Night.

38. In 2013, Collette earned critical acclaim for her work in the acclaimed independent films The Way, Way Back as Pam, opposite Steve Carell and Sam Rockwell, and Enough Said as Sarah, with Julia Louis-Dreyfus and James Gandolfini in one of his final film roles.

39. In the fall of 2013, Collette headlined the CBS event drama Hostages to solid reviews albeit weak ratings.

40. After a 14-year absence, Collette returned to Broadway in the spring of 2014, starring in Will Eno's play The Realistic Joneses.

41. In 2014, Collette starred in the negatively received tragi-comedy A Long Way Down, with Pierce Brosnan and Aaron Paul, had a cameo in the poorly received Melissa McCarthy vehicle Tammy, and appeared in Hector and the Search for Happiness opposite Simon Pegg.

42. In August 2015 she appeared in the SBS series Who Do You Think You Are?

43. In September 2015, Collette joined the cast for the film adaption of Craig Silvey's Australian novel, Jasper Jones.

44. In 2003, Collette played the lead role in Japanese Story as an Australian geologist traversing an arc of emotions in the course of an intense relationship with a visiting Japanese businessman, which she captured so powerfully that numerous reviewers made the point of welcoming her back to playing the lead for the first time since Muriel's Wedding and generally scored her performance as riveting. Collette won the Australian Film Institute award for Best Actress for her performance.

45. Collette married musician Dave Galafassi on 11 January 2003.

46. The couple have a daughter, Sage Florence, born on 9 January 2008.

47. They also have a son, Arlo Robert, born on 22 April 2011.

48. She is a supporter of animal rights and PETA.

49. She urged former Prime Minister John Howard to end the Australian sheep farming practice of mulesing, which many animal rights activists consider cruel.

50. She later revised her position after doing her own research of the Australian wool industry.

Source: Wikipedia.org