When Rose Byrne stepped onto the rostrum to gather her Golden Globe award for greatest actress in a musical or comedy, it marked an enormous turning level for the Australian-born actress.
Till then, Byrne, 46, was nonetheless considerably of an enigma each right here and within the US, the place she has lived on and off for greater than 20 years.
Actually, many celeb watchers this week had no concept Byrne was an Aussie previous to her making her hilarious acceptance speech.
Watch the video above.
Mary Rose Byrne was born on July 24, 1979, in Sydney’s interior west suburb of Balmain.
The youngest of 4 kids has two sisters, Alice and Lucy, and a brother George, who was her date to the Globes.
Her mom Jane labored in class admin whereas her father was a statistician and marker researcher.
READ MORE: How Jacob Elordi went from Brisbane schoolboy to star
READ MORE: All the largest moments from the Golden Globes
READ MORE: Remark Nikki Glaser regrets throughout rise to fame
She attended Balmain Public Faculty and later Hunters Hill Excessive Faculty and Bradfield Senior School – all public faculties – and by eight was having appearing classes at Australian Theatre for Younger Individuals.
Byrne instructed Grazia in 2016, “I liked dressing up after I was little and taking part in video games.
“I had an extremely vivid creativeness. I might say I’ve all the time been a artistic spirit.
“I do not know if there was a formative second that made me need to be an actress however most likely a collection of moments that led as much as it.
“Realising that I may do one thing I liked a lot as a job was an actual revelation to me.”
Her first break got here when she appeared within the 1994 Aussie movie, Dallas Doll, which was filmed when she was 13 and was screened on the following 12 months’s Cannes Movie Competition.
This was adopted by a 130-episode run within the Aussie cleaning soap Echo Level. The present lasted one season however helped launch the careers of a a bunch of younger stars together with Byrne, Melissa Tkautz and Martin Henderson.
After the present was cancelled in 1995, she appeared on episodes of varied TV reveals, then discovered herself at a crossroads after ending college.
Byrne seemed again on her time as a younger auditioning actress throughout a 2015 interview with Media, Leisure & Arts Alliance.
“There was loads of rejection,” she mentioned.
“I auditioned for just a few of the large drama faculties – Nepean, WAAPA, NIDA – and did not get in to any of them.
“I used to be actually disenchanted with myself. I wasn’t fairly certain if I might be legit with out coaching for 3 years in a extra conventional sense.”
Byrne determined to check an arts diploma at Sydney College.
“I nonetheless have nice recollections of these days: learning, working, auditioning,” she mentioned.
“Simply being a jobbing actor making an attempt to determine life after highschool.
“I keep in mind getting the 389 bus over to Darlinghurst for auditions. I keep in mind how thrilling it was going there for castings and the way scary it was as properly. I used to be all the time extremely nervous.”
Byrne’s large break got here when she was solid alongside late Aussie actor Heath Ledger within the movie Two Fingers, which was shot in and round Sydney in 1998 forward of its launch the next 12 months.
By then, Ledger was the larger star of the 2, having appeared within the Hollywood movie 10 Issues I Hate About You, which was launched simply months earlier than Two Fingers.
She spoke in regards to the expertise and their friendship throughout a 2025 interview on the podcast, Armchair Skilled with Dax Shepard.
“I did a movie with Well being Ledger after we had been 18,” Byrne mentioned. “We had been simply youngsters.
“We had been shut after we had been 18, 19, like simply youngsters, and we did a movie collectively and it went to Sundance [Film Festival].”
Byrne has usually credited Ledger for serving to her get her foothold in Hollywood, revealing she went to the US after the movie premiered and stayed with him.
The actress mentioned after the success of Two Fingers, she “actually needed to work internationally” however did not know the way.
“I came visiting right here and stayed with him a bunch of occasions and he was candy. He would get me auditions for issues,” she mentioned.
“I bought an agent – a flowery agent, and that was thrilling and I began auditioning, spending time in LA after which I went again to Australia and labored extra there.”
Byrne mentioned she by no means heard from the Hollywood agent once more, however received a four-episode position within the Aussie TV collection Heartbreak Excessive, then a component within the 2000 movie My Mom Frank.
Extra roles adopted earlier than she received a small position in Star Wars: Episode II – Assault of the Clones, then the 2002 Matt Dillon movie Metropolis of Ghosts and 2004 movie Troy, reverse Brad Pitt.
Her large break got here within the psychological thriller Wicker Park, starring Josh Hartnett and Diane Kruger.
For a every day dose of 9honey, subscribe to our e-newsletter right here.
It positioned her firmly on the Hollywood map and led to a slew of movie roles earlier than she made the leap to TV in 2007 to star reverse Hollywood heavyweight Glenn Shut in Damages.
Byrne instructed The Sunday Telegraph in 2012 she was initially fearful of Shut.
“Glenn is such an icon, so it was exhausting, initially, to separate that in my thoughts,” she mentioned.
“I used to be fairly scared and nervous however that is what my character was feeling as properly, so it labored properly.”
She appeared in 59 episodes of the present and earned two Primetime Emmy nominations for Excellent Supporting Actress in a Drama Collection and two Golden Globe nominations for Finest Supporting Actress – Collection, Miniseries, or Tv Movie.
Throughout her five-year run on the present, she and Shut turned agency associates, with Byrne an everyday customer to her co-star’s dwelling in upstate New York.
“We get alongside properly and that is not all the time the case while you do a job, that you simply grow to be associates in addition to colleagues,” she mentioned.
Whereas on the present, she continued to cement herself as a film star because of movies Sunshine, reverse Cillian Murphy, The Tender Hook, Understanding, Get Him to the Greek and supernatural thriller Insidious.
Then got here her flip as a part of the ensemble solid within the 2011 female-driven comedy Bridesmaids, the place she performed Helen.
Throughout a 2023 look on the podcast SmartLess with Jason Bateman, Sean Hayes and Will Arnett, she mentioned she had “no concept” how large the movie can be, and initially discovered it “bizarre” and “weird” to have so many ladies on set.
“That was actually uncommon as a result of normally in the event you’re in a movie it isn’t usually you are the one lady otherwise you’re doing a scene reverse a man or it’s extremely uncommon to have that,” she mentioned.
“I keep in mind considering these days had been so enjoyable as a result of all of us actually hit it off. It was an excellent vibe on set.”
The movie price $49 million to make and grossed $455 million on the field workplace.
Subsequent she performed a CIA agent in X-Males: First Class, and scored her first lead within the romantic comedy, I Give it a Yr. It was adopted by The Internship and Neighbours, generally known as Dangerous Neighbours in Australia, reverse Seth Rogan.
She additionally appeared in family-friendly movies Annie, Peter Rabbit and its sequel and On the spot Household.
The previous couple of years have seen her scuttle backwards and forwards between movie and TV, earlier than her now award-winning flip in If I Had Legs I might Kick You as burnt-out mom Linda.
Private life
From about 2004 to 2010, Byrne was in a relationship with Cronulla-born actor, screenwriter and playwrite Brendan Cowell.
In 2012, she was launched to actor Bobby Cannavale by mutual associates and the 2 started relationship.
Byrne was nonetheless filming Damages once they met and Shut spoke about their chemistry throughout a 2019 Self-importance Truthful interview.
“The chemistry between them, it is simply so exceptional,” she mentioned.
“They’re each type of universally liked.”
They made their purple carpet debut the next 12 months and had been quickly working collectively on movies Grownup Inexperienced persons, Annie, Spy, Martha The Monster, Severely Crimson and final 12 months’s Ezra.
In February 2016, they welcomed their first baby collectively, son Rocco, adopted in November 2017, by one other son, Rafael, whom they name Rafa.
Cannavale additionally has an older son Jake, 30, with US actress and screenwriter Jenny Lumet, to whom he was married from 1994 to 2003.
Byrne and Cannavale have one of many strongest unions in showbiz, and refer to succeed in different as husband and spouse, regardless of by no means marrying.
Byrne instructed The Sydney Morning Herald in 2021 they’d not dominated out marriage however merely hadn’t discovered the time.
“I preserve going, ‘Let’s get round to it, let’s do it,'” she mentioned.
“After which, you recognize, you’ve got a child, after which, oh, there’s one other child.
“It was type of like that for us.
“I like weddings, and I do know individuals [for whom] it is an necessary factor, and I respect that absolutely. I assume for us it is simply been, we did not do it, we’ll do it, then, no! Pandemic.”
In 2023 she instructed Individuals, “I am extra married to him than anyone I’ve ever been with my entire life” and mentioned it was “undoubtedly one thing that we’ll do”.
“We’ll get round to it.”
Throughout her hilarious Golden Globes acceptance speech, Byrne thanked her brother George for being her date and her mother and father for shelling out for the streaming subscription so they might watch again at dwelling in Sydney, earlier than thanking “my husband, Bobby” and explaining his absence.
“[He] could not be right here as a result of we’re getting a bearded dragon and he went to a reptile expo in New Jersey. So, thanks, child.”
Earlier that week, she instructed the host of The Tonight Present Starring Jimmy Fallon that Cannavale wouldn’t be accompanying her to LA as a result of the expo was on the identical day.
Time to let free: Contained in the Golden Globes 2026 afterparty
“And it will simply be such a dad or mum fail so we’re doing it. I am on board for the dragon, it should be nice. He is doing God’s work,” she mentioned.
Byrne has an estimated internet price of about $24 million from her appearing work and promoting campaigns however her revenue will doubtless develop now that she will add “Golden Globe winner” to her resume.
She and Cannavale reside in a renovated brownstone constructing in New York Metropolis’s Brooklyn, however she likes to return to Australia, which she as soon as described as her “emotional dwelling”.
Throughout an look on LIVE with Kelly and Mark, she mentioned the household returned to Australia for a vacation in 2025.
“We did a street journey. We bought an RV and we drove from Melbourne to Sydney,” she mentioned. “We did a complete Griswolds.”
Byrne additionally revealed her youngsters had been thrilled when she voiced the character of Chilli’s sister Brandy in two episodes of Bluey.
Amongst these to supply congratulations this week was the NSW Division of Schooling, which took to Fb to reward the star for her win.
FOLLOW US ON WHATSAPP HERE: Keep throughout all the newest in celeb, way of life and opinion through our WhatsApp channel. No feedback, no algorithm and no one can see your non-public particulars.
