Award-winning actress Rachel Griffiths was born on December 18, 1968 in Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia. Best known for her roles on the series Six Feet Under and the miniseries Brothers and Sisters, she has received both SAG and Golden Globe awards. She grew up in Melbourne, and eventually graduated from Victoria College there with a degree in drama and dance. She began working as a member of the community theater group Woolly Jumpers, and received her first taste of success with Barbie Gets Hip, which she created and appeared in; it played at the Melbourne International Film Festival in 1991. She is adept at doing foreign accents, such as English, American and Welsh. She married Australian artist Andrew Taylor in 2002 from her old high school Star of the Sea College in Gardenvale in Melbourne. Their children have dual USA/Australian citizenship.
Griffiths first came to prominence with the Australian film Muriel’s Wedding, which premiered in 1994. She was cast in the movie as a relative unknown; it later won numerous awards, including, for her, the Best Supporting Actress plum from the Australian Film Institute Awards. Three years later, she reunited with director P.J. Hogan and made her American film debut, appearing in the romantic comedy My Best Friend’s Wedding. This was followed by acclaimed roles in My Son the Fanatic, Blow, and Hilary and Jackie, for which she earned an Oscar nomination for best supporting actress in 1998.
In 2001, Griffiths was cast as one of the leads on the HBO series Six Feet Under, where she played the role of emotionally scarred Brenda Chenowith. The role earned her Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild Awards, as well as two Emmy nominations. She missed episodes on the show’s third season because of her pregnancy. As such, her condition was written into the show’s final season. In 2008, she appeared on the miniseries Comanche Moon.