Toni Collette |
Toni Collette was born Antonia Collette in Blacktown, Sydney, New South Wales.
When Collette was eleven years old she faked appendicitis out of boredom and longing for attention. She was so convincing that doctors removed her appendix, even though tests showed nothing wrong with it.
She attended Blacktown Girls High School until the age of 16, and then later attended both the Australian Theatre for Young People and NIDA.
Toni Collette has won four Australian Film Institute awards, including the Australian Best Actress in a Lead Role for Muriels Wedding in 1994, a role for which she gained 18kg (40lb) in seven weeks.
In 1996, she was part of the ensemble cast of the comedy, Cosi. She received an Academy Award nomination for her role as the mother of troubled boy Cole in the U.S. film The Sixth Sense, which also starred Bruce Willis and Haley Joel Osment.
She has also received broad acclaim on Broadway, starring as Queenie in Michael John LaChiusas musical work, The Wild Party. For this demanding role, Collette received a Tony Award nomination for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical.
In 2006, she played the mother Sheryl in Little Miss Sunshine, for which she received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress in a Comedy.
After filming three films consecutively in the fall of 2006, Collette said in an interview that she wants to take a year off from acting and spend time with her friends and family. She has also stated that she wants to take roles in Australian films rather than mainstream US films.
Collette had to turn down the title role in Bridget Joness Diary because she was committed to perform on Broadway at the time. She then auditioned for the role of ambitious murderess "Roxie Hart"in the hit film "Chicago", she almost got the part but, because she wasnt a well known enough actress, she lost the role to Renee Zellweger.
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, a band for which her husband drums.
Collette recently appeared on the Australian television show Cool Aid and performed the song "Look Up"off of her album. Collette and the Finish were a headlining act at the Sydney show of Live Earth, where they performed T-Rexs "Children Of The Revolution".
She is a supporter of animal rights and PETA. She urged former Prime Minister John Howard to end the Australian practice of mulesing sheep - considered by many animal rights activists to be cruel - though later revised her position after doing her own research of the Australian wool industry.
She has been married to Dave Galafassi since 11 January 2003 and owns homes in both Australia and the Republic of Ireland. She became mother to daughter Sage Florence in Sydney on 9 January 2008.
❊ Web Links ❊
➼ Toni Collette
➼ Toni Collette - The Internet Movie Database
➼ ToniCollette.org
➼ Toni Collette - Wikipedia
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