Biography
Birth name : Mary Rose Byrne
Birth date : July 24, 1979
Birth place : Balmain, Sydney,
New South Wales, Australia
Occupation : Actress
Year active : 1994 to present
Her films include 28 Weeks Later, Sunshine, Knowing, Marie Antoinette and Get Him to the Greek. She plays the main supporting protagonist of Ellen Parsons in the U.S. television series Damages.
Career
Byrne was cast in her first film role, Dallas Doll, when she was 13 years old. She has appeared in several Australian television shows including Heartbreak High and Echo Point, and the film Two Hands with Heath Ledger. She appeared in The Date, My Mother Frank, and Clara Law's The Goddess of 1967 for which she was award the Volpi Cup for "Best Actress" at the 2000 Venice Film Festival. She appeared as a guest in an episode of the police drama series Murder Call. On stage she played a lead role in La Dispute and in a production of Anton Chekhov's classic Three Sisters at the Sydney Theatre Company.
Byrne has appeared in the music videos for Darren Hayes's single "I Miss You", M.Craft's "Sweets", and starred with Australian musician Alex Lloyd in the music video for his single "Black The Sun", as well as featuring on the cover artwork for the EP. She also appeared in a television commercial for Sony.
In 2002, Byrne made her first appearance in a Hollywood film with a small role as Dormé, the handmaiden to Natalie Portman's Senator Padmé Amidala, in Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones. She appeared the same year in City of Ghosts with Matt Dillon.
The year previously she had flown to the UK to shoot I Capture the Castle, Tim Fywell's adaptation of the 1948 novel of the same title by Dodie Smith. In the 2003 release, she portrayed Rose Mortmain, the elder sister of Romola Garai's Cassandra. In 2003 she starred in three Australian films: The Night We Called It a Day with Melanie Griffith and Dennis Hopper; The Rage in Placid Lake for which she was named Best Actress at the Australian Film Institute with singer Ben Lee; and Take Away, another comedy.
In 2004, Byrne starred as Briseis, the Trojan priestess who is abducted during the Trojan War by Achilles, played by Brad Pitt, in Wolfgang Petersen's epic Troy, also starring Eric Bana, Peter O’Toole, Sean Bean, and Orlando Bloom. She then reunited with Peter O'Toole in the BBC TV drama Casanova. Byrne appeared with Snoop Dogg in Danny Green's film The Tenants, based on Bernard Malamud's novel, and starred with Josh Hartnett and Diane Kruger in the romantic psychological thriller Wicker Park where she played Alex, the woman who manipulated Josh Hartnett's character to keep him apart from the woman he falls in love with.
In 2006 Byrne portrayed Gabrielle de Polastron, duchesse de Polignac, a French aristocrat and friend of Marie Antoinette, in Sofia Coppola's Marie Antoinette, with Kirsten Dunst, and appeared in The Dead Girl, directed by Karen Moncrieff.
In 2007, she played Cassie, the pilot in Danny Boyle's science fiction suspense film Sunshine, Scarlett Ross, an army medical officer in Juan Carlos Fresnadillo's science fiction horror 28 Weeks Later, the sequel to Boyle's 28 Days Later, and appeared in the independent film Just Buried, a Canadian dark comedy written and directed by Chaz Thorne.
Since 2007, Byrne has appeared in the FX drama production Damages, playing the regular lead role of Ellen Parsons, a young attorney torn between her new boss, played by Glenn Close, and her own ambitions.
She appeared in the Australian film noir The Tender Hook with Hugo Weaving.
Byrne was the face of Max Factor between 2004 and 2006 and named in the Most Beautiful People of 2007 list in Who Magazine.
Byrne has supported UNICEF Australia by being the face of the 2007 Designers United campaign and a member of tropfest jury in 2006 and tropfest@tribeca in 2007. She is a graduate and ambassador for NIDA's (National Institute of Dramatic Art) Young Actors Studio. She was recently named the first patron of Chauvel Cinemas presented by the Brisbane International Film Festival and named in honour of Charles Chauvel.
Byrne has used several different accents in her films: Australian, British, American, and Canadian.
In 2009, she co-starred with Nicolas Cage in the science fiction thriller, Knowing. Later that year, she appeared in the indie film, Adam, with Hugh Dancy. Byrne appeared in the 2010 comedy film, Get Him to the Greek, starring Russell Brand and Jonah Hill. She will appear in the James Wan horror film Insidious, scheduled for release in September 2010 at the Toronto International Film Festival. Byrne has also signed on to star in the upcoming Kristen Wiig comedy, Bridesmaids, set for release on May 12, 2011.[19][20] On August 15, 2010, it became public that she had been cast in the role of Moira MacTaggert in the X-Men spin-off, X-Men: First Class, directed by Matthew Vaughn.
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