Toni Collette

Australian actress Toni Collette was virtually unknown outside of the Sydney theater scene when she shot to international fame at age 22 with a starring role as an Abba-loving, overweight misfit who gets her revenge in the lively hit, "Muriel's Wedding" (1994). Collette's strong first impression as a frumpy sad sack from Down Under was the first of a remarkably wide range of physical and psychological transformations the actress would become known for. International filmmakers sought Collette's gift for totally inhabiting characters. So convincing was her palette of international accents and so thorough were her physical metamorphoses that audiences often times did not realize they were watching the same actress in "Velvet Goldmine" (1998), "The Sixth Sense" (1999), "About a Boy" (2002) and "Little Miss Sunshine" (2006). Her unique gift for inhabiting a multitude of characters came to full fruition with her Emmy-winning role as a wife and mother with dissociative identity disorder on the Diablo Cody-scripted dramedy, "The United States of Tara" (Showtime, 2009- ). Unconcerned with stardom, Collette enjoyed creative freedom and made consistently interesting project choices that showcased her instinctive acting style, quick wit and significant depth.