Early life

Griffiths was born in Melbourne, but spent her early childhood on the Gold Coast. She is the daughter of Anna, an art teacher and arts/education consultant, and Edward Griffiths. She moved to Melbourne at the age of five, with her mother and two older brothers. When she was 11, her father left home with an 18-year-old woman. She attended Star of the Sea College, a high school in Gardenvale.

After earning a Bachelor of Education degree in drama and dance at Victoria College, Rusden, she began her career as a member of Woolly Jumpers, a Geelong-based community theatre group. She had her first success as the creator and performer of Barbie Gets Hip, which played at the Melbourne Fringe Festival in 1991.

Career

Griffiths and Toni Collette were relative unknowns when they were cast as best friends and fellow outcasts in the 1994 film Muriel's Wedding. Her performance won her critical acclaim and both the Australian Film Critics Award and the Australian Film Institute Awards for Best Supporting Actress. She followed this triumph in 1996 with the role of an earthy, ill-mannered pig farmer's daughter in Michael Winterbottom's Jude.

In 1997, Griffiths sparked a controversy after attending the opening of the Crown Casino in Melbourne, Australia. Topless and uninvited, her stated reasoning being the protest of the views taken by the media and state government towards the new casino, and inspired by the story of Lady Godiva.

Griffiths joined forces again with Muriel's Wedding director P. J. Hogan for her American film debut, My Best Friend's Wedding, in 1997. That same year she starred in My Son the Fanatic, a British film in which she portrayed a tough Yorkshire prostitute who becomes involved with a considerably older Pakistani taxicab driver, played by Om Puri. Griffiths received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress for her portrayal of real-life flautist Hilary du Pré opposite Emily Watson as her sister, famed cellist Jacqueline "Jackie" du Pre, in Hilary and Jackie (1998).

She then appeared in 2001's Blow, opposite Johnny Depp and Ray Liotta. In 2001, Griffiths was cast as one of the leads in Six Feet Under. Her performance as emotionally scarred massage therapist, Brenda Chenowith, earned her Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild Awards, as well as two Emmy Award nominations. In the third season, she missed four episodes due to her first pregnancy.

Her second pregnancy was written into the show's final season and she appeared in almost every episode of the series. She also played a supportive housewife in the film The Rookie opposite Dennis Quaid for which she garnered generally good reviews.

As of 2006, she became part of the ensemble cast, co-starring alongside Sally Field, Calista Flockhart, Balthazar Getty and Matthew Rhys, of the dramatic series Brothers & Sisters, in which she portrays Sarah Walker, who inherits control of the family business after her father's death. Griffiths received a 2007 Emmy nomination and a 2008 Emmy nomination for her work on the series. Griffiths received 2008 and 2009 Golden Globe nominations for her work on Brothers & Sisters. Additionally, she appeared as "Inez Scull" in the 2008 mini-series adaptation of Larry McMurtry's Comanche Moon.

Griffiths made her Broadway debut in Other Desert Cities, directed by Joe Mantello and co-starring Judith Light, which began previews on 10 October 2011, opening on 3 November 2011. In 2015, Griffiths made her debut as a television director when she directed three episodes of the second series of the Australian teen drama Nowhere Boys.

She has also appeared in the series Indian Summers on UK television with Julie Walters

Personal life

Griffiths married Australian artist Andrew Taylor on 31 December 2002 in the chapel of her high school, Star of the Sea College, in Melbourne. They have three children, son Banjo Patrick (born 22 November 2003, Melbourne) and daughters Adelaide Rose (born 23 June 2005, Los Angeles) and Clementine Grace (born 21 June 2009).

Griffiths was formerly an atheist, but as of 2015 is a practising Catholic.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1994	Muriel's Wedding	Rhonda Epinstall	Australian Film Institute Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role Film Critics Circle of Australia Award for Best Supporting Actress
1996	Così	Lucy
1996	Jude	Arabella
1996	Children of the Revolution	Anna
1997	My Son the Fanatic	Bettina/Sandra	Nominated—British Independent Film Award for Best Performance by a British Actress in an Independent Film
1997	My Best Friend's Wedding	Samantha Newhouse
1998	Among Giants	Gerry
1998	Hilary and Jackie	Hilary du Pré	Nominated—Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress Nominated—British Independent Film Award for Best Actress Nominated—Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actress Nominated—Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role
1998	Amy	Tanya Rammus	Nominated—Australian Film Institute Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role
1998	Divorcing Jack	Lee Cooper
1998	Tulip		Writer and Director Aspen Shortsfest 'Watch It!' Award Aspen Shortsfest Audience Award - Special Recognition Melbourne International Film Festival OCIC Award Palm Springs International ShortFest Award for Best of the Festival
1999	Me Myself I	Pamela Drury	Nominated—Australian Film Institute Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role Nominated—Film Critics Circle of Australia Award for Best Actor - Female
2001	Very Annie Mary	Annie Mary Pugh
2001	Blow	Ermine Jung
2001	Blow Dry	Sandra
2002	Hard Word, TheThe Hard Word	Carol	Nominated—Australian Film Institute Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role
2002	Rookie, TheThe Rookie	Lorri Morris	Character and Morality in Entertainment Award (shared with Cast and Crew)
2003	Ned Kelly	Susan Scott
2006	Step Up	Director Gordan
2009	Beautiful Kate	Sally	Australian Film Institute Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role
2011	Burning Man	Miriam
2012	Underground: The Julian Assange Story	Christine Assange
2013	Patrick	Matron Cassidy
2013	Saving Mr. Banks	Aunt Ellie
2016	The Moon and the Sun	Abbess	Post-production
2016	Hacksaw Ridge	Bertha Doss	Filming
2016	Mammal	Margaret

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1993-1994	Secrets	Sarah Foster	13 episodes
1994	Jimeoin	Various	8 episodes
1995	Police Rescue	Shelley	Episode: "Breaking Strain"
2001-2005	Six Feet Under	Brenda Chenowith	60 episodes Australian Film Institute International Award for Best Actress (2006) Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress - Series, Miniseries or Television Film (2002) Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series (2003-04)) Nominated—Golden Globe Award for Best Actress - Television Series Drama (2003) Nominated—Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series (2002) Nominated—Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series (2003) Nominated—Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series (2002, 2005-06)
2004	Kath & Kim	Herself	Episode: "The Mango Espadrille"
2005	Angel Rodriguez	Nicole	Television movie
2006-2011	Brothers and Sisters	Sarah Walker	110 episodes Nominated—Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress - Series, Miniseries or Television Film (2008-09) Nominated—Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress - Drama Series (2007-08) Nominated—Satellite Award for Best Supporting Actress - Series, Miniseries or Television Film (2007) Nominated—Australian Film Institute International Award for Best Actress (2007-08)
2008	Comanche Moon	Inez Scull	3 episodes
2010	Rake	Eddie Langhorn	Episode: "R vs Langhorn"
2013	Paper Giants: Magazine Wars	Dulcie Boling	2 episodes
2013	Camp	MacKenzie Granger	10 episodes
2014	Q&A	Herself
2014	House Husbands	Belle	Recurring Role
2017	When We Rise	Diane	Miniseries

Director

Year	Title	Episodes
2015	Nowhere Boys	Series 2, episode 8 Series 2, episode 9 Series 2, episode 10
2016	Indian Summers	Series 2, episode 4

[ Source: Wikipedia ]