Toni Collette (born November 1, 1972) is an Academy Award-nominated Australian actress and musician. She is perhaps best known for her roles in the films The Sixth Sense, Muriel's Wedding, In Her Shoes and Little Miss Sunshine.
Collette was born Antonia Collette in Blacktown, Sydney, New South Wales to Bob Collette, a truck driver, and Judy, a customer-service representative. She has two younger brothers, Ben and Christopher. 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 both the Australian Theatre for Young People and NIDA.
Collette has won four Australian Film Institute awards, including the Australian Best Actress in a Lead Role for Muriel's 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 LaChiusa's 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 a recent 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.
While promoting the American film In Her Shoes, Collette stated that she feels bitter over losing high-profile roles to Renée Zellweger. She had to turn down the title role in Bridget Jones's 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 wasn't a well known actress, she lost the role to Zellweger.
In October 2006, she began touring Australia to promote her first vocal album Beautiful Awkward Pictures, released on Hoola Hoop Records under the band name Toni Collette & the Finish, a band whose drummer is her husband. 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. She sang T-Rex's "Children Of The Revolution" with The Finish.
“Thank you so much, it is heartwarming to see so many people here today in the name of going green, and in the name of very necessary change. Just by being here today, just by turning up is helping to create awareness of this very life threatening situation. So I take my hat off to you.”
Collette has been married to Dave Galafassi since January 11, 2003 and owns homes in both Australia and the Republic of Ireland. Collette is a supporter of animal rights and PETA. She recently urged Prime Minister John Howard to end the Australian practice of mulesing sheep, which is considered by many animal rights activists to be cruel. She later revised her position after doing her own research of the Australian wool industry. On a recent Rove interview she stated that she would turn gay for Angelina Jolie. It was recently announced that she is pregnant with her and her husband's first child, due in December.
