Elizabeth Debicki

Early work and The Great Gatsby (2011–2014)

Debicki made her feature film debut in the 2011 Australian comedy A Few Best Men, appearing in a brief screen role. Her first major screen opportunity came soon afterwards, when director Baz Luhrmann saw her audition reel and flew her to Los Angeles to audition for his film adaptation of The Great Gatsby. She auditioned with Leonardo DiCaprio and Tobey Maguire, and in May 2011 Luhrmann announced that she had been cast as Jordan Baker in The Great Gatsby (2013).^[13][14][15] Her performance won the AACTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role.^[16]

Debicki returned to stage work in 2013, playing Madame in the Sydney Theatre Company's production of Jean Genet's play The Maids, opposite Cate Blanchett as Claire and Isabelle Huppert as Solange.^[6][17][18] She won the best newcomer award at the Sydney Theatre Awards for her performance.^[19] In 2014, the production appeared at the New York City Center.^[20] She also began taking television roles, guest-starring in the third season of the Australian series Rake.^[21]

Film, television and stage roles (2015–2021)

In 2015, Debicki appeared in Guy Ritchie's The Man from U.N.C.L.E., Justin Kurzel's adaptation of Macbeth, and the biographical adventure film Everest.^[22][23][24] She returned to the London stage the following year as Mona Sanders in The Red Barn, David Hare's stage adaptation of Georges Simenon's novel La Main. Starring alongside Mark Strong and Hope Davis, she appeared in the production at the National Theatre's Lyttelton Theatre from October 2016 to January 2017.^[25]

Her television work expanded during this period. She starred in the Australian series The Kettering Incident, an eight-hour production filmed in Tasmania.^[24] She then joined the cast of the BBC miniseries The Night Manager, adapted from the John le Carré novel of the same name.^[26]

Debicki's international work continued in 2017 with a role in the Marvel Studios film Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, in which she played Ayesha, leader of the Sovereign people. She reprised the role in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (2023).^[27] The same year, she joined Luc Besson's Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets in a voice-over role and played Eva in Simon Baker's film Breath, for which she received an AACTA Award nomination for Best Actress in a Supporting Role.^[28][29][30]

In 2018, Debicki appeared in The Cloverfield Paradox, the third instalment in the Cloverfield franchise, which was released on Netflix directly after Super Bowl LII.^[31] She also appeared in the HBO film The Tale and played Alice in Steve McQueen's heist film Widows.^[32] The Los Angeles Times described her as a standout in the film's large ensemble cast, which included Viola Davis and Liam Neeson.^[33] Her other credits from the period included portraying Virginia Woolf in Vita & Virginia and voicing Mopsy Rabbit in Peter Rabbit and its 2021 sequel, Peter Rabbit 2: The Runaway.

Debicki next appeared opposite Claes Bang and Mick Jagger in the 2019 thriller The Burnt Orange Heresy.^[34] In Christopher Nolan's spy film Tenet (2020), she starred as Kat, the estranged wife of Kenneth Branagh's character.^[35] Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian wrote that she had "the most recognisable human emotions here, shouting, crying and even smiling in a way that no one else quite does", while also comparing the role to her part in The Night Manager.^[36] Debicki later said Kat's harsher scenes showed the physical and psychological threats surrounding the character.^[37]

The Crown and recent work (2022–present)

Debicki portrayed Diana, Princess of Wales in the final two seasons of the Netflix period drama series The Crown.^[38] In the role, she portrayed Diana's later public life and death, and later said she spent about a year researching Diana and worked to adopt her voice and physical mannerisms.^[39] Her performance in the fifth season earned nominations from the Primetime Emmy,^[40] Golden Globe,^[41] and Screen Actors Guild awards.^[42] For the sixth and final season, she won the Golden Globe,^[43] Critics' Choice,^[44] Screen Actors Guild,^[45] and Primetime Emmy awards.^[46] Her Emmy win made her the first Australian to win Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series.^[47]

Her later film credits included MaXXXine (2024), in which she played Elizabeth Bender.^[48] In 2025, Debicki returned to the stage opposite Ewan McGregor in Lila Raicek's My Master Builder, a contemporary adaptation of Henrik Ibsen's play The Master Builder, at Wyndham’s Theatre in the West End.^[49][50]

Film

Television

Theater