New Zealand-born and Emmy Nominated actor Melanie Lynskey has become an industry staple, having amassed a plethora of thought-provoking roles in television and film over the course of 30 years.
Most recently, Melanie starred opposite Christina Ricci and Tawny Cypress in the 10-time Emmy-nominated Showtime series 'Yellowjackets,' which had its season 3 finale on April 13th to much acclaim. She plays Shauna Sadecki, a player on a team of wildly talented high school soccer players who become the (un)lucky survivors of a plane crash deep in the Ontario wilderness. Melanie has received high praise for her performance, including two Emmy Nominations, a Critic’s Choice Award win for Best Actress in a Drama Series and a Gotham Award nomination for Outstanding Performance in a New Series.
Upcoming, Lynskey will lead 'Pike River' as Anna Osborne, opposite Robyn Malcom and directed by Robert Sarkies. The film is centered around the 2010 Pike River tragedy and captures the profound impact of one of the worst mining disasters in New Zealand’s history.
Lynskey was seen in the film 'Griffin in the Summer' alongside Everett Blunck, which premiered at the 2024 Tribeca Film Festival. In this coming-of-age story, ambitious fourteen-year-old, Griffin Nafly, is putting on a dramatic new play when his attention begins to drift toward Brad, a handyman working at his house, his life will never be the same. The film won three awards at Tribeca Film Festival, including Best Screenplay.
In 2024, Lynskey starred in Peacock’s limited series 'The Tattooist of Auschwitz' alongside Jonah Hauer King, which premiered May 2nd. She portrays Heather Morris, the writer of the heartbreaking true story of Lale and Gita Sokolov’s time in Auschwitz Birkenau.
Lynskey recently starred in HBO’s critically acclaimed 'The Last of Us,' a series adaptation of the widely popular 2013 PlayStation video game of the same name. Written and executive produced by Craig Mazin and Neil Druckman, Melanie stars alongside Pedro Pascal, Bella Ramsay, Gabriel Luna, Anna Torv, Nico Parker, Murray Bartlett and Nick Offerman. The first episode premiered on January 15, 2023 and drew 4.7M viewers across linear and HBO Max, marking the second-largest debut for the network since 2010. Lynskey picked up a Guest Actress Emmy nomination for her role, which was one of the twenty-four the show was nominated for.
Lynskey’s career began in 1994 with the release of Peter Jackson’s acclaimed film 'Heavenly Creatures,' which earned her a New Zealand Film Award for Best Actress. Subsequent film credits include Adam Mckay’s 'Don’t Look Up,' Stephen Chbosky’s 'The Perks of Being a Wallflower,' Steven Soderbergh's 'The Informant,' Tom McCarthy's 'Win Win,' Megan Griffith’s 'Sadie,' Billy Ray's 'Shattered Glass,' Sam Mendes' 'Away We Go,' Jason Reitman's 'Up in The Air,' Justin and Christian Long’s 'Lady of the Manor', Andy Tennant's 'Ever After' and 'Sweet Home Alabama,' Jamie Babbit’s 'But I’m A Cheerleader,' Clint Eastwood's 'Flags Of Our Fathers,' Joe Swanberg’s 'Happy Christmas,' Angus MacLachlan's 'Goodbye To All That,' Macon Blair’s 'I Don't Feel at Home in This World Anymore,' for which Lynskey was nominated for a Gotham Award for Best Actress, and Clea Duvall’s debut feature, 'The Intervention,' which earned her the US Special Jury Prize for Individual Performance at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival.
In 2012, Lynskey played the lead role in Todd Louiso's film 'Hello I Must Be Going.' The film opened the 2012 Sundance Film Festival and was rated one of the Top Ten Independent Films of the Year by the National Board of Review. Lynskey’s performance earned her critical praise and a nomination for a 2012 Gotham Independent Film Award in the category of Breakthrough Actor.
On the small screen, Melanie starred in Hulu’s crime thriller 'Candy' opposite Jessica Biel. The series tells the true story of Candy Montgomery, a Texas housewife who infamously murdered her friend Betty Gore, played by Lynskey, with an ax in 1980. She received a Critic’s Choice nomination for her performance in the series. Additional television credits include: Hulu’s 'Mrs. America' opposite Uzo Aduba and Cate Blanchett and Castle Rock, opposite André Holland, Sissy Spacek and Bill Skarsgård; 'Netflix’s Wet Hot American Summer: Ten Years Later' and 'Girlboss;' the Duplass brothers' critically acclaimed HBO show, 'Togetherness' in which she was nominated for a Critic’s Choice Award for her performance in the series. Lynskey voiced the character Beatrice in Cartoon Network's 'Over the Garden Wall,' which won the 2015 Emmy for Best Animated Program; and from 2003-2015, Lynskey had a popular recurring role as Rose in the hit TV show 'Two and A Half Men.'
Melanie currently resides in Los Angeles, with her partner, actor and producer, Jason Ritter and their daughter.
