Skip to main content

MelanieLynskey

  • Actor
Melanie-Lynskey-Key-Profile.jpg

New Plymouth-raised Melanie Lynskey made her screen debut with a starring role as teenager Pauline Parker, in Peter Jackson's Oscar-nominated Heavenly Creatures (1994). The following decade, she was nominated for her work in two further Kiwi features: road movie Snakeskin and Anthony McCarten's trapped in a car yard drama Show of Hands. But most of Lynskey's work has been in Hollywood. Her long stateside CV includes 60+ episodes of Two and a Half Men, acclaimed small screen dramas Togetherness and Yellowjackets, and a wide range of indie feature films, including a starring role in 2012 romance Hello I Must Be Going.

Screenography

2025 Executive Producer, As: Anna Osborne Film
The Tattooist of Auschwitz
2024 As: Heather Morris Series
The Last of Us
2023 As: Kathleen Coghlan Series
Candy
2022 As: Betty Gore Television
Don't Look Up
2021 As: June Mindy Television

Awards

2023 Emmy Awards (United States)
Nominated for Outstanding Lead Actress In a Drama Series: for Yellowjackets
Nominated for Outstanding Guest Actress In a Drama Series: for The Last of Us 

“I always wanted to be an actress, but to be in Heavenly Creatures at the age of 15 literally changed my life.”

Melanie Lynskey, in an interview in the Sunday Star-Times