Home > Actresses > C > Cornish, Abbie > Biography

Australian actress Abbie Cornish was born on August 7, 1982, in Lochhinvar, New South Wales. Abbie started her career at 13 as a model, and by age 15 she landed her first acting job playing a quadriplegic on the Australian television series "Children's Hospital." This led to the reoccurring role as Simone Summers on the crime drama "Wildside," which Abbie won the Australian Film Institute Young Actor's Award. She also had major roles on the television series "Water Rats," "Outriders" and "White Collar Blue."

Abbie's first film role came in 2000 when she played strangulation victim Mickey in the lesbian crime drama "The Monkey's Mask." She went on to have roles in the films "Horseplay," "One Perfect Day" and "Somersault;" however, she is best known for her role as Christie Roberts, a California teenager searching for her father in the romantic comedy A Good Year.

In addition to acting Abbie plays the piano and guitar, and she is a strong animal-rights activist.

After a couple of minor ingenue roles in her native Australia, actress Abbie Cornish attained instant superstardom down under with a hypnotic, evocative, and multi-layered lead performance in director Cate Shortland's well-received psychological drama Somersault. That film -- about a fragile young woman who comes completely unhinged while trying to build a new life for herself in a snowy Australian town -- spoke volumes about Cornish's raw ability and foreshadowed a long and successful career for the young dramatist. She reinforced these notions with an equally demanding and harrowing turn as an art student who slides backward into heroin addiction in Neil Armfield's justly praised Candy (2005). Dissatisfied with the limitations of the Australian film industry, Cornish then jumped ship and went Hollywood, where she tackled supporting roles in such features as the 2006 A Good Year (opposite fellow Aussie Russell Crowe) and the 2007 period piece Elizabeth: The Golden Age. Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide