Abbie Cornish Biography

ABBIE CORNISH

Date of Birth: August 7, 1982

Abbie Cornish grew up as the second of five children on a 70-hectare rural property in Australia. At 13, she became a vegetarian and decided to give modeling a try, though she was planning to be a veterinarian one day. After reaching the finals of a magazine competition, she acquired a talent agent, and at 15, landed her first acting job on the TV series Children's Hospital, playing a quadriplegic.

Abbie then became a regular on the crime drama series Wildside, winning a 1999 Young Actor's Award from the Australian Film Institute. Meanwhile, her parents had divorced, so at 16, she moved to the nearby city of Newcastle, where she shared a warehouse apartment with an artist.

An avid traveler, Abbie spent her 18th birthday alone on a hill in northern Italy, writing in her journal and thinking. After trekking through Europe and the U.S. for six months, she ran out of money and returned to Australia to work.

Her film debut was in The Monkey's Mask (2000), starring Kelly McGillis. Cornish landed a regular role on another Australian series, Outriders (2001), about a group of teenagers who ride horses. Her next motion picture was Horseplay (2003), a comedy about a horse trainer.

For her work as a runaway teenager in Somersault (2004), Abbie won several awards, including Best Actress awards from both the Australian Film Institute and the Film Critics Circle of Australia.

Her star kept rising as Heath Ledger's heroin-addicted lover in Candy (2006) and as Russell Crowe's long-lost American cousin in A Good Year (2006). Unfortunately, her first headlines in North America didn't put her in a good light: she was named by various tabloids as having had an affair with Ryan Phillippe, Reese Witherspoon's husband, on the set of Stop Loss (2008), though this was denied by her publicist. Subsequent film work includes Bright Star (2009), Sucker Punch (2011), Seven Psychopaths (2012) and Lavender (2016) with Dermot Mulroney and Justin Long.

Abbie's most recent films include the environmental thriller Geostorm (2017) and drama Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017).

In 2018, Abbie accepted the role of Cathy Mueller on the Amazon Prime Video series Jack Ryan, starring John Krasinski in the title role.

Abbie's hobbies include playing the piano, playing guitar and dancing. She has been a vegetarian since she was 13 years old. Her younger sister, Isabelle Cornish, is also an actress.

Filmography:

Geostorm (2017)
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017)
Lavender (2016)
Solace (2016)
RoboCop (2014)
Seven Psychopaths (2012)
The Girl (2012)
W./E. (2012)
Limitless (2011)
Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole (2010)
Bright Star (2009)
Stop-Loss (2008)
Elizabeth: The Golden Age (2007)
A Good Year (2006)
Candy (2006)
Somersault (2004)
One Perfect Day (2004)
Horseplay (2003)
The Monkey’s Mask (2000)