Odessa Young Biography

Born in Sydney, Australia, Odessa Young is named for the town her father grew up in, in Ontario, Canada. When she was 11, she began taking acting classes after school. Her drama teacher told her about an open audition for a children's television show called My Place on ABC-3, which would turn out to be her first professional acting job. Prior to that, she'd appeared in her uncle Aden Young's short film The Rose of Bad Ziz (2007), but it was all stills — there was no acting involved.

Next she appeared in the Australian TV series Tricky Business in 2012, and the series Wonderland (2013 to 2015), before she made the transition to films.

Odessa played the title role in the feature Looking for Grace (2015), then immediately played a co-starring role in the drama The Daughter (2015) alongside Geoffrey Rush and Sam Neill. She went on to win an Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts Award for Looking for Grace, making her at 18 the youngest actress ever to receive the honor. She was also dubbed “Australia’s brightest rising star” by Elle Magazine. For her role in The Daughter, she nabbed the Best Actress in a Leading Role award at the 2016 Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts Awards.

Following these two feature films, Odessa realized she was becoming miserable trying to balance her schooling and her career at the same time and dropped out of school with the support of both of her parents.

In 2017, Odessa was cast in a lead role as Becky Monroe in the Paramount TV series When the Street Lights Go On, which aired on Hulu. She played the younger sister of 17-year-old girl who is killed, along with her teacher, in a devil worshipping homicide.

However, Odessa has mostly continued to favor the big screen over television. She appeared in the American thriller Sweet Virginia (2017) alongside Jon Bernthal and most recently returned to theaters as the star of the film Assassination Nation (2018). She has also filmed a starring role in A Million Little Pieces (2018) opposite Charlie Hunnam and Aaron Taylor-Johnson, directed by Sam Taylor-Johnson. The movie screened at the 2018 Toronto International Film Festival.

Most recently, she starred alongside Josh O'Connor, Olivia Colman and Colin Firth in the British film Mothering Sunday (2022).

Odessa currently makes her home in Los Angeles.

Filmography:

Mothering Sunday (2022)
The Man in the Woods (2020)
Shirley (2019)
Richard Says Goodbye (2019)
A Million Little Pieces (2018)
Assassination Nation (2018)
Sweet Virginia (2017)
The Daughter (2015)
Looking for Grace (2015)