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Lynskey at the
2009 Toronto International Film Festival
New Zealand actress
Melanie Lynskey made her film debut in 1994 when she played teenage murderess
Pauline Parker in
Heavenly Creatures, a crime drama directed by
Peter Jackson. Following a hiatus,
[1] she resumed her career with a supporting role in the fairytale romance
Ever After (1998), and spent the next few years appearing in a variety of big-budget and small-scale features, such as
Detroit Rock City,
But I'm a Cheerleader (both 1999),
Coyote Ugly (2000),
Snakeskin (2001),
Abandon (2002), and the commercially successful romantic comedy
Sweet Home Alabama (2002).
[2]
Lynskey appeared as
Rose, the conniving love interest of
Charlie Harper, on the
CBS sitcom
Two and a Half Men between 2003 and 2015.
[3] During this time she played supporting parts in
Shattered Glass (2003),
Clint Eastwood's
Flags of Our Fathers (2006),
Sam Mendes's
Away We Go,
Jason Reitman's
Up in the Air,
Steven Soderbergh's
The Informant! (all 2009),
Win Win (2011), and
The Perks of Being a Wallflower (2012). Her starring role as a depressed divorcee in
Hello I Must Be Going (2012) proved to be a turning point in Lynskey's career,
[4] with headline parts in dramedies such as
Happy Christmas,
Goodbye to All That (both 2014) and
The Intervention (2016) coming next, establishing her as a prominent figure on the American independent film scene.
[5] For her portrayal of a disgruntled vigilante in the 2017 thriller
I Don't Feel at Home in This World Anymore, she was nominated for the
Gotham Award for Best Actress.
[6]
Lynskey starred as a conflicted housewife on
HBO's
Togetherness from 2015 to 2016, earning praise and a
Critics' Choice nomination.
[7] She then appeared as an ambitious defence lawyer in the Australian drama series
Sunshine (2017), a troubled psychic on
Hulu's
Castle Rock (2018), a conservative activist in the
FX miniseries
Mrs. America (2020), and real-life murder
victim
Betty Gore in the
Hulu miniseries
Candy (2022). Her transition to mainstream success continued with her role as a put-upon wife in the 2021 film
Don't Look Up, as well as her portrayal of Shauna, a secretive plane crash survivor, on the
Showtime thriller series
Yellowjackets (2021–present),
[8] for which she won the 2022
Critics' Choice Award for Best Actress and was nominated twice for the
Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress (2022, 2023).
[9]
[10]
[11] She received a further Emmy nomination (
Outstanding Guest Actress, 2023) for her role as a ruthless war criminal on the first season of HBO's
The Last of Us.
[11]
Film
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