Melanie Lynskey filmography

New Zealand actress Melanie Lynskey made her professional debut at the age of 16 when she starred as murderess Pauline Parker in Heavenly Creatures (1994), a crime drama directed by Peter Jackson and co-starring Kate Winslet. Following a three-year hiatus, she resumed her career with a supporting role—as Drew Barrymore's stepsister—in the big-budget romance Ever After (1998), and spent the next few years appearing in various international productions, such as Detroit Rock City, But I'm a Cheerleader, The Cherry Orchard (all 1999), Coyote Ugly (2000), Snakeskin (2001), Shooters, Abandon, and Sweet Home Alabama (all 2002).

Lynskey at the 2009 Toronto International Film Festival

Lynskey appeared as Rose—Charlie Sheen's conniving love interest—on the CBS sitcom Two and a Half Men between 2003 and 2015. During this time she also had supporting roles in Billy Ray's Shattered Glass (2003), Clint Eastwood's Flags of Our Fathers (2006), Sam Mendes's Away We Go, Jason Reitman's Up in the Air alongside George Clooney, Steven Soderbergh's The Informant! opposite Matt Damon, Tim Blake Nelson's Leaves of Grass alongside Edward Norton (all 2009), Thomas McCarthy's Win Win (2011) opposite Paul Giamatti, and the film version of Stephen Chbosky's The Perks of Being a Wallflower (2012), in which she played the main character's sexually abusive Aunt Helen.

Lynskey's portrayal of depressed divorcee Amy Minsky—in the 2012 drama Hello I Must Be Going—proved to be a turning point in her career,[1] and led to a string of prominent parts in films such as The Big Ask (2013), Happy Christmas, Goodbye to All That, We'll Never Have Paris (all 2014), The Intervention, Little Boxes (both 2016), And Then I Go (2017), the acclaimed[2] thriller I Don't Feel at Home in This World Anymore (2017)—where she played Ruth, a disgruntled vigilante—and Sadie (2018). These roles helped establish her as a key figure on the American independent film scene.[3]

Lynskey was nominated for a Critics' Choice Television Award for her portrayal of housewife Michelle Pierson on HBO's Togetherness (2015–2016). She then starred in the Australian drama series Sunshine (2017) and as Molly Strand on the first season of Hulu's Castle Rock (2018), had major roles in the miniseries' Mrs. America (2020) and Candy (2022), and co-starred as the put-upon wife of Leonardo DiCaprio in Adam McKay's 2021 political satire Don't Look Up. Lynskey's transition to mainstream success was solidified by her starring role as Shauna, a plane crash survivor, on the Showtime mystery-thriller series Yellowjackets (2021–present),[4] for which she won the 2022 Critics' Choice Award for Best Actress and was nominated for the Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actress in 2022 and 2024, respectively. She also appeared as Kathleen on the post-apocalyptic HBO drama The Last of Us (2023), receiving a nomination for the 2024 Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Guest Actress.