Joel Edgerton

Joel Edgerton is an Australian actor and filmmaker born on 23 June 1974. He gained early recognition for portraying Will McGill in the first two seasons of the Australian television drama series The Secret Life of Us, for which he won an AACTA Award. He is widely known for playing Owen Lars in the Star Wars films Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith, a role he later reprised in the Disney+ series Obi-Wan Kenobi. Over his career, he has appeared in numerous Australian and international feature films, television shows, and theatrical productions.

Edgerton was born in Blacktown, New South Wales, Australia. He is the son of Michael Edgerton, a solicitor and property developer, and Marianne Edgerton, a Dutch immigrant born in The Hague. He graduated from the Hills Grammar School in 1991 and subsequently attended the Nepean Drama School at the University of Western Sydney. Following his studies, he performed in various stage productions, including work with the Sydney Theatre Company.

In his early acting career, Edgerton appeared in projects such as Erskineville Kings, Ned Kelly, and King Arthur. In 2005, he voiced the title character in the Academy Award-nominated animated short film The Mysterious Geographic Explorations of Jasper Morello and appeared in the British comedy Kinky Boots. He also starred in Smokin' Aces, Whisper, Acolytes, and Separation City. On stage, he portrayed Stanley in the Sydney Theatre Company's 2009 production of A Streetcar Named Desire, later performing the role at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. In 2010, he starred as Barry Baz Brown in the crime drama film Animal Kingdom, winning an AFI award, and was later honored with the 2011 Australians in Film Breakthrough Award.

Edgerton expanded his screen work with starring roles in Warrior, the 2011 prequel film The Thing, Zero Dark Thirty, and Baz Luhrmann's 2013 adaptation of The Great Gatsby, in which he played Tom Buchanan. He also starred as Ramesses II in Exodus: Gods and Kings and played FBI contact John Connolly in Black Mass. In addition to acting, Edgerton established himself as a filmmaker. He co-wrote and appeared in The Square, directed by his brother, and collaborated with David Michôd to adapt Shakespeare's Henriad plays. In 2015, he wrote, directed, produced, and co-starred in the thriller The Gift, which earned critical acclaim and a DGA Award nomination. He subsequently wrote, directed, and co-starred in Boy Erased, and co-wrote and starred in The King.

Edgerton continued taking on diverse roles, starring in Midnight Special, Loving, Bright, Red Sparrow, and The Green Knight. For his portrayal of Richard Loving in Loving, he received a Golden Globe Award nomination. His television credits include the miniseries The Underground Railroad and the science fiction series Dark Matter. His recent film projects include Master Gardener, The Stranger, The Boys in the Boat, and Train Dreams, the latter earning him nominations for a Golden Globe Award, a Critics' Choice Movie Award, and an Independent Spirit Award. He also voiced characters in the animated film Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole and an episode of Bluey.

Beyond his creative work, Edgerton serves as a long-time ambassador for the Fred Hollows Foundation, an international non-profit organization dedicated to restoring sight and improving health in under-supported regions and Aboriginal Australian communities. In his personal life, Edgerton is a member of the Blue-Tongue Films collective alongside his brother Nash Edgerton. He was in a relationship with Olympic gold medalist Cathy Freeman from 2003 to 2005, and in 2018 began a relationship with Vogue Australia editor-in-chief Christine Centenera, with whom he has twins born in May 2021.