Thomasin McKenzie

Thomasin Harcourt McKenzie is a New Zealand actress born on 26 July 2000. She first gained critical prominence for her performance in the 2018 drama film Leave No Trace, which earned her the National Board of Review Award for Breakthrough Performance. She has since appeared in a wide variety of feature films and television productions, including Jojo Rabbit, Last Night in Soho, Old, and Eileen.

McKenzie was born in Wellington, New Zealand, and graduated from Samuel Marsden Collegiate School in 2018. She comes from a family involved in acting, directing, and journalism; her parents are actress Dame Miranda Harcourt and director Stuart McKenzie, while her sister Davida is an actress and her brother Peter is a journalist. Her grandmother is actress Dame Kate Harcourt, and her family founded the real estate firm Harcourts International. As a child, McKenzie initially wanted to work with animals as a vet or zookeeper.

Her early acting career began with an appearance alongside her brother in the 2012 film Existence, followed by a minor role in The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies in 2014. That same year, she portrayed teenager Louise Nicholas in the television film Consent: The Louise Nicholas Story, a role she noted changed her perception of acting. She later played Pixie Hannah on the soap opera Shortland Street in 2015 and starred in the web series Lucy Lewis Can't Lose in 2016.

McKenzie's breakthrough arrived with her critically acclaimed role as a war veteran's daughter in Debra Granik's Leave No Trace (2018), which brought her nominations at the Critics' Choice, Gotham, and Independent Spirit Awards. In 2019, she expanded her profile with supporting roles in True History of the Kelly Gang, the Netflix period drama The King, and Taika Waititi's satire Jojo Rabbit, playing Elsa Korr, a young Jewish girl in hiding. She later starred in the 2020 film Lost Girls.

In 2021, McKenzie starred in M. Night Shyamalan's thriller Old, Edgar Wright's horror film Last Night in Soho, and Jane Campion's western drama The Power of the Dog. She transitioned to television with BBC Two's Life After Life and voiced the computational intelligence MIST in the animated series Pantheon. In 2023, she played the title character in William Oldroyd's psychological thriller Eileen opposite Anne Hathaway.

McKenzie portrayed embryologist Jean Purdy in the 2024 biographical drama Joy. Her 2025 projects include the period comedy Fackham Hall and the historical drama The Testament of Ann Lee. Her additional film projects include The Uprising, Victorian Psycho, Rule of Three, and playing Audrey Hepburn in Dinner with Audrey, along with a recurring television role in the third season of Fallout.

McKenzie moved to Islington in the United Kingdom in June 2023 after living in Wellington. She has publicly discussed personal struggles with anxiety, panic attacks, and impostor syndrome. Among her artistic influences, she has cited actresses Audrey Hepburn, Julie Andrews, Jennifer Lawrence, and Michelle Williams. In September 2025, she joined thousands of cinema workers in signing the Film Workers for Palestine pledge.