Jacki Weaver

In 1963, at the age of 16, Weaver mimed the role of Gretel to the great soprano, Marilyn Richardson, in an ABC production of Weber's Hansel and Gretel, conducted by Sir Charles Mackerras. In 1964 at the Palace Theatre in Sydney, Weaver and a number of other Australian singers such as The Delltones and her then-boyfriend Bryan Davies performed a satire on the Gidget movies, in which Weaver performed as "Gadget".

In the mid-1960s, she appeared on the Australian music show Bandstand. In one appearance, she sang a 1920s-style pastiche, the novelty song "I Love Onions".

Contrary to popular belief, Weaver has never appeared in a soap opera. She has performed in more than 80 plays, including her stage work in Chekov's The Cherry Orchard and Tennessee Williams' A Streetcar Named Desire, in which she played Stella. Her stage abilities were recognised with a "Mo" award. In 1980 she appeared in a television production of Sumner Locke Elliot's Water Under the Bridge.

Weaver at the AACTA Awards in Sydney, 31 January 2012

Weaver's film debut came with 1971's Stork for which she won her first Australian Film Institute Award. Other notable films during this time include a small role in Peter Weir's critically acclaimed film version of Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975), and a more substantial appearance in Caddie (1976) for which she won her second Australian Film Institute Award.

In the 1990s and early 2000s, Weaver found it increasingly difficult to gain roles on screen or television and she devoted much of her energy to the Australian stage, starring in plays including A Streetcar Named Desire, Last of the Red Hot Lovers, Death of a Salesman, Reg Cribb's Last Cab to Darwin, and Chekhov's Uncle Vanya alongside Cate Blanchett and Richard Roxburgh in 2010–11.

In 2010, Weaver starred in the Melbourne-set crime thriller Animal Kingdom playing a gang family matriarch. Her performance earned her an Academy Award nomination as well as winning the Australian Film Institute Award, the National Board of Review, Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award and a Satellite Award.

Weaver made her Hollywood debut with the comedy The Five-Year Engagement, alongside Emily Blunt and Jason Segel, and starred in Park Chan-Wook's English-language debut, Stoker, alongside fellow Australian actors Nicole Kidman and Mia Wasikowska, and British actor Matthew Goode.[6]

On 10 January 2012, Weaver was again nominated for an Academy Award for her role opposite Robert De Niro in the film Silver Linings Playbook. In April the same year, she was cast in the adaptation of Richard Alfieri's play Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks opposite Gena Rowlands.[7]