Name: Mary Rose Byrne

Birthplace: Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

Birthday: 24 July 1979

Height: 5’6¼” (1.68 m)

Location: Home is Australia, currently rents an apartment in the East Village in New York. She still owns her home in Hackney which is currently rented out

Parents: Father a retired market researcher and her mother a former principal at an aboriginal school. Both her parents currently live on a farm (a former healing center) in Tasmania. Father used to bet on horse races. Both are atheists.

Siblings: youngest of four

Lucy (+7 years) works in publishing; Rose and she own a house in London borough Hackney

Alice (+5 years) is a painter in Melbourne

George (+3 years) is a singer/songwriter in Sydney

SO: Dated the director of Two Hands for a year. Dated fellow Australian actor/writer Brendan Cowell 2004-2005, but broke up during the filming Troy and Wicker Park. They got back together and eventually ended things in January 2010. Long-distance seemed to be the major factor in the break-up. Rose is currently single.

Best friend: fellow Australian actress Nadia Townsend (since they were eight)-Rose enrolled for a Bachelor of Arts at Sydney University. She is also friends with Abby Cornish, Sam Trammell (True Blood) and her former Damages co-stars Anastasia Griffith (Katie Connor) and Noah Bean (David Connor)

Favourite Actors: Natalie Portman, Diane Keaton

Music Fan: Fleet Foxes, Elvis Presley, Kylie Minogue, Bob Marley, Ryan Adams, Santogold, INXS, she’s also said she listens to rap, mentioning that she listens to a bit of Biggie Smalls. Also a fan of many of the small Australian bands/artists.

Awards and Nominations
Won the Best Actress award at the Venice Film Festival in 2000 for “The Goddess of 1967″.
Won the Australian Film Institute prize in 2007- International Award for Best Actress in “Damages”.
She was also nominated for two Golden Globes (2008, 2010) and a Emmy (2009) for her supporting role as young attorney Ellen Parsons on Damages.

Random Facts

She had just started university when she went to the audition for Two Hands and got the part. She only got halfway through her degree and doesn’t plan on finishing it

2000 she won a Volpi Cup at the Venice Film Festival for best actress in The Goddess of 1967

She was nominated for an Golden Globe in 2007 for her role as Ellen Parsons in the FX Network drama Damages

Once punched a man because he didn’t want to kiss her (she was drunk at the time and has since apologised more than once, though she didn’t regret throwing the right-hook)

Starred in Darren Hayes’s music video ‘I Miss You’ and M.Craft’s music video ‘Sweets’.

Is of Irish and Scottish descent

Ranked #16 on FHM’s Sexiest women in the world, Australian edition. (2006)

She and her Marie Antoinette director, Sophia Coppola, both played handmaidens in the Star Wars prequels. Sophia Coppola appeared in Episode I, Byrne in Episode II.