Daniel Henshall

Daniel Henshall
Henshall in February 2012
Born	Daniel Edwin Henshall (1982-08-09) 9 August 1982 (age 42) Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Occupation	Actor
Years active	2006–present

Daniel Edwin Henshall (born 9 August 1982) is an Australian actor. Following his film debut in Snowtown (2011), for which he won the AACTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role, Henshall appeared in films such as The Babadook (2014), Okja (2017), Acute Misfortune (2018), and Catch the Fair One (2021).

Early life and education

Born and raised in Sydney, Australia, he is the youngest of three children.^[1]

He graduated from the full time acting program at Actors Centre Australia in 2006.

Career

Henshall's first major role was on the short lived BBC soap Out of the Blue (2008), where he played happy go lucky, Adam 'Ado' O'Donnell.

He won the AACTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role for his debut feature film performance as real life serial killer, John Bunting, in Justin Kurzel's Snowtown (2011). ^[2][3][4] Indiewire named it one of the best performances of 2012.^[5] Snowtown was selected to play at Critics' Week during the Cannes Film Festival.

Henshall originated the role of Dan Oldfield in the initial sell-out seasons of The Secret River (2013) written by Andrew Bovell, commissioned by Cate Blanchett and Andrew Upton for The Sydney Theatre Company.

For four seasons he played co-lead, whaler spy Caleb Brewster, alongside Jamie Bell, Heather Lind and Seth Numrich in the AMC revolutionary war series Turn: Washington's Spies (2014–2017).

Writer/Director Jennifer Kent cast him as Nurse Robbie, opposite Essie Davis, in the universally praised, modern cult classic, The Babadook (2014). The Babadook had its world premiere at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival.

In the Dreamworks live-action version of the Ghost in the Shell (2017) he played Skinny Man, an AI corrupted vigilante, opposite Scarlett Johansson. Johansson and Henshall battle it out in a recreation of the famous water fight and interrogation scenes of the original 1995 Anime of the same name. ^[6]

Oscar-winning Director Bong Joon-ho cast him as Blonde, animal rights-activist and boyfriend of Silver, alongside Paul Dano, Steven Yeun, Lily Collins and Devon Bostick, in the action-adventure feature film Okja (2017). Okja competed for the Palme d'or in Official Competition at the Cannes Film Festival.

He played white supremacist Slayer, opposite Jamie Bell, Vera Farmiga and Bill Camp, in Skin (2018), based on the life of Bryon Widner and work of Daryle Lamont Jenkins.^[7] Skin had its world premiere at the Toronto Film Festival.

Henshall received critical plaudits for his performance as Archibald Prize-winning artist Adam Cullen in Acute Misfortune (2019), directed by Thomas M. Wright. ^[8][9] He was nominated for the Film Critics Circle of Australia and Australian Film Critics Association Awards for Best Actor. Acute Misfortune was named best Australian film of 2019 by The Guardian.

He played murder suspect Leonard Patz, opposite Chris Evans and Cherry Jones, in the Apple TV+ thriller Defending Jacob (2020), directed by Morten Tyldum.

He played Daryl Dunn, criminal on the run turned Santa, in the family Christmas comedy, A Sunburnt Christmas (2020), directed by Christiaan Van Vuuren.^[10]

In the Netflix series Clickbait (2021), he played grieving brother turned vigilante, Simon Burton, opposite Zoe Kazan, Adrian Grenier and Phoenix Raei.

He played Bobby, a human trafficker, in the film Catch the Fair One (2021), opposite Kali Reis and Kevin Dunn, and directed by Josef Kubota Wladyka. Catch the Fair One premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival where it won the Audience Award.

Henshall had a cameo in the third and final season of the cult FX series Mr Inbetween (2022), opposite creator Scott Ryan and directed by Nash Edgerton.

He was nominated for the AACTA Award for Best Guest or Supporting Actor in a Television Drama for his work as Patrick, the fraudulent son of a bankrupt mining family, in Mystery Road: Origin (2022), directed by Dylan River.

He played bar fly and menace, Dolly, opposite Julia Garner, Jessica Henwick and Hugo Weaving in The Royal Hotel (2023), directed by Kitty Green. The Royal Hotel had its world premiere at the 2023 Telluride Film Festival.

Next, Henshall leads an ensemble cast that includes Hugo Weaving, Agathe Rousselle and Damon Herriman, as Joe, in the Warner Bros film How to Make Gravy written by Meg Washington and Nick Waterman, with Waterman directing. How to Make Gravy is an adaptation of the iconic Australian song of the same name by singer-songwriter Paul Kelly.

In 2025 he will appear in Director Bong Joon-Ho's space odyssey Mickey 17, opposite Robert Pattinson, Mark Ruffalo and Naomi Ackie for Warner Bros, and the third and final season of the award-winning ABC Australia series The Newsreader, opposite Anna Torv and directed by Emma Freeman. On the same day it was announced that Henshall had been announced as part of the cast for ABC drama The Family Next Door, with Teresa Palmer as the lead.^[11]

Credits

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2011	Snowtown	John Bunting	Winner – AACTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role Winner – Film Critics Circle of Australia Award for Best Actor Winner – Australian Film Critics Association Award for Best Actor Winner – Marrakech International Film Festival Award for Best Actor
2012	Not Suitable for Children	Dave
	Any Questions for Ben?	Nick
2013	These Final Hours	Freddy
2014	The Babadook	Robbie
	Fell	Luke
2017	Ghost in the Shell	Skinny Man
	Okja[12]	Blonde
2019	Acute Misfortune	Adam Cullen	Nominated – Film Critics Circle of Australia Award for Best Actor Nominated – Australian Film Critics Association Award for Best Actor
	Skin	Slayer
2020	Measure for Measure	Lukey
	A Sunburnt Christmas	Daryl Dun
2021	Catch the Fair One	Bobby
2023	The Royal Hotel[13]	Dolly
2024	How to Make Gravy	Joe	Based on the song of the same name by Paul Kelly
2025	Mickey 17	TBA	Post-production
TBA	Jimpa	TBA

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes	Ref
2007	All Saints	Tim Downly	Episode The Pain of It All
2008	Out of the Blue	Adam 'Ado' O'Donnell	Main cast
2010	Rescue Special Ops	Trevor Slezack	Episode Street Legal
2012	Rake	Clown	Episode R vs Mohammed
	Devil's Dust	Jock	Ensemble
2013	Mr & Mrs Murder	Gregor Cheresniak	Episode Atlas Drugged
2015	The Beautiful Lie	Kingsley Faraday	Main cast
2014–2017	Turn: Washington's Spies	Caleb Brewster	Main cast	[14]
2019	Lambs of God	Barnaby	Main Cast
	Bloom	Griffo	Main Cast
2020	Defending Jacob	Leonard Patz	Ensemble
2021	Clickbait	Simon Burton	Episode The Brother	[15]
	Fires	Kip	Ensemble
	Mr Inbetween	Kenny	Cameo
2022	Mystery Road: Origin	Patrick	Nominated - AACTA Award for Best Guest or Supporting Actor in a Television Drama	[16]
2023	RFDS	Glen	Episode 2.6
2025	The Newsreader	Bill	Main Cast	[17]
	The Family Next Door	TBA	In production	[11]

Theatre

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2006	The Golden Ass	Various	Bsharp, Belvoir St Theatre
2007	The Popular Mechanicals	Flute	Riverside Theatres Parramatta
2008	Belles Line	Mick	Old Fitzroy Theatre
2013	The Secret River	Dan Oldfield	Sydney Theatre Company

References

1. [1] ^{[dead link‍]}
2. Bradshaw, Peter (17 November 2011). "Snowtown – review". The Guardian. Retrieved 6 May 2020.
3. Ebert, Roger (14 March 2012). "A psychopath using mind control". Chicago Sun-Times.
4. Lehmann, Megan (10 May 2011). "Snowtown: Cannes Review". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 22 April 2020.
5. Savage, Sophia (25 December 2012). "Best Performances of 2012: A Good Year for the Broken, Disturbed and Driven". Indiewire.
6. "Ghost in the Shell movie/anime water fight comparison". YouTube. 22 March 2017. Retrieved 26 October 2021.
7. Sneider, Jeff (24 September 2018). "'Skin' Review: Jamie Bell Shines as Skinhead Trying to Make Good | TIFF 2018". Collider. Retrieved 8 May 2020.
8. Buckmaster, Luke (3 August 2018). "Acute Misfortune first-look review – Adam Cullen biopic is an enthralling, complex triumph". Theguardian.com.
9. Free, Erin (2019). "Acute Misfortune". FilmInk.com.au. Retrieved 22 April 2020.
10. "A Sunburnt Christmas review – a very Australian bad-Santa comedy for a jolly holiday season". The Guardian. 14 December 2020. Retrieved 26 October 2021.
11. Knox, David (22 November 2024). "Production underway on The Family Next Door | TV Tonight". tvtonight.com.au. Retrieved 23 November 2024.
12. "Aussie joins Netflix film shooting in South Korea | TV Tonight". 24 April 2016.
13. "Airdate: The Royal Hotel | TV Tonight". December 2023.
14. "Aussie actors cast in new period pilot in the US | TV Tonight". 15 February 2013.
15. "Filming resumes on Clickbait | TV Tonight". 13 November 2020.
16. "Filming underway on Mystery Road: Origin | TV Tonight". 12 October 2021.
17. Knox, David (12 January 2024). "Filming underway on the Newsreader S3 | TV Tonight". tvtonight.com.au.

External links

• Daniel Henshall at IMDb