Miranda Otto
Acting
Born December 16, 1967, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
Miranda Otto (born December 16, 1967) is an Australian actress. The daughter of actors Lindsay and Barry Otto and the sister of actress Gracie Otto, she began acting at age eighteen, and has performed in a variety of independent and major studio films. Her first major film appearance was in the 1986 film Emma's War, in which she played a teenager who moves to Australia's bush country during World War II. In 1996, director Shirley Barrett cast Otto as a shy waitress in the film Love Serenade. She starred in the 1997 films Doing Time for Patsy Cline and The Well, for which earned her third Australian Film Institute nomination. Her next project was the romantic comedy Dead Letter Office (1998). The film was Otto's first with her father, Barry, who makes a brief appearance. Later that year, she starred in the film In the Winter Dark, directed by James Bogle, for which she was nominated for her fourth Australian Film Institute Award. After a decade of critically acclaimed roles in Australian films, she gained Hollywood's attention after appearing in supporting roles in The Thin Red Line (1998) and What Lies Beneath (2000). In 2001, she was cast as a naturalist in the comedy Human Nature and appeared in the BBC adaptation of Anthony Trollope's The Way We Live Now, as a strong-willed American Southerner. Her breakthrough role came in 2002, when she portrayed Éowyn in The Lord of the Rings trilogy. Her character was introduced in the trilogy's second film The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers in 2002 and appeared in the third film, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, the following year. Her performance earned her an Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films nomination for Best Supporting Actress. Director Steven Spielberg, impressed by Otto's performance in The Lord of the Rings, called her to ask if she would play opposite Tom Cruise in the big-budget science fiction film War of the Worlds (2005). Otto, pregnant at the time, believed she would have to turn down the role, but the script was reworked to accommodate her. Her next project was playing the lead in the Australian film Danny Deckchair (2003). She then took on the Australian television miniseries Through My Eyes: The Lindy Chamberlain Story (2004). At the 2005 Logie Awards, Otto won Most Outstanding Actress in a Drama Series for her role. In 2007, Otto starred as Cricket Stewart, the wife of a successful director, in the television miniseries The Starter Wife. She had a starring role in the 2008 American television series Cashmere Mafia, and Australian films such as In Her Skin and Blessed (2009). She starred opposite Stephanie Sigman and Anthony LaPaglia in the horror prequel Annabelle: Creation. She portrayed Zelda Spellman in Netflix's Chilling Adventures of Sabrina (2018-2020). She made her theatrical debut in the 1986 production of The Bitter Tears of Petra Von Kant for the Sydney Theatre Company.[28] Three more theatrical productions for the Sydney Theatre Company followed in the late 1980s and early 1990s. In 2002, she returned to the stage playing Nora Helmer in A Doll's House opposite her future husband Peter O'Brien. Otto's performance earned her a 2003 Helpmann Award nomination and the MO Award for "Best Female Actor in a Play". Her next stage role was in the psychological thriller Boy Gets Girl (2005).
Filmography
- 2026The Fox — Liz
- 2026The Pout-Pout Fish — Marin (voice)
- Ladies in Black — Virginia Ambrose
- 2024My Freaky Family — Aneska Flood (voice)
- 2024The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim — Éowyn (voice)
- Thou Shalt Not Steal — Maxine
- 2023At the Gates — Marianne Barris
- Koala Man — Mindy (voice)
- 2023Talk to Me — Sue, Executive Producer
- The Clearing — Adrienne Beaufort
- 2023The Portable Door — Countess Judy
- Wellmania — Camille Lavinge
- True Colours — Isabelle Martin
- Fires — Kath Simpson
- The Moth Effect — Jenny
- The Unusual Suspects — Sara
- 2020Downhill — Charlotte
- 2019The Chaperone — Ruth St. Dennis
- 2019The Silence — Kelly Andrews
- Chilling Adventures of Sabrina — Zelda Spellman
- 2018Zoe — The Designer
- 24: Legacy — Rebecca Ingram
- 2017Annabelle: Creation — Esther Mullins
- 2017Dance Academy: The Movie — Madeline Moncur
- 2017The Raid — Rebecca Ingram
- 2015The Daughter — Charlotte
- 2014I, Frankenstein — Leonore
- Rake — Maddy Deane
- 2014The Homesman — Theoline Belknap
- 2013Reaching for the Moon — Elizabeth Bishop
- 2013The Turning — Sherry
- 2012Mabo — Margaret White
- Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries — Lydia Andrews
- Homeland — Allison Carr
- 2011Locke & Key — Nina Locke
- 2010South Solitary — Meredith Appleton
- 2009Blessed — Bianca
- 2009In Her Skin — Mrs. Barber
- 2009Schadenfreude — Waitress
- Cashmere Mafia — Juliet Draper
- The Starter Wife — Cricket Stewart
- 2005War of the Worlds — Mary Ann
- 2004Flight of the Phoenix — Kelly
- 2004In My Father's Den — Penny Prior
- 2004The Three-Legged Fox — Ruth
- Through My Eyes — Lindy Chamberlain
- 2003Danny Deckchair — Glenda Lake
- 2003The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King — Éowyn
- 2002Doctor Sleep — Clara Strother
- 2002Julie Walking Home — Julie Makowsky
- 2002The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers — Éowyn
- 2001Human Nature — Gabrielle
- The Way We Live Now — Mrs Hurtle
- 2000Kin — Anna
- 2000What Lies Beneath — Mary Feur
- 1999The Jack Bull — Cora Redding
- 1998Dead Letter Office — Alice Walsh
- 1998In the Winter Dark — Ronnie
- 1998The Thin Red Line — Marty Bell
- 1997Doing Time for Patsy Cline — Patsy
- 1997The Well — Katherine
- 1997True Love and Chaos — Mimi
- 1996Love Serenade — Dimity Hurley
- 1995Sex Is a Four Letter Word — Viv
- 1993The Nostradamus Kid — Jennie O'Brien
- 1992Daydream Believer — Nell Tiscowitz
- 1992The Last Days of Chez Nous — Annie
- Heroes II: The Return — Roma Page
- Police Rescue — Amanda
- 1988The 13th Floor — Rebecca
- 1987Initiation — Stevie
- 1986Emma's War — Emma Grange
- The Flying Doctors — Amy Brodie
- Fog City — Dorothy Hargrove
- The Great White
- Tough Love — Kerry
Appearances as themselves (8)
- 2024Revealed: Otto By Otto — Self
- 2023In the Grip of Terror: Making Talk to Me — Self
- 2020Faith & Fear: The Conjuring Universe — Self
- Reunited Apart — Self
- 2006The Making of 'The Return of the King' — Self
- 2006The Making of 'The Two Towers' — Self
- 2004A Filmmaker's Journey: Making 'The Return of the King' — Self
- 2003The Quest Fulfilled: A Director's Vision — Self