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).
2024
as Éowyn (voice)
2024
as Maxine
2024
as Maxine
2024
as Self
2024
as Virginia Ambrose
2024
as Aneska Flood
2023
as Marianne Barris
2023
as Sue
2023
as Adrienne Beaufort
2023
2023
as Countess Judy
2023
as Mindy
2022
as Isabelle Martin
2021
as Kath Simpson
2021
as Jenny
2021
as Sara
2020
as Self
2020
as Charlotte
2019
as Kelly Andrews
2019
as Ruth St. Dennis
2018
as Zelda Spellman
2018
as The Designer
2017
as Rebecca Ingram
2017
as Herself
2017
as Esther Mullins
2017
as Madeline Moncur
2017
as Rebecca Ingram
2015
as Charlotte
2014
as Theoline Belknap
2014
as Maddy Deane
2014
as Leonore
2013
as Sherry
2013
as Elizabeth Bishop
2012
as Margaret White
2012
as Lydia Andrews
2011
as Allison Carr
2011
as Nina Locke
2010
as Meredith Appleton
2009
as Bianca
2009
as Mrs. Barber
2009
as Waitress
2008
as Juliet Draper
2005
as Mary-Ann
2004
as Kelly
2004
as Lindy Chamberlain
2004
as Penny Prior
2004
as Ruth
2003
as Self
2003
as Éowyn
2003
as Glenda Lake
2003
as Self
2002
as Éowyn
2002
as Julie Makowsky
2002
as Clara Strother
2001
as Mrs Hurtle
2001
as Gabrielle
2000
as Mary Feur
2000
as Anna
1999
as Cora Redding
1998
as Marty Bell
1998
as Ronnie
1998
as Alice Walsh
1997
as Patsy
1997
as Mimi
1997
as Katherine
1996
as Dimity Hurley
1995
as Viv
1993
as Jennie O'Brien
1992
as Annie
1992
as Nell Tiscowitz
1991
as Roma Page
1991
as Amanda
1988
as Rebecca
1987
as Stevie
1986
as Emma Grange
1986
as Amy Brodie
as Self