Samara Weaving

Samara Weaving (born 23 February 1992) is an Australian actress and model. She began her career in her home country, playing Kirsten Mulroney on the series Out of the Blue (2008) and Indi Walker on the soap opera Home and Away (2009–2013), for which she received an AACTA Award nomination.

Weaving starred in the horror films Mayhem and The Babysitter (both 2017), and received numerous ensemble awards for the drama film Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017). She received praise for her performance in the black comedy horror film Ready or Not (2019), which was her first leading role in a theatrical American film and established her as a scream queen. Her continued horror roles include The Babysitter: Killer Queen (2020), Scream VI (2023) and Azrael (2024).

Weaving has alternated between film and television, starring in the miniseries Picnic at Hanging Rock (2018), Hollywood (2020), and Nine Perfect Strangers (2021), and in the films Guns Akimbo (2019), Bill & Ted Face the Music (2020), Last Moment of Clarity (2020), Babylon (2022), Chevalier (2022), and The Valet (2022).

Early life
Weaving was born in Adelaide on 23 February 1992, the daughter of an English father, Simon Weaving, and Maltese mother, Helena Bezzina. She grew up in Singapore, Fiji, Australia, and Indonesia. Her father is a filmmaker and lecturer at the University of Newcastle in Newcastle, New South Wales, as well as the artistic director of the Canberra International Film Festival. Her mother is an art therapist who teaches museum studies at the University of Newcastle. Her younger sister, Morgan, is also an actress; their uncle is actor Hugo Weaving.

Weaving and her family moved to Canberra in 2005, and she attended Canberra Girls Grammar School. She became vice drama captain and appeared in various school and theatre productions.

Career
Weaving made her screen debut in 2008, being cast as Kirsten Mulroney in the Australian soap opera Out of the Blue when she was 14. The series was well received, but it was not commissioned for a second season. She then relocated from Canberra to Sydney to play Indigo "Indi" Walker in the Australian soap opera Home and Away. While initially cast in a recurring capacity, she was later brought into the main cast, playing the character from 2009 to 2013. Weaving described the experience as difficult, comparing it to a "machine". She was nominated for Best Female Performance at the AACTA Awards in 2012.

Weaving began modelling for Australian underwear brand Bonds in 2012. In 2013, Weaving appeared in the crime film Mystery Road, alongside her uncle Hugo. She played the recurring role of Heather in the comedy horror series Ash vs Evil Dead in 2015, earning attention after a picture of her in a make-up test was used in a hoax. Also in 2015, she appeared in the comedy web series Squirrel Boys. The following year, she appeared in the action comedy Monster Trucks as Brianne. She was cast in the film during her first trip to Los Angeles in 2014.

In 2017, Weaving starred in the action comedy-thriller Mayhem, which saw her co-star with Steven Yeun and playing the role of Melanie Cross. Brian Tallerico of RogerEbert.com compared her to Margot Robbie and called her "captivating and a little scary at the same time". She also played the girlfriend of John Hawkes in the film Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, for which she was nominated for numerous awards with the acting ensemble, and the title character in the comedy-horror film The Babysitter. She also appeared in the music video for Charlie Puth's song "Attention"''. ''

From 2017 to 2019, she played Nelson Rose in the Showtime series SMILF. In December 2018, it was announced that Weaving was leaving the show after the second season. Weaving asked to be released from her contract after making a complaint about having to perform a nude sex scene. Daniel Holloway of Variety reported that Weaving felt uncomfortable with the behaviour of show creator and co-star Frankie Shaw during a similar sex scene in the first season, leading to an investigation of alleged misconduct by Shaw, which found that there was no wrongdoing on Shaw's part. Also in 2018, Weaving appeared in the Picnic at Hanging Rock miniseries as one of three students who disappear during a school trip to the titular Hanging Rock.

Weaving next starred in the 2019 comedy-horror film Ready or Not, which was her first leading role in a theatrical American film. The film marks her first collaboration with directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett, who described her as "just one of those people that we’ll be friends with forever. She’s one of our favorites," The film and her performance received positive reviews and helped to establish her as a scream queen. Jeannette Catsoulis of The New York Times called her "fantastic" and wrote that she "gives heart to this efficiently blood-drenched harpooning of soul-sucking greed and inbred family values." Simran Hans of The Guardian believed that her performance would earn a cult following. Also in 2019, she starred in the action comedy Guns Akimbo.

In 2020, Weaving headlined the drama thriller Last Moment of Clarity, reprised her titular role in The Babysitter: Killer Queen, and appeared in the science-fiction comedy Bill & Ted Face the Music. The next year, she played Scarlett in the G.I. Joe spinoff Snake Eyes, and Jessica in the Hulu drama series Nine Perfect Strangers, which is based on the novel of the same name by Liane Moriarty. Also in 2021, she was cast in the action comedy film Boy Kills World, but exited the project due to scheduling conflicts and was replaced by Jessica Rothe.

In 2022, Weaving starred alongside Eugenio Derbez in the 2022 romantic comedy The Valet, which is a remake of the 2006 French film of the same name. Also in 2022, she played Constance Moore in Damien Chazelle's polarizing period drama film Babylon and Marie-Josephine de Montalembert in the biographical film Chevalier. That same year, she joined the cast of Scream VI. Her second film with Bettinelli-Olpin and Gillett, it was released theatrically in May 2023 and became the highest-grossing film of its franchise.

In 2024, Weaving led the action horror film Azrael, playing the titular character. She is set to star in and executive produce the Netflix pilot Little Sky. She was also cast in Jimmy Warden's comedy-thriller Borderline, Adam Leon's biopic Liz, and an unnamed limited television series based on the Holly Madison memoir Down the Rabbit Hole: Curious Adventures and Cautionary Tales of a Former Playboy Bunny.

Personal life
Weaving has been in a relationship with writer Jimmy Warden since meeting him on the set of The Babysitter. They announced their engagement on 10 March 2019, and married that same year.

Music videos

 * "Attention" (2017), by Charlie Puth