Sarah Snook

Sarah Ruth Snook (born 1 December 1987) is an Australian actress. She is best known for her starring role as Shiv Roy in the HBO drama series Succession (2018–2023), for which she won two Golden Globe Awards and a Primetime Emmy Award.

Snook received two AACTA Awards for her leading roles in the films Sisters of War (2010) and Predestination (2014). She also appeared in the films Not Suitable for Children (2012), These Final Hours (2013), Jessabelle (2014), The Dressmaker (2015), Steve Jobs (2015), The Glass Castle (2017), An American Pickle (2020), Pieces of a Woman (2020), Run Rabbit Run (2023), and The Beanie Bubble (2023).

On stage, Snook starred in the West End revival of The Picture of Dorian Gray (2024) for which she won the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actress. Her other theatre credits include roles in King Lear (2009), The Master Builder (2016) and Saint Joan (2018).

Early life and education
Sarah Ruth Snook was born on 1 December 1987 in Adelaide, South Australia, and grew up in the suburb of Eden Hills. She has two older sisters. Her father, a swimming-pool salesman, and her mother, an aged care provider, divorced when she was young. She attended St John's Grammar School in Belair and won a drama scholarship to Scotch College in Torrens Park. Her first paying job was as a fairy at children's birthday parties.

In 2008, she graduated from Sydney's National Institute of Dramatic Art.

2009–2017: Early work


While at NIDA, Snook performed in stage productions of Macbeth and Gallipoli. She subsequently appeared in King Lear with the State Theatre Company of South Australia in 2009. She garnered further success with roles in a string of Australian films, including Sisters of War (2010), Not Suitable for Children (2012), These Final Hours (2013), and Predestination (2014). Snook won two AACTA Awards for her performances in Sisters of War and Predestination. She also earned recognition for starring in the supernatural horror film Jessabelle (2014). Snook then portrayed Andrea Cunningham in Danny Boyle's biopic Steve Jobs (2015), starring Michael Fassbender and Kate Winslet. That same year, she acted in Jocelyn Moorhouse's period drama The Dressmaker, also starring Winslet and Judy Davis, for which she was nominated for the AACTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role. She appeared in the biopic The Glass Castle (2017), starring Brie Larson and based on the 2005 novel of the same name.

In 2016, Snook appeared in an episode of the Netflix science fiction anthology series Black Mirror, titled "Men Against Fire", alongside Malachi Kirby, Madeline Brewer, and Michael Kelly. Also that year, she made her West End debut playing the role of Hilde Wangel in a revival of Henrik Ibsen's play The Master Builder opposite Ralph Fiennes at the Old Vic. Paul Taylor from The Independent hailed Snook's performance writing, "Sarah Snook, the young Australian star, is a disarmingly direct, deep-voiced and uninhibited as Hilde in an assured [and] striking performance". Snook returned to the stage in 2018, where she portrayed Joan of Arc in the Sydney Theatre Company's production of George Bernard Shaw's Saint Joan. Her performance was hailed by John Sand of the Sydney Morning Herald, who described her performance as "beyond riveting" and said that "Snook catches the untamed bravado of a teenager fired with passion".

2018–2023: Breakthrough with Succession


From 2018 to 2023, Snook gained prominence for her lead role as Siobhan "Shiv" Roy in the HBO drama series Succession. The role earned her widespread critical acclaim and numerous accolades, including the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series, the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series, and two Golden Globe Awards. In 2020, Snook appeared in the comedy film An American Pickle, opposite Seth Rogen, and in Kornél Mundruczó's marital drama film Pieces of a Woman. In December 2021, she replaced Elisabeth Moss as the lead in the horror-thriller film Run Rabbit Run, directed by Daina Reid. In January 2022, Snook was cast alongside Zach Galifianakis and Elizabeth Banks in the comedy drama film The Beanie Bubble, which was co-directed by Kristin Gore and Damian Kulash. In 2022, Snook narrated the Netflix documentary film Kangaroo Valley.

2024–present: Return to theatre
In 2024 Snook returned to the West End portraying all 26 roles in the Sydney Theatre Company's production of The Picture of Dorian Gray at the Theatre Royal Haymarket. Arifa Akbar of The Guardian praised Snook on her performance citing the complexity of the role writing, "It is a juggling act of high order for Snook. She must perform in real time, react to the recorded footage and manipulate the technology herself in some scenes. She speaks in dialogue but also narrates omnisciently. Some scenes require athleticism, others sudden stillness. It demands an exacting synchronicity and she gets it pitch perfect, powering through 26 characters." The role earned her the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actress.

Also in 2024 it was announced that Snook would voice the protagonist in an upcoming stop-motion animated film Memoir of a Snail directed by Adam Elliot.

Snook will transfer the Dorian Gray show to Broadway in 2025.

Personal life
In 2020, Snook began dating Australian comedian Dave Lawson, who she married in the backyard of her Brooklyn home in 2021. Snook gave birth to a daughter in May 2023.