Date of Birth : Aug 7th 1982
Her career began at the age of thirteen, when she began taking jobs as a model after reaching the finals of a Dolly Magazine competition. By the time she was sixteen, Cornish was juggling television acting roles with studying for her HSC, with the intention of pursuing a career as a veterinarian. In 1999, Cornish was awarded the Australian Film Institute Young Actor’s Award for her role in the ABC’s television show Wildside and was soon offered her first role in a feature film, The Monkey’s Mask. At seventeen, Cornish traveled through the United States and Western Europe for six months, before returning to an acting career.[citation needed]
In 2004, Cornish appeared in the award-winning short Everything Goes with Hugo Weaving. She received the Australian Film Institute Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role, Best Actress at the FCCA and IF Awards and Best Breakthrough Performance at the 2005 Miami Film Festival for her role in 2004’s Somersault, the film which raised her to international prominence. Cornish received widespread critical acclaim for her role in 2006’s Candy, which she starred in opposite Heath Ledger, and starred in A Good Year, Elizabeth: The Golden Age and Kimberly Peirce’s latest movie, Stop-Loss. Cornish will also star as Catherine Earnshaw in the upcoming 2009/2010 film version of Wuthering Heights, alongside Michael Fassbender’s Heathcliff.