Margot Robbie Bio
Margot Elise Robbie is an Australian actress and producer whose career has spanned major studio films, independent projects, and acclaimed biographical dramas. She first drew international attention with the role of Naomi Lapaglia in Martin Scorsese’s The Wolf of Wall Street (2013), and she has since built a reputation for portraying complex, often daring characters across genres. In 2023, Forbes named her the world’s highest-paid actress, a milestone that reflected her standing as one of the most influential performers in contemporary cinema.
Beyond acting, Robbie co-founded the production company LuckyChap Entertainment in 2014, through which she has championed female-driven stories both in front of and behind the camera. She has also earned recognition for her work on screen, with nominations for three Academy Awards, four Golden Globe Awards, and six British Academy Film Awards across her career.
Early Life and Background
Margot Elise Robbie was born on 2 July 1990 on the Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia. She lived in the rural town of Dalby until the age of five, after which her family moved back to the Gold Coast following her parents’ separation. Her father, Doug Robbie, was a former farm owner and sugarcane tycoon, while her mother, Sarie Kessler, worked as a physiotherapist. Robbie has described her childhood as one spent largely on her grandparents’ Currumbin Valley farm, where she frequently went boar hunting and surfing with her siblings.
The third of four children, Robbie has an older sister, an older brother, and a younger brother. She developed an early interest in performance, often staging shows at home, and her mother later enrolled her in a circus school, where she excelled at trapeze and earned a certificate by the age of eight. As a teenager, classmates gave her the nickname “Maggot,” a name that originated from a teacher’s mispronunciation during roll call and stayed with her into adulthood.
For her secondary education, Robbie attended Somerset College, where she studied drama. During this period, she held three jobs to support herself, including tending bar, cleaning houses, and working at Subway. After graduating, with experience in commercials and independent thriller films, she relocated to Melbourne to pursue acting professionally.
Path to Acting
Robbie’s first acting roles came during her high school years, when she starred in two low-budget independent thriller films, Vigilante and I.C.U., both of which were released years later. She made her television debut in 2008 with a guest role in the Australian drama series City Homicide, followed by a two-episode arc in the children’s series The Elephant Princess, where she appeared alongside Liam Hemsworth. Determined to break into the industry, she phoned the offices of FremantleMedia repeatedly until she was put through to the casting director for the long-running television soap opera Neighbours.
In June 2008, Robbie joined the cast of Neighbours as Donna Freedman, a character originally intended as a guest role that was soon expanded after her strong reception. She appeared in the soap for three years and earned two Logie Award nominations during her time on the show. After relocating to the United States, she landed the role of Laura Cameron in the American period drama series Pan Am (2011), a performance that introduced her to a wider international audience.
Margot Robbie Career
Early Career (2008–2012)
Robbie’s earliest professional years were defined by television work in Australia, most notably her three-season stint on Neighbours, where her portrayal of Donna Freedman earned her two Logie Award nominations. The role helped establish her screen presence and provided a foundation for her later transition to American productions. Following her arrival in the United States, she joined the cast of the ABC period drama Pan Am (2011) as a newly trained flight attendant, gaining exposure to a broader audience despite the show’s cancellation after one season.
Breakthrough (2013–2015)
Robbie’s international breakthrough came in 2013, when she was cast as Naomi Lapaglia in Martin Scorsese’s biographical black comedy The Wolf of Wall Street, starring opposite Leonardo DiCaprio. Her improvised slap during a key audition scene reportedly won her the part, and her on-screen Brooklyn accent drew strong critical praise. The film grossed $392 million worldwide, becoming Scorsese’s highest-grossing release to date, and earned Robbie an Empire Award for Best Newcomer along with a nomination for the MTV Movie Award for Best Breakthrough Performance.
During this period, Robbie also appeared in Richard Curtis’s romantic comedy About Time (2013) and starred in four films released in 2015, including Focus opposite Will Smith, Suite Française with Michelle Williams and Kristin Scott Thomas, the post-apocalyptic drama Z for Zachariah with Chris Pine and Chiwetel Ejiofor, and a memorable cameo in Adam McKay’s The Big Short. Her performance in Z for Zachariah was widely praised, with critics calling it a defining moment in her transition to leading roles.
Worldwide Recognition (2016–2018)
In 2016, Robbie expanded her range with roles in the war correspondent drama Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, the adventure film The Legend of Tarzan, and David Ayer’s superhero film Suicide Squad, in which she became the first actress to portray DC Comics villain Harley Quinn in live action. Suicide Squad grossed $746.8 million globally, and her performance earned her the People’s Choice Award for Favourite Action Movie Actress and the Critics’ Choice Movie Award for Best Actress in an Action Movie.
The following year, she produced and starred in I, Tonya (2017), portraying figure skater Tonya Harding in a film that premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival to widespread acclaim. Her performance brought her nominations for an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, a Golden Globe Award, a Screen Actors Guild Award, and a Critics’ Choice Movie Award, all for Best Actress. In 2018, she voiced Flopsy Rabbit in Peter Rabbit and portrayed Queen Elizabeth I opposite Saoirse Ronan in Mary Queen of Scots, a performance that earned her additional BAFTA and Screen Actors Guild Award nominations.
Established Actress and Producer (2019–Present)
Robbie’s 2019 releases included the Quentin Tarantino film Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, in which she portrayed the late actress Sharon Tate, and the Fox News drama Bombshell, where she played a composite character based on several real employees. Her work in Bombshell earned her nominations for the Academy Award, the Golden Globe Award, and the Screen Actors Guild Award for Best Supporting Actress. That same year, she began executive producing the comedy series Dollface, which streamed on Hulu from 2019 to 2022.
In 2020, Robbie reprised her role as Harley Quinn in Birds of Prey, a project she had pitched to Warner Bros. in 2015 and developed under LuckyChap Entertainment. She also produced the critically acclaimed thriller Promising Young Woman (2020), which earned a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Picture. Her 2022 films included the David O. Russell period comedy Amsterdam and Damien Chazelle’s Babylon, the latter earning her another Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress.
Robbie’s most commercially successful release came in 2023 with Barbie, a fantasy comedy co-starring Ryan Gosling as Ken. She secured the rights from Mattel in 2018, hired Greta Gerwig to direct, and took on the title role after Gal Gadot declined. The film grossed over $1.4 billion worldwide, becoming her highest-grossing release and earning her further BAFTA and Golden Globe nominations, along with a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Picture as a producer. She has since produced and starred in Emerald Fennell’s Wuthering Heights, which was released theatrically on 13 February 2026.
Notable Works and Milestones
Across her career, Robbie has become known for a body of work that includes The Wolf of Wall Street (2013), I, Tonya (2017), Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019), and Barbie (2023). Her most commercially successful release is Barbie, which grossed over $1.4 billion worldwide, while The Wolf of Wall Street, Suicide Squad, and the Harley Quinn follow-ups Birds of Prey (2020) and The Suicide Squad (2021) have all ranked among her most prominent box-office achievements.
Margot Robbie Award Nominations
Margot Robbie has received nominations for three Academy Awards, including Best Actress for I, Tonya (2017), Best Supporting Actress for Bombshell (2019), and Best Picture as a producer of Barbie (2023). She has also been nominated for four Golden Globe Awards and six British Academy Film Awards, with additional recognition from the Screen Actors Guild Awards, the Critics’ Choice Movie Awards, and the People’s Choice Awards across her career in film.
Margot Robbie Awards Won
Robbie has won the Empire Award for Best Newcomer for The Wolf of Wall Street, the People’s Choice Award for Favourite Action Movie Actress for Suicide Squad, and the Critics’ Choice Movie Award for Best Actress in an Action Movie for the same role. She has also been recognized on industry lists, including Time’s 100 most influential people in the world in 2017 and Forbes’ naming her the world’s highest-paid actress in 2023.
Margot Robbie Family
Robbie was raised primarily by her mother, Sarie Kessler, a physiotherapist, after her parents separated when she was five years old. Her father, Doug Robbie, is a former farm owner and sugarcane tycoon with Scottish heritage, though the family spent most of her childhood on her grandparents’ Currumbin Valley farm on the Gold Coast hinterland. She is the third of four children, with an older sister, an older brother, and a younger brother.
Personal Life
Robbie met British assistant director Tom Ackerley on the set of Suite Française in 2013, and the two began a romantic relationship in 2014. They married in a private ceremony in Byron Bay, Australia, in December 2016, and they currently reside in Venice Beach, California. The couple have one son, born in 2024. Together with their longtime friends Sophia Kerr and Josey McNamara, they co-founded the production company LuckyChap Entertainment, which takes its name from a reference to Charlie Chaplin.
