Rose Byrne

Byrne was born in Balmain, a suburb of Sydney, New South Wales. She has Irish and Scottish ancestry. Her parents are Jane, a primary school administrator, and Robin Byrne, a semi-retired statistician and market researcher. She is the youngest of their four children; she has an older brother, George, and two older sisters, Alice and Lucy. In a 2009 interview, Byrne said that her mother was an atheist, while both she and her father were agnostic. Her family was described by The Telegraph as "close-knit", and frequently kept her grounded as her career took off. "At one point one of my sisters had a word with me saying, 'Watch yourself'", she once remarked. "But they were really supportive." Byrne attended Balmain Public School, Australian Theatre for Young People (at age eight, encouraged by one of her sisters), and Hunters Hill High School before attending Bradfield Senior College for years 11 and 12. She later lived in the Sydney suburbs of Newtown and Bondi. Growing up, she experienced "plenty of rejection" from film schools. "I auditioned for a few of the big drama schools—Nepean, WAAPA, NIDA—and didn't get in to any of them. I was really disappointed with myself. I wasn't quite sure if I'd be legitimate without training for three years in a more traditional sense". Instead, she studied an arts degree at Sydney University. "I still have great memories of those days: studying, working, auditioning. Just being a jobbing actor trying to figure out life after high school". In 1999, she studied acting at the Atlantic Theater Company, which was developed by David Mamet and William H. Macy.