Rachel Anne Griffiths (born 18 December 1968) is an Australian actress. She came to prominence with the 1994 film Muriel's Wedding and her Academy Award nominated performance in Hilary and Jackie (1998). She portrayed masseuse Brenda Chenowith in the HBO series Six Feet Under and Sarah Walker Laurent on the ABC drama series Brothers & Sisters. Griffiths has received a Golden Globe Award, two Screen Actors Guild Awards, three Australian Film Institute Awards, and an Academy Award nomination for her work.
Griffiths was born in Melbourne, but spent her early childhood on the Gold Coast. She is the daughter of Anna (Hamilton), an art teacher and arts/education consultant, and Edward Martin Griffiths. She moved to Melbourne at the age of five, with her mother and two older brothers. When she was 11, her father left home with an 18-year-old woman. She attended Star of the Sea College, a high school in Gardenvale.