Daniel Edwin Henshall (born 9 August 1982) is an Australian actor. Following his film debut in Snowtown (2011), for which he won the AACTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role, Henshall appeared in films such as The Babadook (2014), Okja (2017), Acute Misfortune (2018), and Catch the Fair One (2021).

Early life and education

Born and raised in Sydney, Australia, he is the youngest of three children. He graduated from the full time acting program at Actors Centre Australia in 2006.

Career

Henshall's first major role was on the short lived BBC soap Out of the Blue (2008), where he played happy go lucky, Adam 'Ado' O'Donnell. He won the AACTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role for his debut feature film performance as real life serial killer, John Bunting, in Justin Kurzel's Snowtown (2011). Indiewire named it one of the best performances of 2012. Snowtown was selected to play at Critics' Week during the Cannes Film Festival. Henshall originated the role of Dan Oldfield in the initial sell-out seasons of The Secret River (2013) written by Andrew Bovell, commissioned by Cate Blanchett and Andrew Upton for The Sydney Theatre Company. For four seasons he played co-lead, whaler spy Caleb Brewster, alongside Jamie Bell, Heather Lind and Seth Numrich in the AMC revolutionary war series Turn: Washington's Spies (2014–2017). Writer/Director Jennifer Kent cast him as Nurse Robbie, opposite Essie Davis, in the universally praised, modern cult classic, The Babadook (2014). The Babadook had its world premiere at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival. In the Dreamworks live-action version of the Ghost in the Shell (2017) he played Skinny Man, an AI corrupted vigilante, opposite Scarlett Johansson. Johansson and Henshall battle it out in a recreation of the famous water fight and interrogation scenes of the original 1995 Anime of the same name. Oscar-winning Director Bong Joon-ho cast him as Blonde, animal rights-activist and boyfriend of Silver, alongside Paul Dano, Steven Yeun, Lily Collins and Devon Bostick, in the action-adventure feature film Okja (2017). Okja competed for the Palme d'or in Official Competition at the Cannes Film Festival. He played white supremacist Slayer, opposite Jamie Bell, Vera Farmiga and Bill Camp, in Skin (2018), based on the life of Bryon Widner and work of Daryle Lamont Jenkins. Skin had its world premiere at the Toronto Film Festival. Henshall received critical plaudits for his performance as Archibald Prize-winning artist Adam Cullen in Acute Misfortune (2019), directed by Thomas M. Wright. He was nominated for the Film Critics Circle of Australia and Australian Film Critics Association Awards for Best Actor. Acute Misfortune was named best Australian film of 2019 by The Guardian. He played murder suspect Leonard Patz, opposite Chris Evans and Cherry Jones, in the Apple TV+ thriller Defending Jacob (2020), directed by Morten Tyldum. He played Daryl Dunn, criminal on the run turned Santa, in the family Christmas comedy, A Sunburnt Christmas (2020), directed by Christiaan Van Vuuren. In the Netflix series Clickbait (2021), he played grieving brother turned vigilante, Simon Burton, opposite Zoe Kazan, Adrian Grenier and Phoenix Raei. He played Bobby, a human trafficker, in the film Catch the Fair One (2021), opposite Kali Reis and Kevin Dunn, and directed by Josef Kubota Wladyka. Catch the Fair One premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival where it won the Audience Award. Henshall had a cameo in the third and final season of the cult FX series Mr Inbetween (2022), opposite creator Scott Ryan and directed by Nash Edgerton. He was nominated for the AACTA Award for Best Guest or Supporting Actor in a Television Drama for his work as Patrick, the fraudulent son of a bankrupt mining family, in Mystery Road: Origin (2022), directed by Dylan River. He played bar fly and menace, Dolly, opposite Julia Garner, Jessica Henwick and Hugo Weaving in The Royal Hotel (2023), directed by Kitty Green. The Royal Hotel had its world premiere at the 2023 Telluride Film Festival. Next, Henshall leads an ensemble cast that includes Hugo Weaving, Agathe Rousselle and Damon Herriman, as Joe, in the Warner Bros film How to Make Gravy written by Meg Washington and Nick Waterman, with Waterman directing. How to Make Gravy is an adaptation of the iconic Australian song of the same name by singer-songwriter Paul Kelly. In 2025 he will appear in Director Bong Joon-Ho's space odyssey Mickey 17, opposite Robert Pattinson, Mark Ruffalo and Naomi Ackie for Warner Bros, and the third and final season of the award-winning ABC Australia series The Newsreader, opposite Anna Torv and directed by Emma Freeman. On the same day it was announced that Henshall had been announced as part of the cast for ABC drama The Family Next Door, with Teresa Palmer as the lead.

Credits

Film

Television

Theatre