"Joel Edgerton"

Birthday : Jun 23, 1974
Birthplace : Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

Bio: A native of Blacktown, New South Wales, Australia, actor Joel Edgerton grew up in the town of Dural, where he attended primary and secondary school. After high school, the aspiring thespian attended the Nepean Drama School on the Kingswood Campus at the University of Western Sydney, graduating in 1994. Cinematically, he divided his subsequent efforts between producing (for his Blue Tongue Films production shingle, co-run with his brother) and acting, but placed the greatest emphasis on acting. Early features (produced mostly in Australia) included Praise (1998), Dogwatch (1999), and Erskineville Kings (1999), but Edgerton came into his own with his popular ongoing turn as Will McGill on the Aussie soaper The Secret Life of Us, then branched out into increased international exposure with onscreen contributions to two of George Lucas' Star Wars films, Star Wars: Episode II -- Attack of the Clones (2002) and Star Wars: Episode III -- Revenge of the Sith (2005). Those assignments represented something of a watershed for Edgerton, who then worked predominantly on higher profiled features, including Joe Carnahan's Smokin' Aces (2007) and Tatia Rosenthal's $9.99 (2008). ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi

In 2009, he starred alongside Cate Blanchett as Stanley in the Sydney Theatre Company's acclaimed production of A Streetcar Named Desire. Edgerton and Blanchett also appeared in a production of this play at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in December 2009.

Edgerton had a major role in the MMA movie Warrior, which received a 2011 release through Lions Gate Entertainment. Edgerton played the older son of Nick Nolte's character and older brother of Tom Hardy's character, Joel also has a black belt in Karate. On 7 February 2010, he was cast in Matthijs van Heijningen Jr.'s 2011 prequel to The Thing, portraying helicopter pilot Sam Carter.

In 2011, Edgerton was cast as Tom Buchanan in Baz Luhrmann's 2012 remake of The Great Gatsby.