Toni Collette doesn’t repeat herself. The actor first burst onto the scene in the 1990s with the ebullient Australian rom-com Muriel’s Wedding. Decades later, she gave a heady, hyper-stylized performance in horror chiller Hereditary, a far cry from her start. In the intervening years, Collette has run the gamut of Hollywood star turns, from her Oscar-nominated performance as Haley Joel Osment’s grieving mother in The Sixth Sense to her Emmy-winning role as a woman with multiple personalities on Showtime’s United States of Tara. The word “chameleon” gets thrown around a lot with regard to movie stars, but Collette fits that description to a T; the only common denominator among her performances is the energy and enthusiasm that she brings to each of them.

From leading performances (catch her as the dangerously charismatic Evelyn Wade in the newly released Wayward) to scene-stealing supporting roles (you won’t forget her in I’m Thinking of Ending Things), we’ve cataloged a few of her greatest hits streaming now on Netflix.

Wayward

In the haunting new limited series Wayward, Collette delivers a masterclass in psychological manipulation as Evelyn Wade, the enigmatic head of Tall Pines Academy. Set in the early 2000s, the show follows police officer Alex Dempsey (Mae Martin) as he works to uncover the dark underbelly of a seemingly idyllic town and its troubled-teen reform school. Collette’s portrayal of Evelyn is equal parts chilling and captivating — she has a commanding presence that will lure you in episode after episode.

Indociles

Mini-série   16+   2025

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PIECES OF HER

Based on the novel by Karin Slaughter, the 2022 thriller sees Collette teaming up with fellow Australian Bella Heathcote, who plays Collette’s inquisitive and in-over-her-head daughter Andy. After she witnesses Laura stopping a violent crime, Andy is forced to question everything she knows about her mother. Fraught maternal relationships are a hallmark of Collette’s career (see: the viral angst of the “I am your mother” dinner scene in Hereditary), but they’ve never been quite like this. Imagine if your mom pulled some John Wick stunts at your local diner.

Son vrai visage

8 Épisodes   16+   2022

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I'm Thinking of Ending Things

I’m Thinking of Ending Things is about the worst couples road trip of all time, and Collette plays the destination: A smothering, shapeshifting prospective mother-in-law caked in old-age makeup. Alongside David Thewlis as her decaying husband, Collette gets to truly let her freak flag fly in the service of a surreal and disturbing dinner party. Charlie Kaufman’s trippy blizzard of a movie is full of intentionally disorienting visuals and performances, and Collette’s is no exception. She’s on screen for only a small portion, but she leaves a deep impression, like a filthy snow angel in a parking lot.

Je veux juste en finir

2h 14m   13+   2020

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Unbelievable

Collette stars with Kaitlyn Dever on this criminally underrated procedural that follows the aftermath of a sexual assault case. When Marie Adler (Dever) is pressured by police into lying about her rape, it leads to a years-later investigation that uncovers corruption within the police department and a series of violent assaults in the Pacific Northwest. It’s a heavy topic based on a true story, handled with tact and care by the cast and crew. Collette plays Detective Grace Rasmussen, a character based on Edna Hendershot, the detective who investigated a serial rapist responsible for a series of crimes in Washington and Colorado. Collette was nominated for an Emmy for the performance.

Unbelievable

Mini-série   16+   2019

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Velvet Buzzsaw

In director Dan Gilroy’s Velvet Buzzsaw, art imitates life — and death. When people start turning up dead at art exhibitions, Collette’s art curator Gretchen is drawn into a pitch-black comedy about the dark side of the art world, complete with a sociopathic art critic played by Jake Gyllenhaal. Velvet Buzzsaw also sees Collette tiptoeing right up to the edge of acknowledging her brief side hustle as the frontwoman of indie rock band Toni Collette & the Finish, a group that included her husband, Dave Galafassi. The fictional punk rock band of Velvet Buzzsaw includes an art gallery owner being terrorized by a mysterious supernatural force. Similar? Not really. But Collette’s work is nothing if not punk rock.

Velvet Buzzsaw

1h 52m   16+   2019

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Stowaway

A voyage to Mars goes wrong in this small-scale, spacebound thriller starring Collette, Daniel Dae Kim and Anna Kendrick. Collette plays Marina Barnett, the ship’s commander, whose pilot training proves crucial as the journey grows more and more deadly. When an unexpected passenger threatens to turn the trip into a suicide mission, the crew has to decide whose lives deserve priority, a trolley problem on the final frontier. Released in the middle of a global pandemic, it’s definitely not a story that has any relevance to recent affairs whatsoever.

Le Passager nº 4

1h 56m   13+   2021

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Additional reporting by Meena Jang.