From Adelaide to the A-List: Inside Sarah Snook’s meteoric rise to fame on the big and small screen
From high school plays to Hollywood’s A-List, Adelaide-born actor Sarah Snook has had a meteoric rise to fame. We take a look at her life and remarkable career so far.
Entertainment
Don't miss out on the headlines from Entertainment. Followed categories will be added to My News.
From amateur high school productions to Hollywood’s A-List, Sarah Snook has had a meteoric rise to fame, in large part thanks to her brilliant turn in the hit HBO series Succession.
We take a look at Snook’s upbringing in Adelaide, her brilliant career and how she found love in lockdown.
EARLY YEARS
Snook was born in Adelaide in 1984 and is the youngest of three girls. One sister lives in London, the other in Papua New Guinea.
She grew up in the Adelaide Hills then moved to Prospect with her mother and stepfather.
Her mother was a representative for Disney, which she said was “instrumental” in shaping her love of film and TV. Snook’s father was swimming pool salesman.
She attended Adelaide’s prestigious Scotch College, graduating in 2005.
Snook attended the college on a scholarship which allowed her to pursue an interest in drama and said in a video address to the school’s class of 2019, without financial support, her future may have taken a different turn.
“I came to the college in 2001 on a 50 per cent scholarship for the performing arts,” Snook said.
“ A few years later it became apparent that despite the scholarship, my family couldn’t make up the rest of the fees and I was awarded a bursary on top of that.
“And without that, I would have had to change schools and likely wouldn’t have had access to the great drama program there, which was my lifeblood at the time.”
“In drama, both extra-curricular and curricula, I found my happiness”.
FIRST JOB A FAIRY TALE
Before acting, Snook’s first paying gig was as a fairy for children’s birthday parties.
“Oh my God, I loved it so much!” Snook told The Australian in 2020.
“I was Fairy Lavender in Adelaide and when I moved to Sydney I had to become Fairy Twinkletoes because they already had a Fairy Lavender. I stole my friend’s fairy name from Adelaide.”
The job, she told the paper, proved an excellent primer for a career as an actor.
“It’s certainly the best training ground for acting because they also will not take any bullshit; they won’t believe in it if you don’t believe in it. And that’s the most important thing with acting – you have to believe in what you’re doing and saying as a version of the truth. You can’t be half-arsed about it, because kids can tell that immediately.”
GROWING UP IN ADELAIDE
In August, 2020 in an interview with US comedian Marc Maron for his podcast WTF, Snook said growing up in Adelaide was like living in “a big country town in a lot of ways”.
“The first question people ask in Adelaide is oh well yeah, ‘what school did you go to?,” she said.
“And then you would know somebody from that school or somebody who went to that school and therefore you would know their brother or sister, you’re always trying to work out how you’re related somehow”.
ACTING CAREER
After pursuing her passion for acting at Scotch College, Snook was subsequently accepted into Australia’s prestigious National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA) and graduated in 2008.
After leaving NIDA, Snook landed roles in Aussie series such as All Saints, Packed to the Rafters, Redfern Now, Sisters of War and the Secret River.
She also reportedly made it to the shortlist of actors being considered for David Fincher’s 2011 film The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.
In 2015, she co-starred alongside Kate Winslet and Judy Davis, Hugo Weaving and Liam Hemsworth in The Dressmaker and again with Winslet, Michael Fassbender, Seth Rogan and Jeff Daniels in the 2015 film Steve Jobs.
In 2017, she appeared alongside Woody Harrelson, Brie Larson and fellow Aussie Naomi Watts in The Glass Castle.
Snook was back in her home state earlier in the year to film the horror-thriller Run Rabbit Run, which shot both in SA’s Riverland region and also in Victoria.
Snook stepped into the lead role replacing The Handmaid’s Tale star Elisabeth Moss, who was forced to pull out of the project due to a scheduling conflict.
Snook’s voice will also be heard in the upcoming Hulu adult animated series Koala Man alongside fellow Aussie Hugh Jackman. The series is slated for release in 2023.
SARAH’S BIG BREAK
Arguably the biggest break of Snook’s career came not via the big screen, but TV in 2018 when she was cast as Siobhan “Shiv” Roy, daughter of media magnate Logan Roy in the hit HBO drama Succession.
Three seasons of the darkly funny series have aired to date, with season four currently in production.
Snook has received rave reviews for her turn as the ambitious, sharp-tongued and calculating daughter of surly media magnate Logan Roy.
As The Australian reported, big name actors such as Amy Adams, Kristen Bell, Amy Poehler and Greta Gerwig have been among her biggest admirers.
But as she told the paper her sudden rise to fame was a fact she was still struggling to wrap her head around.
She thought the role of Shiv was “out of my league” and only went through with the audition at the insistence of friend and fellow actor Jessica Tovey.
“I truly didn’t think I had a chance. I thought they’d hire someone else who was far better qualified for the job and knew what they were doing,” Snook told The Australian.
“I just sort of threw off the audition: I don’t know what to do, so here you go, fine, take that. I really was thinking, ‘This is sweet, I get to have a five-day holiday in LA, see my friends, turn around, go back. Thanks guys. Bye!’”
AWARDS RECOGNITION
Snook has received several coveted industry awards for her work both on the big and small screen over the course of her career so far.
In 2012, she won the award for Best Lead Actress in a Television Drama at the AACTA Awards for her work in Sisters of War.
She picked up another AACTA in 2015 for her role in the 2014 film Predestination starring Ethan Hawke and Noah Taylor.
In 2020, she was nominated for a Primetime Emmy and, in January 2022, took home the Best Supporting Actress award for a Series, Miniseries or TV film at the Golden Globes.
Snook picked up her second Emmy nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series in July, 2022. The awards will be announced on Monday in the US.
PERSONAL LIFE
In October 2021, in an exclusive interview with Vogue, Snook revealed she had secretly married her “best friend”, Australian actor and comedian Dave Lawson in February, after the pair fell in love during lockdown in Melbourne.
Snook was stuck in Melbourne for much of 2020 following the outbreak of Covid-19, which brought the world to a standstill and derailed plans to shoot the much-anticipated third season of Succession.
As news.com.au reported, the pair’s nuptials took many fans by surprise because the relationship was never publicised.
“We’ve been friends since 2014, lived together, travelled together, always excited to see each other, but totally platonic. We’ve just never been single at the same time. I proposed and we got married in February in my backyard,” Snook told Vogue.
Lawson has had roles in the TV series Utopia, and the pair both appeared in the 2015 movie Oddball.
“It’s been a ride. There’s so much heartache and sadness in the world, but on a micro personal level, I’ve been very fortunate. There’s a really lovely grace in that without the pandemic, we might not have ended up together so quickly.”
The couple was married in a small ceremony in Snook’s backyard in Brooklyn with her housemates and Succession co-star Ashley Zuckerman, who plays Shiv’s former lover Nate on the show, among the guests.
Snook lives in New York City but owns property outside Melbourne.
BABY NEWS
In March 2023, at the New York premiere of the fourth and final season of the hit HBO show Succession, Snook surprised onlookers when she revealed her baby bump and confirmed the happy news to entertainment reporters on the red carpet.
Snook announced the birth of her first child with husband Dave Lawson just hours after Succession’s explosive finale in an Instagram post in which her baby new bub was partly visible. “I just watched the finale episode of something that has changed my life. And now, my life has changed again,” Snook wrote.
“Thank you for all the love and support.”
Originally published as From Adelaide to the A-List: Inside Sarah Snook’s meteoric rise to fame on the big and small screen
What to watch on TV and streaming this week
Triple Logie-winner Kitty Flanagan is back with her global hit workplace comedy and a serious medical problem is tackled head-on in a quality new footy drama.
Oasis reveal fifth Aussie show: How to get tickets
Oasis have added a fifth show to their Australian tour as fans flooded Ticketmaster. Here’s what you need to know.