Learn more about Cate Blanchett's career ahead of 'The Seagull'

The luminous leading lady has dazzled theatre audiences in Sydney, New York, London, and beyond.

Known for her performances as complex, formidable, and often unknowable women, Cate Blanchett is the winner of two Oscars (with six further nominations), four BAFTAs, and two Golden Globes. She is renowned for her versatility and luminous presence (plus those amazing cheekbones and the way she cuts such a dashing figure in sharp tailoring!).

As skilled and seasoned a stage performer as she is a movie star, Blanchett never plays it safe with her choice of roles. She returns to the London stage as Madame Arkadina in Chekhov’s The Seagull at the Barbican Theatre in spring 2025. Don’t let the tickets flap away!

Check back soon for The Seagull tickets on London Theatre.

Cate Blanchett’s beginnings

Blanchett was born in Melbourne, Australia, in 1969 to an Australian mother and an American father. She originally started a business administration degree but, on a visit to Egypt, found herself working as a film extra.

On returning to Australia, she trained at the National Institute of Dramatic Art in Sydney and began her career with the Sydney Theatre Company before achieving international success as a screen actor.

Cate Blanchett’s screen career

Blanchett had her first lead film role in Oscar and Lucinda (1997) and her mainstream breakthrough role a year later in Elizabeth, about the early life of Queen Elizabeth, for which she received her first Oscar nomination. Subsequent films included The Talented Mr Ripley, The Shipping News, and Charlotte Grey.

In 2001, Blanchett played elf queen Galadriel in The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Rings, which she reprised in two sequels and the three Hobbit films. In 2004, she won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her portrayal of Katharine Hepburn in The Aviator. Other significant films in the Noughties included Notes on a Scandal, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, I’m Not There, and reprising Elizabeth I in Elizabeth: The Golden Age.

Blanchett won the Best Actress Oscar for her performance as an impoverished socialite in Woody Allen’s Blue Jasmine in 2014. In the past decade, she has starred in Carol, Where’d You Go Bernadette, and Mrs America. Her most recent Oscar nomination was for her role as an orchestral conductor facing allegations of misconduct in Tár.

Amid all these blockbuster and prestige films, Blanchett has been a regular theatre performer. Read on to learn more about Blanchett’s impressive stage career.

Cate Blanchett on stage

Sydney Theatre Company

Sydney Theatre Company was founded in 1978 and is one of Australia’s most prestigious theatre companies. Alumni include Judy Davis, Essies Davies, Elizabeth Debicki, and, of course, Blanchett, who made her debut in Top Girls in 1992.

Several of Blanchett’s productions with the company have transferred to London and New York. She also directed Harold Pinter’s A Kind of Alaska and David Harrower’s Blackbird. She and her husband Andrew Upton served as artistic directors from 2008-13 (Upton continued until 2015).

Plenty

After Elizabeth raised Blanchett to star status, she made her West End debut in the first major revival of David Hare’s 1978 play about post-World War II disillusionment. She played Susan, a former secret agent turned depressed wife of a diplomat. The production was part of the Almeida’s season at the Albery Theatre (now the Noël Coward Theatre) and was directed by Jonathan Kent.

Hedda Gabler

Ibsen’s icy, frustrated anti-heroine was a perfect role for the razor-sharp Blanchett, in an edgy production directed by her husband Andrew Upton. She began in Sydney and then made her New York debut at Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM). Directed by Robyn Nevin, Blanchett played the role with cropped hair and imperious froideur.

A Streetcar Named Desire

Blanchett, Blanche… Blanchett’s 2009 turn as Blanche du Bois in Tennessee Williams’s masterpiece was another example of event theatre in Sydney and at BAM. Directed by Norwegian actress Liv Ullman (known for her work with Ingmar Bergman), Blanchett received rave reviews for her performance that captured Blanche’s resilience and self-awareness, as well as her fragility.

Uncle Vanya

Another classic tragedy, in which Blanchett was again directed by Upton. Blanchett played Yelena, the much younger wife of a pernickety professor. Richard Roxburgh played the title role. The production was seen in Sydney, Washington DC’s Kennedy Center, and at Lincoln Center.

Gross und Klein

An avant-garde piece by German writer Botho Strauss that was first performed in 1978. The production originated in Sydney and travelled to London’s Barbican Centre, Paris, and Vienna. Some critics found the play excessively bleak, but all hailed Blanchett’s performance.

The Maids

Blanchett starred opposite French legend Isabelle Huppert in Jean Genet's (very) dark comedy based on the true story two sisters working as housemaids who were convicted for killing their employer. Elizabeth Debicki co-starred. It’s hard to envision a more glamorous or formidable trio.

The Present

Blanchett made her Broadway debut (all her other appearances New York were Off Broadway or as part of festivals) in Upton’s adaptation of this seldom-seen Chekhov work (also known as Fatherlessness and A Play without a Title) and was nominated for a Tony. The production marked the first time an all-Australian cast had performed on Broadway.

When We Have Sufficiently Tortured Each Other

The title of Martin Crimp’s play (subtitled “12 Variations on Samuel Richardson’s Pamela”) doesn’t suggest a light comedy – and indeed it wasn't. Directed by Katie Mitchell and co-starring Stephen Dillane, the production wasn’t to everyone’s taste and received mixed reviews, but Blanchett’s star power sold out the National’s Theatre’s Dorfman auditorium in record time.

The Seagull

Blanchett returns to Chekhov with The Seagull playing the self-centred actress Arkadina (she played Nina in Sydney back in her ingenue days). The production will run for six weeks in February 2024. It features a new adaptation by Duncan Macmillan (People, Places and Things) and Thomas Ostermeier (An Enemy of the People) and is directed by Ostermeier.

Tom Burke co-stars as Arkadina’s lover, Trigorin. Blanchett and Burke are both appearing in Stephen Soderbergh’s upcoming spy thriller Black Bag. This is sure to be one of the most sought-after tickets of 2025.

Check back for tickets to The Seagull on London Theatre.

Photo: Steven Chee