Joel Edgerton (born 23 June 1974) is an Australian actor and filmmaker. He is known for his portrayal of Will McGill on the first two seasons of the Australian drama series The Secret Life of Us (2001–02), and for playing Owen Lars in the Star Wars films Attack of the Clones (2002) and Revenge of the Sith (2005), a role he reprised in the Disney+ series Obi-Wan Kenobi (2022). He also voiced Metal Beak from Warner Bros. Pictures' fantasy adventure film Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole (2010). For his portrayal of Richard Loving in the 2016 historical drama Loving, he received a nomination for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Motion Picture – Drama.
In Australia, Edgerton won the AACTA Award for Best Lead Actor for his work on The Secret Life of Us. He has appeared in several Australian films, such as The Square (2008), Animal Kingdom (2010; for which he received the AACTA Award for Best Supporting Actor), Wish You Were Here (2012), and Felony (2013). Edgerton's other film appearances include King Arthur (2004), Warrior (2011), Zero Dark Thirty (2012), The Great Gatsby (2013), Black Mass (2015), Bright (2017), The Green Knight (2021), Master Gardener (2022), and The Boys in the Boat (2023). He has also starred in the Amazon Prime miniseries The Underground Railroad in 2021 and the Apple TV+ science fiction series Dark Matter in 2024.
For his work on The Gift (2015), a thriller he wrote, directed, produced, and co-starred, Edgerton received critical acclaim and a nomination for the DGA Award for Outstanding Directing – First-Time Feature Film. In 2018, he wrote, directed and co-starred in the conversion therapy drama Boy Erased, and the following year he co-wrote and starred in The King.
His lead role in the 2025 film Train Dreams drew critical acclaim and a nomination for Best Actor (Drama) at the 83rd Golden Globe Awards, his second career nomination in the category.
