From inspiring a young Nazi to change his heart in Jojo Rabbit, to keeping her head up as her youth fades away right in front of her in Old, Thomasin McKenzie has been taking the world by storm in just the last couple of years. It is almost hard to believe that the 21-year-old New Zealander just received her first-ever top-billed lead role in a feature film, with writer and director Edgar Wright’s Last Night in Soho, in 2021. However, her career up to this point boasts a great deal of variety, such as her very first acting credit.
Existence (Tubi)
A woman (Loren Taylor) seeks help from a dangerous man known only as a “Rider” (Matthew Sunderland), in order to escape her oppressed existence in a war torn New Zealand.
Why it’s worth checking out if you like Thomasin McKenzie: In 2012, Thomasin McKenzie was a pre-teen when she made her acting debut with a small role in the post-apocalyptic thriller Existence - the debut and sole feature-length film of co-writer and director Juliet Bergh that was also filmed on the beautiful landscape that is the actress’ home country.
Stream Existence on Tubi.
Rent/Buy Existence on Amazon.
The Hobbit: The Battle Of The Five Armies (HBO Max, Peacock)
Bilbo Baggins (Martin Freeman) is put to the ultimate test of bravery as he, Gandalf (Sir Ian McKellen), their dwarfish comrades, elvish allies, and an army of orcs prepare for war against a looming evil threat.
Why it’s worth checking out if you like Thomasin McKenzie: Though she is not very easy to spot, in 2014 teenage Thomasin McKenzie shared the screen with her own mother, fellow New Zealand actress Miranda Harcourt, in the third installment of Peter Jackson’s The Lord of Rings prequel trilogy, The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies, in the role of her onscreen daughter.
Stream The Hobbit: The Battle Of The Five Armies on HBO Max.
Stream The Hobbit: The Battle Of The Five Armies on Peacock.
Rent/Buy The Hobbit: The Battle Of The Five Armies on Amazon.
The Changeover (Amazon Prime)
A teenage girl (Erana James) tries to protect her family from an evil entity (Timothy Spall) that threatens her family’s safety by means of possessing her younger brother.
Why it’s worth checking out if you like Thomasin McKenzie: The New Zealand-based, 2017 supernatural horror movie The Changeover (among some of the best movies on Amazon Prime) was even more of a family affair for Thomasin McKenzie, who not only appeared in it with her grandmother, Kate Harcourt, but was directed by both her mother and father, Stuart McKenzie - who also wrote the screenplay based on Margaret Mahy’s Carnegie Medal-winning novel of the same name.
Stream The Changeover on Amazon Prime.
Rent/Buy The Changeover on Amazon.
Leave No Trace (Hulu)
A teenage girl (Thomasin McKenzie) chooses to live with her military veteran father (Ben Foster), who is suffering from PTSD, in a park forest in Portland, Oregon, until outside forces threaten to put them back into society.
Why it’s worth checking out if you like Thomasin McKenzie: Director Debra Granik, also the co-writer and director of 2011’s Winter’s Bone, adapted Peter Rock’s novel, My Abandonment, into Leave No Trace - a moving father-daughter story that first inspired American audiences to take notice of Thomasin McKenzie’s talent in 2018.
Stream Leave No Trace on Hulu.
Rent/Buy Leave No Trace on Amazon.
The King (Netflix)
After spending most of his life not bothering to acknowledge his royalty, a young prince (Academy Award nominee Timothée Chalamet) is forced to prove his worth as a leader when he is crowned the King of England after the death of his tyrant father.
Why it’s worth checking out if you like Thomasin McKenzie: Director David Michôd, also the writer and director of 2010’s Animal Kingdom, collaborated with star Joel Edgerton on the script for 2019’s The King - one of the best original movies on Netflix - which is a loosely fictionalized, but highly thrilling, account of Henry V’s reign that also stars Thomasin McKenzie as Queen Philippa of Denmark.
Jojo Rabbit (Amazon Rental)
After spending most of his life committed to proving his worth among the Nazis, a precocious German boy (Roman Griffin Davis) begins to question everything he believes in after discovering that his mother (Scarlett Johansson) is hiding a teenage Jewish girl (Thomasin McKenzie) in their home during World War II.
Why it’s worth checking out if you like Thomasin McKenzie: Writer, director, and star Taika Waititi (also the writer, director, and star of a few Marvel movies) won an Academy Award for adapting Christine Leunens’ novel Caging Skies into 2019’s Jojo Rabbit - a clever and heartfelt revisionist history dramedy in which Thomasin McKenzie dazzles as the spunky Jewish refugee responsible for the title character’s change of heart.
Rent/Buy Jojo Rabbit on Amazon.
True History Of The Kelly Gang (Showtime)
A bushranger (1917 cast member George MacKay) leads a revolt against the rule of the English in 19th-Century Australia.
Why it’s worth checking out if you like Thomasin McKenzie: Director Justin Kurzel and screenwriter Shaun Grant adapt Peter Carey’s novel, True History of the Kelly Gang, into a subversive, loosely factual account of the life of Ned Kelly (released in 2019) that also stars Thomasin McKenzie as a created character who conceives a child with the legendary Australian outlaw.
Stream True History Of The Kelly Gang on Showtime.
Rent/Buy True History Of The Kelly Gang on Amazon.
Lost Girls (Netflix)
A mother (Academy Award nominee and Office cast member Amy Ryan) goes on a desperate search to locate her missing daughter, a sex worker, which ends up calling attention to the murders of several other young women of the same profession in the Long Island area.
Why it’s worth checking out if you like Thomasin McKenzie: Director Liz Garbus and screenwriter Michael Werwie adapted the shocking true (and still unsolved) mystery of the Long Island serial killer (or Craigslist Ripper) into the gripping Netflix original crime drama Lost Girls, which also stars Thomasin McKenzie as the younger sister of victim Shannan Gilbert.
Old (Amazon Rental)
A family of four and other vacationers find themselves trapped on a serene beach that is somehow causing all of them to age at an alarmingly rapid rate.
Why it’s worth checking out if you like Thomasin McKenzie: Writer and director M. Night Shyamalan adapted the acclaimed French graphic horror novel, Sandcastle, into Old - a bizarre, fascinating, and sometimes even fun 2021 thriller that stars Thomasin McKenzie as a 12-year-old girl named Maddox as she is aged to appear 16 years old.
Old was only the first of two new horror movies starring Thomasin McKenzie released in 2021 (the second being Last Night in Soho), which effectively earns her a sweet spot among her generation’s leading, most talented, and greatest horror scream queens.
