Sarah Snook

Sarah Snook is an Australian actor best known for playing Siobhan “Shiv” Roy in HBO’s *Succession*. Born in Adelaide in 1987, she studied at the National Institute of Dramatic Art in Sydney. Her work before *Succession* ranged from Australian television and theatre to independent films and Hollywood productions.

One of her most distinctive early film roles was in *Predestination* (2014), a science-fiction thriller directed by Michael and Peter Spierig. Snook plays a character whose life story is central to the film’s time-travel puzzle, appearing in markedly different circumstances across its chronology. In *The Dressmaker* (2015), the Australian film starring Kate Winslet, she played Gertrude “Trudy” Pratt. That same year, she appeared as publicist Andrea Cunningham in Danny Boyle’s *Steve Jobs*. Her other film credits include *These Final Hours*, *The Glass Castle* and *Pieces of a Woman*.

*Succession*, which ran from 2018 to 2023, brought Snook her widest recognition. Shiv is the only daughter of media mogul Logan Roy and, unlike her brothers Kendall and Roman, begins the series with a career outside the family company, Waystar Royco. Her political experience, ambitions and shifting alliances become crucial to the siblings’ struggle over their father’s empire. Snook’s performance tracks Shiv’s effort to claim power in a family that repeatedly questions her place in it. She received the 2024 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series for the show’s final season, as well as Golden Globe awards for her work on the series.

Snook has also taken on major stage roles. In 2024, she starred in a London production of *The Picture of Dorian Gray*, adapted and directed by Kip Williams from Oscar Wilde’s novel. Performing the show alone, she portrayed multiple characters while interacting with an elaborate system of live and prerecorded video. The production earned her the Olivier Award for Best Actress. She reprised the role on Broadway in 2025 and won the Tony Award for Best Leading Actress in a Play.

Her career is notable for the contrast between these performances: the intimate, shape-shifting role at the centre of *Predestination*; Shiv Roy’s prolonged contest for influence across four seasons of television; and a technically demanding solo stage production. Each required Snook to make a character’s changing account of themselves part of the drama, rather than simply a revelation in the plot.