--- name: "Ewen Leslie" canonical: "https://film.one/person/ewen-leslie" fi1m_id: "ewen-leslie" imdb_id: "nm1191900" tmdb_id: 59119 wikidata_id: "Q5418987" roles: ["Actor"] born: "27 July 1980" reviewed_on_fi1m: 4 average_fi1m_score: 81 average_as: "actor" average_over: 4 updated: "2026-10-01T00:38:11.970656+00:00" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Ewen Leslie ## Identity Ewen Leslie - **Canonical:** https://film.one/person/ewen-leslie - **Type:** Person - **Fi1m ID:** ewen-leslie - **IMDb ID:** nm1191900 - **TMDB ID:** 59119 - **Wikidata ID:** Q5418987 - **Same entity:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ewen_Leslie, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q5418987, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1191900/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/59119 Actor. Born 27 July 1980 in Fremantle, Western Australia. ## Details - **Work:** Actor - **Born:** 27 July 1980, Fremantle, Western Australia - **Active:** 2018–present - **Frequently works with:** [Kristina Ceyton](https://film.one/person/kristina-ceyton.md) - **Average Fi1m score:** 81, as actor, over 4 titles - **Fi1m score by decade:** 2010s 78 (1), 2020s 82 (3) - **Fi1m against the critics:** 80 to 77 across 3 titles - **Score spread:** 3 at 80+, 1 at 60–79, 0 under 60 - **Lead roles:** 0 of 2 acting credits billed first or second - **Genres:** Drama 2, Comedy 1, Horror 1, Romance 1, Thriller 1, War & Politics 1 - **Screen time:** 4 hours of reviewed films - **Box office:** $9m across 2 films with figures - **Elsewhere:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ewen_Leslie, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q5418987, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1191900/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/59119 ## Streaming the US now - **AMC+:** [*The Nightingale*](https://film.one/film/the-nightingale.md) (78) For United States; add `?region=XX` for another country. ## Fi1m on Ewen Leslie > Ewen Leslie is the man you would not want to be left alone with and cannot quite write off: the damaged settler, the controlling husband. Rarely showy, he is at his best when a film needs someone frightening who does not know it. The part Ewen Leslie gets offered, over and over, is the man you would not want to be left alone with and cannot quite write off. Critics keep noticing it: the damaged settler, the manipulative husband, the soldier in the bush who believes he is only following orders. He has said that Warwick Thornton, casting him in *Sweet Country* (2017), "didn't want him to just be a monster", and that instruction could stand over most of his screen work since. He came to film from the stage, and it shows in the way he holds still in a scene rather than filling it. He graduated from WAAPA in 2000, took the lead in *Jewboy* (2005), then moved to Sydney and spent the better part of a decade in the theatre: Prince Hal and Henry V opposite Cate Blanchett in *The War of the Roses* (2009), *Richard III* (2010), and a place in the Sydney Theatre Company's ensemble after Philip Seymour Hoffman directed him in *Riflemind* (2007). Screen work came back in earnest from the mid-2010s, with *The Daughter* (2015) for Simon Stone, *Sweet Country*, *The Nightingale* (2018) for Jennifer Kent, and television including *Top of the Lake: China Girl* (2017) and *The Cry* (2018). Two of those films are on our books. In *The Nightingale* he plays Goodwin, in *Leviticus* (2026) he plays Rod, and in neither case did our review stop to mention him. We do not think that is a failure on his part. We came out of *The Nightingale* shaken by its middle hour and could not have told you afterwards what Goodwin looked like, and we mean that as a description of the part rather than a complaint: Kent's film belongs to Aisling Franciosi and Baykali Ganambarr, and a supporting man who pulled focus from them would have broken it. *Leviticus* is Joe Bird and Stacy Clausen's film for the same reason. The reputation rests elsewhere: on Harry March in *Sweet Country*, which critics single out for the trauma under the violence; on Oliver Finch in *The Daughter*, decency going wrong by degrees; on Alistair Robertson in *The Cry*, a husband viewers found hard to like and hard to look away from. The one reservation that follows him is the one you would expect of a Shakespearean lead among Thornton's non-professional cast: that the professionals occasionally play a size too big for the film around them. It is a fair note and a small one. He has talked about spending much of the job trying to upend what people assume he can do, and the animated voice work alongside the killers and the soldiers suggests he means it. Whether a director gives him the chance is another matter. Until one does, he is the best kind of supporting actor: the one the lead ought to be frightened of. ## Biography Ewen Leslie is an Australian actor. Born on 27 July 1980 in Fremantle, Western Australia, he began acting in school plays at the age of ten and appeared in the children's television series *Ship to Shore* from the age of twelve. He received a scholarship to study at John Curtin College of the Arts and graduated from the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts in 2000. Leslie has had a prominent career in theatre, joining the Sydney Theatre Company Actors Company in 2008. He played Prince Hal/Henry V opposite Cate Blanchett in *The War of the Roses* (2009), for which he won a Helpmann Award and a Sydney Theatre Award. He later played Richard III for the Melbourne Theatre Company (2010), earning a second Helpmann Award, and appeared in *Riflemind* directed by Philip Seymour Hoffman. On screen, his film roles include the lead in *Jewboy* (2005), Goodwin in *The Nightingale* (2018), Harry March in *Sweet Country* (2018), and Rod in *Leviticus* (2026). He has voiced Pigling Bland in the *Peter Rabbit* films (2018, 2021) and appeared in series such as *Colin from Accounts* (2022) and *The Stranger* (2022). *Sources: en.wikipedia.org, imdb.com, tvinsider.com.* ## On Fi1m (4) - *Leviticus* (2026), Fi1m 80, as Rod — [page](https://film.one/film/leviticus.md) - *The Narrow Road to the Deep North* (2025), Fi1m 83, as Edward Lansbury — [page](https://film.one/tv/the-narrow-road-to-the-deep-north.md) - *Colin from Accounts* (2022), Fi1m 82, as Constable Byrne — [page](https://film.one/tv/colin-from-accounts.md) - *The Nightingale* (2018), Fi1m 78, as Goodwin — [page](https://film.one/film/the-nightingale.md) ## Complete filmography (43) Every credit, newest first. Titles without a page can be requested for review on the HTML page. - *Leviticus* (2026), as Rod — Fi1m 80, [page](https://film.one/film/leviticus.md) - *Sunny Nights* (2025), series, as Lewis Templeton - *The Narrow Road to the Deep North* (2025), series, as Edward Lansbury — Fi1m 83, [page](https://film.one/tv/the-narrow-road-to-the-deep-north.md) - *Prosper* (2024), series, as Dion Quinn - *Colin from Accounts* (2022), series, as Constable Byrne — Fi1m 82, [page](https://film.one/tv/colin-from-accounts.md) - *The Stranger* (2022), as Milliken - *Bali 2002* (2022), series, as Tony Keirath - *Peter Rabbit 2: The Runaway* (2021), as Pigling Bland (voice) - *Operation Buffalo* (2020), series, as Major Leo Carmichael - *The Luminaries* (2020), series, as Crosbie Wells - *The Gloaming* (2020), series, as Alex O'Connell - *Fighting Season* (2018), series, as Captain Ted Nordenfelt - *The Cry* (2018), series, as Alistair - *The Nightingale* (2018), as Goodwin — Fi1m 78, [page](https://film.one/film/the-nightingale.md) - *Safe Harbour* (2018), series, as Ryan Gallagher - *Peter Rabbit* (2018), as Pigling Bland (voice) - *Sweet Country* (2018), as Harry March - *The Butterfly Tree* (2017), as Al - *The Daughter* (2015), as Oliver - *Death in Bloom* (2015), as Christopher Crumples - *The Mule* (2014), as Paris - *Janet King* (2014), series, as Patrick Boccaro - *The Railway Man* (2013), as Captain Thompson - *Mr & Mrs Murder* (2013), series, as Hugo - *Scene 16* (2013), as Luka - *Dead Europe* (2012), as Isaac - *Devil's Dust* (2012), series, as Matt Peacock - *Redfern Now* (2012), series, as Mr. Parish - *Suspended* (2012), as Dave - *Mabo* (2012), as Bryan Keon-Cohen - *Sleeping Beauty* (2011), as Birdmann - *Griff the Invisible* (2011), Thanks - *Apricot* (2009), as Marcel - *Netherland Dwarf* (2008), as Dad - *Three Blind Mice* (2008), as Sam Fisher - *Lockie Leonard* (2007), series, Actor - *Katoomba* (2007), as Don - *Kokoda* (2006), as Wilstead - *Jewboy* (2005), as Yuri - *Sold Out* (2004), as Shane - *The Junction Boys* (2002), as Luke Mason - *Wild Kat* (2001), series, Actor - *Larrikins*, as Hotspur (voice) --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/person/ewen-leslie