Actress Teresa Palmer: Bio, Films and Career Facts

Actress Teresa Palmer is an Australian performer born on February 26, 1986, in Adelaide, South Australia, and she is 40 as of 2026. She moved from Australian indie films to Hollywood leads, then into television fantasy.

Quick facts

Adelaide beginnings

Palmer grew up in Adelaide and entered the industry in her late teens. Her first feature was the 2006 Australian film 2:37, a drama set in a high school and directed by Murali K. Thalluri, which showed her range and attracted attention outside the country. Australian cinema has a long record of sending actors to Hollywood, and her route followed a familiar pattern: a strong local debut, a trip to Los Angeles and a steady climb.

Hollywood arrival

She moved to the United States in the late 2000s and quickly found work in films such as The Grudge 2 and December Boys, the latter a coming-of-age drama set in Australia that also starred Daniel Radcliffe. Her profile jumped with The Sorcerer’s Apprentice in 2010, opposite Nicolas Cage, and I Am Number Four in 2011, where she played Number Six, a fierce alien fighter and one of the better action roles of the young-adult film wave.

In 2013 she led the zombie romance Warm Bodies as Julie Grigio, a cult hit that has been rewatched since. The film, a take on Romeo and Juliet with a walking-dead twist, was a refreshing change from standard monster fare and helped establish her as a leading lady with comic as well as dramatic timing. She followed with Lights Out in 2016, a horror film that drew strong box office relative to its budget, and Hacksaw Ridge the same year, in which she played Dorothy Schutte opposite Andrew Garfield in Mel Gibson’s war drama.

She has also appeared in the 2015 remake of Point Break, in Terrence Malick’s Knight of Cups, and in Berlin Syndrome in 2017, a tense thriller that gave her a more demanding role than many of her earlier parts.

Television and fantasy

Palmer starred as Diana Bishop in A Discovery of Witches, the British fantasy series based on Deborah Harkness’s bestselling novels, alongside Matthew Goode. The show ran for three seasons and drew a loyal global audience. Diana is a historian who discovers she belongs to a hidden world of witches, vampires and daemons, and the series has been praised for its production design and sweeping European locations. It was a notable change from the film work that first made her name, and it showed that she could carry a long-running story.

Producing and wellness

She has produced films, and she created a lifestyle and wellness platform with content about parenting and mindfulness. She has also been vocal about holistic health and has shared that interest on social media, where she has a considerable following. That mix of acting and entrepreneurship is increasingly common among actors who want some control over their projects.

Personal life

Palmer married actor and director Mark Webber in 2013. They live between Australia and the United States, and she regularly speaks about balancing family and work, without sharing details about their children.

Why she stands out

Palmer’s strength is accessibility: she plays vulnerable but resourceful characters, and in genre films she brings emotional realism. That quality is why she has remained in demand after the early-career buzz of teen-focused thrillers. Her best performances tend to come when a film gives her space to show doubt as well as courage.

What fans ask

The first question is usually where she’s from. She’s Australian, from Adelaide, though her accent on screen is often American or British depending on the part. Fans also ask which film to start with: Warm Bodies for something light and offbeat, Lights Out for a quick scare, and Hacksaw Ridge for a prestige drama. People who have watched A Discovery of Witches ask whether she and Matthew Goode were as close off screen as they appear on it. The pair have spoken warmly about each other in interviews, and their chemistry is widely credited with powering the series.

Frequently asked questions