Abbey Lee

Abbey Lee Kershaw (born 12 June 1987) is an Australian model, actress and musician. Following several years of success leading up to the 2011 fashion seasons, V magazine dubbed her a supermodel, She dropped the use of her surname, Kershaw, in 2015.

Early life Lee was born in Melbourne, Victoria, the daughter of Kerry, a psychologist, and Kim Kershaw, who played in the Victorian Football League for Richmond and Hawthorn. She is their middle child. She has said that as a child, she was "always in the hospital". At age four, she suffered from meningitis and had to have two spinal taps. She also had a tumour on her knee, and several broken bones from climbing trees.

Lee has said that she "did not come from wealth" and had various jobs while a teenager, including working at a fun fair, as a grocery clerk, and at a McDonald's. She signed with Chic Management within weeks. On 11 December, Models.com named her the "Next Superstar".

Lee made her debut in the 2008 New York Fashion Week, managing to walk a total of 29 shows for designers such as Oscar de la Renta, Halston, and notably closing for Rodarte. For her first time in Milan Fashion Week, she was booked as a Gucci exclusive. Later that year, in September, she fell in her high heels at the Rodarte show in New York. Then, a month later in Paris, she fainted at the Alexander McQueen show for Natural Dis-tinction Un-natural Selection from wearing a very tight leather corset. These two incidents, however, did not prevent her from booking more runway shows. On 15 November 2008, in Miami, she made her international TV appearance at the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show, modelling in the "Pink Planet" segment.

Lee has starred in the fragrance ads for Gucci's new "Flora" scent since 2008.

In November 2009, Fashion TV placed her first in their First Face Countdown for Spring/Summer 2010. Lee had to sit out the Autumn 2009 shows due to a knee injury: she had torn ligaments and could barely walk. She was featured in the explicit shoot for the French magazine Purple Fashion published Autumn/Winter 2009. The infamous spread, shot by photographer Terry Richardson, caused outrage in the blogosphere, where Richardson was accused of cajoling the girls for his own sexual satisfaction. In his defense, Lee said, "Terry doesn't force girls to do anything they don't want to. He puts you in a G-string in a pile of mud because you want to do it. You touch yourself because you want to. For me, that shoot was the truth about how things were between us both, and I felt good doing it. I'm not ashamed of it—why should I be?" On 1 December 2009, for the second time, she participated in the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show, but this time she had three outfits, modelling in the "Star Trooper," "Pink Planet", and in the "Enchanted Forest" segment.

2010–2011

In 2010, Lee was heavily in demand for campaigns, shoots and shows. She was featured in the 2010 Pirelli Calendar photographed by Terry Richardson, and the 2011 edition photographed by Karl Lagerfeld. In March 2010, she was announced as the face of Chanel's Autumn/Winter 2010/2011 ready-to-wear ad campaign. This news came after she closed the Chanel Spring 2010 couture show, and opened the Chanel Autumn/Winter 2010/2011 ready-to-wear show. In November, for the fourth time, she became the cover model of Australian Vogue (her previous covers of the same publication were in March 2010, March 2009, and September 2008). The same year, Lee was also featured as the face of the Anna Sui FW 2010 campaign. Abbey also appeared in the lookbook of the Versace x h&m collaboration collection.

She took her own self-portrait for the new Rag & Bone Do-It-Yourself ad campaign spring 2011 along with models Sasha Pivovarova, Edita Vilkeviciute, Karolina Kurkova, Candice Swanepoel and Lily Aldridge. She earned $100,000 as an exclusive for Chanel, walking for their spring-summer collection in Paris. She skipped New York Fashion Week for London. V magazine's "The Discovery Issue" crowned Lee as the new Supermodel. The magazine called Lee "the biggest fashion export from Down Under since Elle Macpherson joined the ranks of Cindy Crawford, Claudia Schiffer, Kate Moss, Naomi Campbell and Christy Turlington."

She was on the May 2011 cover of Numero, photographed by Tom Munro. During 2012, she started to scale back on modeling to pursue an acting career and spent most of the year in South Africa filming the post-apocalyptic film Mad Max: Fury Road.

Although Lee was ranked 4th at the height of her career on the Top 50 Models Women list by models.com, as of June 2013 she was 12th on the list.

2014–2016

In May 2014, Lee once again appeared on the cover of Vogue Australia and starred in two editorials on the same issue, in which her acting debut was celebrated. In August 2014 Models.com moved Abbey to the Industry Icon list considering her still going presence in fashion with big fragrances contracts as Flora By Gucci and Versace's Yellow Diamond, although she was absent from runways and editorials to film Mad Max and Gods of Egypt.

Lee had a supporting role in the 2015 film Mad Max: Fury Road. By this time Lee would move to Los Angeles to pursue her acting career more seriously. In 2016, she had major roles in the films Gods of Egypt, alongside Gerard Butler, and the Nicolas Winding Refn-directed thriller The Neon Demon, with Elle Fanning. Lee stated that her history of martial arts training got her the role in Gods of Egypt. The following year in 2018, Lee starred in the film Welcome the Stranger and she played the main character in Elizabeth Harvest, directed by Sebastian Gutierrez. and she also appeared in the 2019 film Lux Æterna.

2020–present

In 2020, Lee played the troubled Christina Braithwhite in HBO's drama horror Lovecraft Country. She told Harper's Bazaar that she was the last one cast for the show and that she researched about growing up in a cult to understand the character.

The following year, Lee played Chrystal, a sufferer of hypocalcemia, in the 2021 film Old by M. Night Shyamalan.

Lee continued her work on television in 2023, taking on the lead role of Delly West in the crime series Florida Man, opposite Edgar Ramirez. That same year, she played Carol Howe in the miniseries Waco: The Aftermath.

Lee played Marigold in the first two installments of Horizon: An American Saga series, subtitled Chapter 1 and Chapter 2, both released in 2024.

In 2026, Lee made her New York stage debut in the two-hander Blackout Songs at the MCC Theater.

Personal life Lee stated that she was a driven child with big hopes and dreams but her complicated household meant that her parents struggled to put food on the table and there was no music or art in their home.

Filmography +Key Denotes projects that have not yet been released Film Year Title Role Notes 2015 Mad Max: Fury Road The Dag Ruben Guthrie Zoya Houbec 2016 Snowbird Theo Short film Gods of Egypt Anat The Neon Demon Sarah Office Christmas Party Savannah 2017 The Dark Tower Tirana 1% Katrina Maverick Maverick Short film 2018 Welcome the Stranger Alice Elizabeth Harvest Elizabeth Caprice Holly To the Night Caty 2019 Lux Æterna Abbey 2021 The Vandal Nurse Short film Old Chrystal The Forgiven Cody 2024 Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1Marigold Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 2 Killer Heat Monique Filming Pre-production

Television Year Title Role Notes 2020 Lovecraft Country Christina Braithwhite Series regular; 10 episodes 2023 Florida Man Delly West Miniseries; 7 episodes Waco: The Aftermath Carol Howe Miniseries; 5 episodes 2025 Beth Molly Miniseries; 3 episodes Black Rabbit Anna Miniseries; 6 episodes

Awards and nominations Year Award Category Nominated work Result 2016 Gold Derby Awards Best Ensemble Cast Mad Max: Fury Road 2018 AACTA Awards Best Lead Actress 1% 2019 AFCA Award Best Lead Actress 2021 Critics' Choice Super Awards Best Villain in Series Lovecraft Country Screen Actors Guild Awards Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series