He won the AACTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role for his debut feature film performance as real life serial killer, John Bunting, in Justin Kurzel's Snowtown (2011).

[6] Oscar-winning Director Bong Joon-ho cast him as Blonde, animal rights-activist and boyfriend of Silver, alongside Paul Dano, Steven Yeun, Lily Collins and Devon Bostick, in the action-adventure feature film Okja (2017).

He played white supremacist Slayer, opposite Jamie Bell, Vera Farmiga and Bill Camp, in Skin (2018), based on the life of Bryon Widner and work of Daryle Lamont Jenkins.

[10] In the Netflix series Clickbait (2021), he played grieving brother turned vigilante, Simon Burton, opposite Zoe Kazan, Adrian Grenier and Phoenix Raei.

He was nominated for the AACTA Award for Best Guest or Supporting Actor in a Television Drama for his work as Patrick, the fraudulent son of a bankrupt mining family, in Mystery Road: Origin (2022), directed by Dylan River.

He played bar fly and menace, Dolly, opposite Julia Garner, Jessica Henwick and Hugo Weaving in The Royal Hotel (2023), directed by Kitty Green.

Henshall has been nominated for the 2025 AACTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role for his work as Joe, in the Warner Bros film How to Make Gravy (an adaptation of the iconic Australian song of the same name by singer-songwriter Paul Kelly), opposite Hugo Weaving, Agathe Rousselle and Damon Herriman, and directed by Nick Waterman.