In 1987, McKenzie was cast as the lead in the pilot of television series All The Way alongside Ben Mendelsohn, Robert Mammone, Rowena Wallace and Martin Sacks.
During rehearsals for Rebecca, director George Ogilvie allowed McKenzie time off to audition for a new Australian Independent feature film called Romper Stomper set to star Russell Crowe.
"[10] The role garnered her attention overseas, where she won Best Actress at the 1992 Stockholm International Film Festival for her "stark and non-sentimental portrayal of a young woman whose life has turned into a desperate chase for all she has lost: love, serenity, identity.
[12] In 1994, McKenzie starred alongside David Wenham, Geoffrey Rush and Richard Roxburgh in Shakespeare's Hamlet, directed by Neil Armfield, for Belvoir St Theatre, Sydney.
Her slight stature can seem waif thin, piteously vulnerable; but raging into battle she's tough and sturdy, a young woman of intense and convincing action.
Equally adept in drama or comedy, she was described as the "Judy Davis of her generation (or funnily enough, the green eyed American actor Meg Ryan)"[24] In 1992, Ben Elton cast her as the lead role of "Rachel", the feisty environmentalist, in the television adaptation of his hit novel Stark.
The same year (1993), she scored a Best Actress in a Feature Film nomination for her comedic turn in the indie comedy, This Won't Hurt a Bit, playing Vanessa Presscott, a nerdy English ingénue with a speech impediment.
In 1994, McKenzie reunited with director George Ogilvie (who had directed her in Rebecca and Twelfth Night) to play the lead role of Dancy Smith in the adaptation of Kylie Tennant's famous depression-era drama The Battlers.
Whether using answers on the Wheel of Fortune as a kind of daily horoscope, or cringing in terror as the upright legs of chairs in an empty restaurant seem to whisper at her, she is blazingly equal to the extremes of animal panic and hyperconscious insight that are the north and south of this movie's humane compass.
[28] McKenzie ventured to the US, where she starred in the films Deep Blue Sea (1999)[29] directed by Renny Harlin[30] with Samuel L. Jackson, Thomas Jane and Michael Rapaport; Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood (2002)[31] with Sandra Bullock, Ashley Judd, Ellen Burstyn, Kiersten Warren and James Garner; Freak Weather, with Aida Turturro and John Carroll Lynch; Love from Ground Zero with Simon Baker and Pruitt Taylor Vince, as well as tele-movie When Billie Beat Bobby, starring Holly Hunter and Ron Silver.
Bursting onto the stage like a fire-engine responding to a five-alarm conflagration, McKenzie was a dynamo with enough energy to fill simultaneous performances of this and Pygmalion[verification needed] (a sure bet for her if the WTF wants to bring her back – and it should).
"[33] She was cast as a lead in the US television pilot for ABC called MEDS (later MDs),[citation needed] directed by Michael Hoffman and starring John Hannah.
Directed by Simon McBurney this cast included Al Pacino, Steve Buscemi, Chazz Palminteri, John Goodman, Paul Giamatti, Billy Crudup, Lothaire Bluteau, Linda Emond, Tony Randall and Charles Durning.
[35] Directed by George Ogilvie and starring Barry Otto, Christina Eliason, and Jonny Pasvolsky, this "tour de force from McKenzie"[36] broke all previously held box office records at the Sydney Opera House, Drama Theatre.
Mckenzie followed the success of Proof by taking the lead role of Jude in the Australian feature film Peaches, starring Hugo Weaving and Emma Lung.
Directed by Craig Monahan, the role garnered McKenzie a Best Actress Award from the Film Critics Circle of Australia with her performance described as a "revelation":[13] "never more so than in the scene where she sings 'The Carnival Is Over' across a pub counter."
[citation needed] Directed by Yves Simoneau with show runner Ira Steven Behr (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine), The 4400 was the highest-rated debut on US cable for 2004,[13] earning a Primetime Emmy Award nomination for Best Mini-Series.
She was cast as Emma Waddell in the Jeremy Sims–directed feature film Beneath Hill 60 and starred in the 2010 season finale of NCIS: Los Angeles alongside former Deep Blue Sea castmate LL Cool J.
In 2012, she accepted Cate Blanchett and Andrew Upton's invitation to star in the Australian premiere of the two-hander Sex With Strangers by American playwright Laura Eason (House of Cards) for the Sydney Theatre Company.
Maggie) in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof by Tennessee Williams for Belvoir St., directed by Simon Stone, co-starring Ewen Leslie (as Brick) and Marshall Napier (as Big Daddy).
Her Maggie is full of feverish energy, and hard-won, hard-edged glamour that a woman who has clawed herself up out of poverty to become the wife of the descendant of a crass but very rich family might be expected to display.
Co-starring with Justine Clarke and Toby Truslove, under the direction of Kip Williams, the production was immensely successful, garnering McKenzie a nomination for Best Actress at the 2014 Sydney Theatre Awards.
This will premiere at the Melbourne International Film Festival;[45] Fell,[46] written and directed by Kasimir Burgess and starring Matt Nable and Daniel Henshall.
The film follows the journey of a particle physicist who, grieving over the loss of her husband in a car crash, uses a revolutionary machine to bring him back with dire consequences for her family.
[54] In May 2017, SBS announced that McKenzie had been cast in their new four-part drama Safe Harbour about a group of Australians who come across a boat of refugees whilst sailing on vacation.
[55] In June 2017 McKenzie began filming Luke Sparke's movie Occupation with Charles Mesure, Temuera Morrison and Dan Ewing about a group of town residents banding together after a devastating ground invasion.
[56] In August 2017, McKenzie started shooting the TV series Romper Stomper, a follow-up to the 1992 cult classic movie in which she starred with Russell Crowe.
An avid painter (since working with Aaron Blabey on the Paul Cox film The Human Touch),[2] McKenzie's paintings have appeared in several publications, including Venice Magazine[66] and OK!.