Michelle Williams on screen and stage

This article is about the filmography of the actress. For the filmography of the singer, see Michelle Williams (singer) § Filmography.

American actress Michelle Williams' first screen appearance was at age thirteen in a 1993 episode of the television series Baywatch, and she made her film debut as the love interest of a teenage boy in Lassie (1994).^[1][2] She had guest roles in the sitcoms Step by Step and Home Improvement, and played the younger version of Natasha Henstridge's character in the science fiction film Species (1995).^[3][4] Greater success came to Williams for playing the sexually troubled teenager Jen Lindley in the teen drama series Dawson's Creek (1998–2003).^[1][3] In 1999, she made her stage debut with the Tracy Letts-written play Killer Joe.^[1]

Williams at the 2012 San Diego Comic-Con

In the 2000s, Williams eschewed parts in big-budget films in favor of roles with darker themes in independent productions such as Me Without You (2001) and The Station Agent (2003).^[5][6] Despite positive reviews, these films were not widely seen.^[7][8] This changed in 2005 when Williams played the neglected wife of Heath Ledger's character in Brokeback Mountain, a drama about star-crossed gay lovers, which became a critical and commercial success; Williams gained a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.^[9][10][11] Her career did not progress much in the next few years, but Kelly Reichardt's Wendy and Lucy (2008), in which she starred as a drifter searching for her missing dog, was critically acclaimed.^[7][8][12] Martin Scorsese's thriller Shutter Island (2010), starring Leonardo DiCaprio, in which Williams had a supporting part, became her most widely seen film to that point.^[8][11]

Williams received two consecutive Oscar nominations for Best Actress for starring as an unhappily married woman in Blue Valentine (2010) and Marilyn Monroe in My Week with Marilyn (2011); she also won a Golden Globe Award for the latter.^[13][14][15] She next played Glinda in the commercially successful fantasy feature Oz the Great and Powerful (2013).^[16][17] On Broadway, she played Sally Bowles in a revival of the musical Cabaret in 2014, and a sexual abuse survivor in a revival of the play Blackbird in 2016.^[18] For the latter, she gained a Tony Award for Best Actress nomination.^[19] She earned another Academy Award nomination for playing a grieving mother in Manchester by the Sea (2016).^[20] The 2017 musical The Greatest Showman and the 2018 superhero film Venom emerged as two of her highest-grossing releases.^[8][21] She returned to television in 2019 to portray Gwen Verdon opposite Sam Rockwell's Bob Fosse in the FX miniseries Fosse/Verdon, winning a Primetime Emmy Award for Best Actress.^[22][23] Williams received her fifth Oscar nomination for starring as a troubled mother in Steven Spielberg's semi-autobiographical drama The Fabelmans (2022).^[24]

Film

Key

†	Denotes films that have not yet been released

Year	Title	Role	Notes	Ref.
1994	Lassie	April Porter		[2]
1995	Timemaster	Annie		[25]
	Species	Young Sil		[26]
1997	A Thousand Acres	Pammy		[27]
1998	Halloween H20: 20 Years Later	Molly Cartwell		[28]
1999	Dick	Arlene Lorenzo		[29]
	But I'm a Cheerleader	Kimberly		[30]
2001	Perfume	Halley		[31]
	Me Without You	Holly		[6]
	Prozac Nation	Ruby		[32]
2003	The United States of Leland	Julie Pollard		[33]
	The Station Agent	Emily		[34]
2004	Land of Plenty	Lana		[35]
	Imaginary Heroes	Penny Travis		[36]
	A Hole in One	Anna Watson		[37]
2005	The Baxter	Cecil Mills		[38]
	Brokeback Mountain	Alma Beers del Mar		[39]
2006	The Hawk Is Dying	Betty		[40]
	The Hottest State	Samantha		[41]
2007	I'm Not There	Coco Rivington		[42]
2008	Deception	S		[43]
	Incendiary	Young mother		[44]
	Synecdoche, New York	Claire		[45]
	Wendy and Lucy	Wendy Carrol		[46]
2009	Mammoth	Ellen Vidales		[47]
2010	Blue Valentine	Cindy	Also executive producer	[14]
	Shutter Island	Dolores Chanal		[48]
	Meek's Cutoff	Emily Tetherow		[49]
2011	My Week with Marilyn	Marilyn Monroe		[15]
	Take This Waltz	Margot		[50]
2013	Oz the Great and Powerful	Annie / Glinda[a]		[52]
2015	Suite Française	Lucille Angellier		[53]
2016	Manchester by the Sea	Randi		[54]
	Certain Women	Gina Lewis		[55]
2017	Wonderstruck	Elaine		[56]
	The Greatest Showman	Charity Barnum		[57]
	All the Money in the World	Gail Harris		[58]
2018	I Feel Pretty	Avery LeClaire		[59]
	Venom	Anne Weying		[60]
2019	After the Wedding	Isabel Andersen		[61]
2021	Venom: Let There Be Carnage	Anne Weying		[62]
2022	Showing Up	Lizzie Carr		[63]
	The Fabelmans	Mitzi Fabelman		[64]
2023	Deep Sky	Narrator	Documentary film	[65]

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes	Ref.
1993	Baywatch	Bridget	Episode: "Race Against Time: Part 1"	[66]
1994	Step by Step	J.J.	Episode: "Something Wild"	[67]
1995	Home Improvement	Jessica Lutz	Episode: "Wilson's Girlfriend"	[68]
	Raising Caines	Trish Caines	Main role; season 1	[69]
1996	My Son Is Innocent	Donna Winston	Television film	[70]
1997	Killing Mr. Griffin	Maya		[71]
1998–2003	Dawson's Creek	Jen Lindley	Main role; 6 seasons	[72]
2000	If These Walls Could Talk 2	Linda	Television film	[73]
2013	Cougar Town	Laurie's foster sister	Episode: "Blue Sunday"	[74][75]
2019	Fosse/Verdon	Gwen Verdon	Miniseries; also executive producer	[76]
2025	Dying for Sex	Molly	Miniseries	[77]

Stage

Year	Title	Role	Venue	Ref.
1999	Killer Joe	Dottie	SoHo Playhouse	[78]
2002	Smelling a Rat	Melanie-Jane	Samuel Beckett Theatre	[79]
2004	The Cherry Orchard	Varya	Williamstown Theatre Festival	[80]
2014	Cabaret	Sally Bowles	Studio 54	[81]
2016	Blackbird	Una Spencer	Belasco Theatre	[82]

Audiobook

Year	Title	Role	Ref.
2023	The Woman in Me	Narrator	[83]

Music video

Year	Title	Performer(s)	Album	Ref.
2012	"Paradise"	Wild Nothing	Nocturne	[84]

Discography

Soundtrack	Year	Song	Label	Ref.
My Week with Marilyn	2011	"When Love Goes Wrong, Nothin' Goes Right / Heat Wave"	Sony Music	[85]
		"It's a Wrap, I Found a Dream"
		"That Old Black Magic"
The Greatest Showman	2017	"A Million Dreams"	Atlantic Records	[86]
		"Tightrope"
Fosse/Verdon	2019	"Razzle Dazzle"		[87]

See also

• List of awards and nominations received by Michelle Williams (actress)

Notes

1. She played a dual role in the film.^[51]