Geraldine Viswanathan

Geraldine Viswanathan (/ˌvɪswəˈnɑːθən/ VISS-wə-NAH-thən; Tamil: ஜெரள்டீன் விஸ்வநாதன்; born 20 June 1995) is an Australian actress. She gained recognition for her roles in the films Blockers (2018), Hala (2018), Bad Education (2019), and Thunderbolts* (2025). She had a recurring role in the series Janet King (2017) and starred in the TBS comedy anthology Miracle Workers (2019–2023).

Viswanathan's father, Suresh Viswanathan, is a doctor who works in nuclear medicine and is of Tamil descent from India. Her mother, Anja Raith, is from Switzerland of Swiss-German descent and was raised by a father who was a filmmaker and ballet dancer. Raith attended musical theatre school in London before getting married and settling down in Newcastle. She is an artist.

Viswanathan grew up with a younger sister and a deep love of horses and animals. She attended the Hunter School of the Performing Arts, Newcastle, where she was in drama class.

When she was fifteen, Viswanathan and her family spent some time in Los Angeles, California, where she went through the process of securing a manager with the hopes of obtaining Disney and Nickelodeon roles.

In 2015, Viswanathan was shortlisted for the Heath Ledger Scholarship. While studying International Studies and Journalism, she did stand up and sketch comedy in Sydney.

At the age of four, Viswanathan appeared in a Kodak television commercial. In 2016, she appeared in Emo the Musical and went to Los Angeles for her first pilot season. In 2017, Viswanathan joined the cast of ABC's drama series Janet King in the role of Bonnie. Viswanathan was a reader in casting rooms, and was the reader for the Australian casting process for Crazy Rich Asians.

Her big break came in 2018, when she was cast in the film Blockers. Refinery29 referred to her as "the film's breakout star". In the same year, she was cast in the Netflix film The Package and the drama film Hala which went to Sundance Film Festival. The Hollywood Reporter included her in its "Next Gen Talent" list as one of "20 rising stars among the blockbuster breakouts and small-screen discoveries who are shaking up the industry".

In 2019, Viswanathan was cast in the anthology series Miracle Workers. In 2019, Viswanathan played Rachel in the film Bad Education, which is based on a true story of an embezzlement scandal. She received critical acclaim at the Toronto International Film Festival for the film, which received two Emmy nominations.