For many audiences, Australian actress Lily Sullivan is about to feel like an overnight discovery.
When SOULM8TE, the erotic sci-fi thriller set within the expanding M3GAN universe, premieres digitally on August 1st, Sullivan steps into her biggest international leading role yet, playing an advanced android companion purchased by a grieving widower. It’s the kind of high-concept studio horror that introduces an actor to millions of viewers in one hit.
Except Sullivan didn’t arrive here overnight.
Over the past several years, the Australian performer has quietly assembled one of the strongest horror résumés in the business, moving from cult Australian thrillers to major Hollywood franchises, earning critical acclaim along the way and proving herself equally capable of emotional drama, psychological terror and outright physical horror.
If SOULM8TE is your introduction to Sullivan, here’s why you may have already seen her before.
Although she’d worked steadily in Australian television and film for years, Sullivan’s breakout arrived in 2023 with Evil Dead Rise.
As Beth, the reluctant aunt forced into an impossible fight for survival against Deadites, Sullivan carried much of Lee Cronin’s terrifying reinvention of Sam Raimi’s beloved franchise. Unlike many horror protagonists, Beth isn’t introduced as an action hero. She’s vulnerable, uncertain and emotionally adrift, making her gradual transformation into someone willing to fight back all the more satisfying.
Her performance balanced genuine emotional weight with the franchise’s trademark gallons of blood and outrageous practical effects, instantly putting her on the radar of horror fans worldwide.
With Evil Dead Burn currently in cinemas, as well as Sullivan making a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it appearance in Cronin’s more recent horror effort, The Mummy (available to stream on HBO Max), her continued association with some of the genre’s biggest franchises only solidifies her further in the annals of horror history.
If Evil Dead Rise proved Sullivan could anchor a studio horror film, Monolith proved she could carry an entire feature almost entirely on her own.
Matt Vesely’s psychological sci-fi thriller is a remarkable technical achievement, placing Sullivan on screen virtually alone for its entire 94-minute runtime as a disgraced journalist investigating a bizarre conspiracy through anonymous phone calls.
The performance earned widespread praise, eventually winning Sullivan Best Actress at Total Film’s FrightFest Awards in London.
When I spoke with Sullivan following the film’s release, she admitted taking on a film without another actor to physically perform opposite was “terrifying.”
“It very much induced this sort of anxious state,” she said. “You have nothing to react to or no other eye contact. I ended up in this almost echo chamber of myself and my imagination.”
She described the role as “the challenge of a lifetime”, explaining that the production deliberately embraced its limitations rather than trying to disguise them.
“You wonder what you can do with this high conceptual piece on a $500,000 budget,” she reflected. “It was more about what can be made on a shoestring if you apply yourself.”
That gamble paid off. Years after its festival debut, Monolith has found a second life with audiences and is currently sitting at No. 1 on Australia’s streaming charts; the film is available to stream for free on JustWatch.
One of the more surprising things about speaking with Sullivan is how naturally funny and warm she is. Considering the amount of blood, monsters and psychological trauma she’s endured on screen, I asked whether horror had become the genre she wanted to keep exploring.
Her answer suggested she never intended to become a horror specialist – but she’s certainly happy to stay there; “I really do love horror. I love thrillers,” she told me. “It’s such a fiery collaboration because you’re trying to pull off suspense… it’s really fun to work with other creatives.”
She was equally quick to point out she doesn’t want to stay confined there forever; “I want my grid to feel ambiguous and gear shift. I want to grow and challenge and change.”
That versatility is exactly what’s brought Sullivan to SOULM8TE.
Originally slated for a theatrical release earlier this year, the film unexpectedly disappeared from Universal’s release calendar before later re-emerging as a digital release. While industry speculation linked the delay to shifting plans around the M3GAN franchise, no official explanation for the scheduling change was ever provided.
Directed by Kate Dolan and produced by James Wan and Jason Blum, the thriller casts Sullivan as an artificial companion whose programming evolves into something far more dangerous after being purchased by a grieving man.
It’s another role that asks Sullivan to balance humanity with something deeply unsettling – a combination she’s become remarkably adept at portraying.
Australian actors have long enjoyed a special relationship with horror, from Toni Collette in The Sixth Sense and Essie Davis in The Babadook to Samara Weaving across the Ready or Not and Scream franchises, as well as, coincidentally, The Evil Dead.
Sullivan increasingly feels like the next name to join that conversation.
Whether she’s battling Deadites, carrying a one-woman psychological thriller, or becoming an AI companion with murderous instincts, she has repeatedly shown an ability to ground even the wildest genre concepts with believable emotion.
If SOULM8TE leaves you wondering where you’ve seen her before, the answer is simple: she’s been quietly building one of the most impressive horror résumés of any Australian actor working today.
