Toni Collette has come a long way from her difficult 20s. Today, she is a successful actress with a loving husband and beautiful daughter, who has found her true path, as she tells Michael Sheather.

Toni Collette's smile is practically incandescent. In the grey and shadowy confines of a rooftop office, not far from Sydney’s CBD, Toni, the 36-year-old actress and star of such international hits as Muriel’s Wedding, The Sixth Sense and Little Miss Sunshine, radiates a welcome warmth and brightness on a cold winter’s morning.

No star turns here. She is happy and clearly at ease, full of joie de vivre. And there is no reason why she shouldn’t be. The past few years, she says, are among the happiest and most content - both personally and professionally - of her life.

Since marrying the man she says is the love of her life, former Gelbison drummer Dave Galafassi, in 2003, Toni has not only found a level of personal contentment that in her youth she had found elusive, but has been transformed by the experience of motherhood, with the birth 17 months ago of their daughter, Sage.

Having a child and sharing her life is simply “awesome”, says Toni, her enthusiasm bubbling over. “I never realised the depth of love that was available until Sage came along. It’s a whole other thing, another side of life. I love it, I love her. It’s the best thing ever.”

Just as family is clearly at the heart of Toni’s personal life, it is family that is at the centre of her latest professional offering, the quirky but poignant and captivating comedy United States of Tara, which premieres on ABC1 on July 29.