, at the
1st AACTA Awards,
Sydney, 2012 Roxburgh began working with the
Sydney Theatre Company as soon as he graduated from NIDA, and also worked with
Belvoir St Theatre. In July 2010, Roxburgh played former Australian
Prime Minister Bob Hawke in a
telemovie based on Hawke's life. In November 2010, Roxburgh co-created and began starring in the critically acclaimed
ABC1 television comedy-drama series
Rake as the brilliant but self-destructive Sydney criminal barrister Cleaver Greene, a role for which he won the Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts Award for Best Lead Actor in a Television Drama in 2012. He stars in
Matching Jack, which was released in August 2010, and ''
Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole'', released in September 2010. Returning to the stage, Roxburgh played Vanya opposite
Cate Blanchett,
Hugo Weaving and
John Bell in Sydney Theatre Company's 2010 production of
Anton Chekhov's
Uncle Vanya. In 2013, he again performed at the STC with Weaving as the protagonists in
Samuel Beckett's play
Waiting for Godot, Weaving as Vladimir and Roxburgh as Estragon. In 2014, Roxburgh played the title role in
Edmond Rostand's 1897 play
Cyrano de Bergerac at the STC. In 2015, Roxburgh appeared in
Andrew Upton's adaptation of Chekhov's play
Platonov, titled
The Present, for the STC. It was directed by
John Crowley and featured Cate Blanchett,
Jacqueline McKenzie,
Marshall Napier, and
Toby Schmitz. That production moved in 2016/17 to the
Ethel Barrymore Theatre in New York City for the
Broadway debut of Roxburgh and the rest of the cast. In 2023, he appeared in ''
Aunty Donna's Coffee Cafe as a parody of his previous role in Rake''. In 2024 Roxburgh appeared in the
Stan series
Prosper, a thriller set in the
megachurch community. Roxburgh played the lead role in the feature film
The Correspondent, as journalist
Peter Greste.
The Correspondent, directed by
Kriv Stenders, was screened as the opening film of the
Adelaide Film Festival in October 2024, along with the animated feature
Lesbian Space Princess, in which he was one of the cast of
voice actors. In June 2025, Roxburgh was announced by Stan Australia that he was playing former Queensland premier
Joh Bjelke-Petersen in the TV documentary
Joh: The Last King of Queensland. On 29 January 2026, Roxburgh was named in the Stan co-commissioned series
Careless. Roxburgh toured Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne and Adelaide between February and May 2026 with
Yasmina Reza's 1994 award-winning play
Art as Marc opposite
Damon Herriman as Serge and Toby Schmitz as Yvan. ==Children's literature==