Young's first role was in Bruce Beresford's film Black Robe (1991). They worked together a third time on Mao's Last Dancer (2009), based on the 2003 best-selling autobiography of Chinese ballet dancer Li Cunxin. Beresford stated that Young's "a very cooperative and thoughtful actor."[3]　　Young was nominated for an Australian Film Institute award for Metal Skin (1994), Geoffrey Wright's examination of suburban hopelessness and revhead subculture. One reviewer wrote that "Young's depiction of this unsettling metamorphosis is central to the film's success."[4]　　In 2011, Young mimed the hit song "Even Though I'm A Woman", by the Australian female indie supergroup Seeker Lover Keeper, in the music video directed by Natalie Van Dungen, and he featured in the Jason Statham/Robert De Niro action film Killer Elite as American techno geek Meyer.　　In June 2012, Young was announced as the lead in the SundanceTV series Rectify. Rectify was announced as a Peabody Award winner in April 2015.[5]