Keira Knightley

Keira Knightley is an English actress. She was born on March 26th, 1985 in Teddlington, England. She is the youngest of two children and daughter of the theatre actor Will Knightley and the writer Sharman Macdonald. When she was a kid, she developed her performing vocation. At the age of four she started taking ballet lessons, and two years later she made her debut in TV. Her persistence and talent were amazing, and soon she obtained her first role in a movie.

In 1994, she made her first steps in the cinema in Moira Armstrong’s movie “A Village Affair”. She continued improving her performing skills and had the opportunity to participate in a Hollywood super production: “Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace”. Her role was limited, but her character Sabй gave her the dreamt popularity. She appeared in several magazines as well as in many presentations of the George Lucas’s masterpiece, and her name started to sound familiar for many directors and producers.
Two years later, she shared the set with Thora Birch during the shooting of the terror movie: “The Hole”.

But the success in her career occurred later in 2002, when she played the leading role in the comedy “Bend it like Backham”. Keira was only 17 when all the press praised her work in the movie. She demonstrated her versatility and impressed the public with her spontaneity. This captivating young star was convoked to take part in the adventures movie “Pirated of the Caribbean”, where she worked together with Johnny Depp and Orlando Bloom.

Apart from her appearances in the big screen she also made some performances for TV productions like “Oliver Twist” (1999) and “Doctor Zhivago”. In 2004, she placed the part of Ginebra in “King Arthur”. But the role that helped her to demonstrate her talent and quality as an actress was the one in which she played Elizabeth Bennett in the movie adaptation of Jane Austen’s novel “Pride and Prejudice”(2005). For her outstanding performance, she was nominated for an Oscar award and a Golden Globe, both for the same category: “Best Actress”. She also participated in the following parts of the Disney production “Pirates of the Caribbean”.

For the near future, Knightley is working on several projects. She has signed a contract with Chanel to promote their perfumes in 2007, and she will participate in John Maybury’s “The Edge of Love”, in which she will play a leading role.

Pixie-ish British actress Keira Knightley went from a relative unknown to a blockbuster leading lady after 2002's sleeper soccer flick Bend It Like Beckham caught on with an international audience. Born in Teddington, London, England, in 1985, young Knightley was enticed by the lure of cinema at an early age. Playwright mother Sharman McDonald and actor father Will Knightley were at first reluctant to let their daughter follow them into show business. Although they would accommodate her wish three years later, their strict demand that their daughter study through school holidays and only take jobs that didn't interfere with her education ensured that Keira would keep her priorities straight.



Trained in dance from an early age, Knightley made her film debut when she was 12 in Moira Armstrong's romantic drama A Village Affair. Gradually climbing the credits with subsequent roles in Innocent Lies (1995) and the made-for-TV features Treasure Seekers (1996) and Coming Home (1998), she got her first big break when cast as the decoy queen in the eagerly anticipated Star Wars: The Phantom Menace. Knightley resembled the actual queen (portrayed by Natalie Portman) so much that her mother couldn't distinguish the two and some fans still insist both were portrayed by Portman.



Returning to non-decoy status for the television miniseries Oliver Twist (2000), Knightley stayed with the small screen as Robin Hood's daughter in the 2001 adventure Princess of Thieves. Although audiences would truly begin to take note of her talent in the thriller The Hole that same year, her star-making turn in the sleeper comedy drama Bend It Like Beckham endeared her to audiences everywhere and ultimately served as her breakthrough starring role. Playing the best friend to Parminder K. Nagra, Knightley proved that she could turn what might have been little more than a noteworthy supporting role into a truly spunky, scene-stealing performance.



As Lara Antipova in the 2002 miniseries Doctor Zhivago, Knightley gracefully slipped into a role that was previously made famous by Julie Christie, and the timeless romantic drama proved a hit with U.K. television viewers. With the release of Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, however, the actress was catapulted into an entirely new realm of popularity. Opposite Johnny Depp's truly eccentric portrayal of pirate Jack Sparrow, Knightley charmed as the beautiful young maiden whose blood may hold the key to life for a group of undead pirates.



While King Arthur (2004) and Domino (2005) were high-profile flops, Knightley's status as a movie-star on both sides of the pond was firmly cemented in early 2006 when she was nominated for a Best Actress Oscar for her role in 2005's Pride & Prejudice. 2006 also saw the release of the sequel Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, which was shot back-to-back with the franchise's third entry, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, which was scheduled for release in 2007. In the meantime, Knightley forged ahead on the period drama Silk, opposite Michael Pitt. Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide