INFORMATION - BIOGRAPHY

Keira Christina Knightley was born on March 22, 1986 to parents Sharman Macdonald (actress-turned-playwrite) and Will Knightley (actor) in Teddington, England. Her older brother, Caleb Knightley, was born in 1979. According to Keira, she was the result of a bet between her parents. At the age of three, Keira asked for an agent after having seen her parents' agents visit her home. It wasn't until she was six-years-old that her parents finally let her have one under the condition that she work hard at improving her reading and overcoming her dyslexia.

Keira's first role was when she was just six-years-old as a little girl in the television movie, A Royal Celebration (1993), also starring Minnie Driver. After that, she went on to star in such films as Innocent Lies (1995) and Treasure Seekers (1996), based on Edith Nesbit's novel of the same name, and she even guest-starred on the British television show "The Bill", playing a character called Sheena Rose in the episode The Swan Song, which aired in April 1995.

Her first blockbuster role was the part of actress Natalie Portman's Queen Amidala's decoy in the first prequel installment of George Lucas' Star Wars trilogy, The Phantom Menace (1999). Although she got little recognition (it was believed by many that Natalie Portman played both the queen and her decoy), Keira went on to play in television productions Oliver Twist (1999) and Disney's Princess of Thieves (2001) as Robin Hood's daughter. It wasn't until Keira starred in Gurinder Chadha's indie hit, Bend It Like Beckham (2002), that she gained more recognition, as well as critical acclaim. Following her success playing tomboy Jules Paxton, Keira starred in more challenging films as a drug-addict waitress in Pure (2002) and the troubled Lara Antipova in the television mini-series, Doctor Zhivago (2002), a role made famous by Julie Christie in 1965.

2003 was Keira's North American breakthrough year. She played the role of Elizabeth Swann in Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl alongside such actors as Johnny Depp, Orlando Bloom, and Geoffrey Rush. Despite predictions that a pirate-themed movie would not be successful, the first Pirates movie was a huge hit. Keira then starred in Richard Curtis' romantic comedy, Love Actually (2003), opposite the likes of Emma Thompson and Alan Rickman. Within the next year, Keira underwent intense training for the role of warrior queen Guinevere in King Arthur (2004). Ray Winstone and Clive Owen also had roles in the film. Keira's next role was with Adrien Brody in The Jacket (2005), her first major role with an American accent.

Keira's most recent projects include films Domino (2005), where she played real-life bounty hunter, Domino Harvey; and in Pride and Prejudice (2005), where she played Jane Austen's most popular heroine, Elizabeth Bennet, a role that earned her a Golden Globe nomination and an Academy Award nomination. The second installment of the Pirates trilogy, Dead Man's Chest (2006) broke box office records, earning a place alongside Titanic and Lord of the Rings: Return of the King as one of the top-grossing movies of all time.

Her next projects include Silk and Atonement, which will be relased very soon. The third Pirates movie, Worlds End (2007), hit cinemas in May of 2007.

Biography written for site by Sarika