Keira Knightley Biography:

Because to her outstanding work in the unexpected hit “Bend It Like Beckham” (2002), mysterious actress Keira Knightley shot to the attention of viewers outside her native England. Before she played a young sexy semi professional soccer player who becomes friends with an Indian girl more concerned in joining the team than following her parent’s conventional ways, Knightley had already accumulated a long list of movie, film, television and theater credits, including a famous, but quick, appearance in “Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace” (1999) as Sabe, Natalie Portman’s body double queen. But it was the smash hit pirate adventure “Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl” alongside actor Johnny Depp (2003) and its two sequels, “Dead Man’s Chest” (2005) and “At World’s End (2007), that established Keira Knightley as a truly international sexy super star, able to hold her own with the skills and talents of Johnny Depp and Orlando Bloom. Not one to be type-cast, however, she extended her roles in 2005, starring as the stubborn Elizabeth Bennet in “Pride and Prejudice,” a role that gained Knightley her first Oscar nomination and showed that she was more than just a sexy beautiful face in the middle of action packed thriller movies.

Born Keira Christina Knightley in Teddington, Middlesex, in England on March 26, 1985, Knightley came from an entertainment family. Her father, Will Knightley, was a television and stage actor; her mother Sharman MacDonald was an actress, playwright, and author. Haunted by dyslexia as a child, Knightley worked hard to get good grades so that she could sway her parents into allowing her to pursue acting, which was her central goal from a very early age. By the age of eight, she had made her television debut with a small role in “Royal Celebration” (1993), and during the next several years appeared in quite a few notable English television movies, including the noteworthy “Coming Home” (1998), a variation of Rosamunde Pilcher’s story about two English families stuck in World War II, starring Peter O’Toole and Joanna Lumley. 

In 1998, her similarity to actress Natalie Portman got her the part of Sabe, the handmaiden double to Queen Amidala, in “Star Wars: Episode One The Phantom Menace.” In a funny bit of trivia, director George Lucas did not disclose that Knightley was doubling for Portman in certain scenes until after the film was released. Furthermore, the two actresses looked so much alike when in the Japanese inspired makeup, that their own friends and relatives could not tell them apart.

Knightley returned to more English television productions until 2001, when she was hired for a leading part in the UK theatre production, “The Hole” (2001), a emotional thriller co-starring American actress Thora Birch. The movie, which was not seen in theaters but was released directly to video in the United States, featured a short nude topless scene from the fifteen year old Knightley. That same year, she made her introduction as a lead actress in the Walt Disney television “Princess of Thieves,” playing the teenage daughter of Robin Hood. During this period, Knightley was still studying at the University, and while completing her final exams in 2001, filmed “Bend It Like Beckham,” a appealing comedy romance about an Indian girl (Parminder Nagra) whose love for soccer diverges from her family’s strict traditional beliefs. Knightley played Nagra’s friend, who wrestles with her own family problems, including her mother (Juliet Stevenson) wanting her to act more like a lady. The two girls’ troubles resonated with world audiences and tabloid critics took notice of Knightley’s ability to play drama and comedy, as well as act convincingly physical in the sport action scenes. Knightley, however, continued to seek her University degree and take the sporadic role in UK movies like “Pure” (2002), about drug addicts in a celebrity romance.

Knightley’s University life stopped soon afterwards when a discussion with television producer Andy Harries convinced her to take up acting full time. Her first job after college gave her a different challenge, a television variation of “Doctor Zhivago” (2002), where she played Lara, a role made famous by Julie Christie in the 1965 film version. Knightley followed this with a tiny and somewhat dull role in the feature film, “Love, Actually” with Billy Bob Thornton and Elisha Cuthbert (2003), in which she played a young bride whose best man has fallen in love with her. Packed with star power including Laura Linney, Hugh Grant, Emma Thompson, and Alan Rickman, the film did fantastic business in the United States and extended Knightley’s standing as sexy celebrity and Hollywood star.

However, it was her next project that gained her super celebrity status. Originally seen as a uncertain venture, as it was the first movie about pirates in decades, the Jerry Bruckheimer produced “Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl” turned out to be one of the biggest blockbusters and smash hits in decades. And while Johnny Depp’s role as the suave Captain Jack Sparrow attracted the largest share of the critical reviews, audiences and filmmakers combined did not hesitate to comment about Knightley’s ability to play gritty, romantic, sexy, and frail in the midst of a special effects extravaganza. Bruckheimer himself hired her for two more films, as well as another action packed historical project, a radical adaptation of the Arthurian legend called “King Arthur” (2004), where she played Guinevere as a sword yielding Celtic fighter. Even with Knightley’s appearance, the movie did not do well at the box office, and Knightley was both pleased and appalled to find that her image in Hollywood had been improved considerably in the disaster.

Her next two films in the United States were not huge blockbuster either – “The Jacket” (2004) was a jumbled science fiction thriller with Adrien Brody, Jennifer Jason Leigh and Brad Renfro that showed her skill with an American inflection, and “Domino” with a small interaction with Lucy Liu (2005), based loosely on the life of Domino Harvey, the daughter of actor Laurence Harvey and a professional bounty hunter, was a classically puffed up mess from Tony Scott that showed Knightley looking awfully uncomfortable while firing high powered exotic weaponry. An adaptation of Deborah Moggach’s story “Tulip Fever” was shut down due to the ending of British tax loopholes for film productions and studio directors, so she returned to more gentle surroundings with the movie “Pride and Prejudice” (2005), a perfect variation of the Jane Austen book. Her role as the enlightened Elizabeth Bennett, who seeks to find her own life path, gained Knightley a Golden Globe and Academy Award nomination.

During this extremely hectic stage, which had Knightley hired as the face of several companies, including Ausprey jewelers and Chanel perfume, she found her private life under the microscope by the world press and tabloid media, who decided that her skinny build was the result of anorexia. Knightley took offense of the claim, while noting that her own grandmother had suffered from anorexia. Her private romantic life also was made public in the tabloid news - among her romantic interests during this time were Irish fashion model Jamie Dornan and actor Rupert Friend, whom she met on the set of “Pride and Prejudice.”

In 2005, Knightley returned to the “Pirates” series of films for “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest,” which broke previous records with even larger numbers at the box office, although critics gave the film a firm thrashing for its long-winded plot. The film was shot back to back with a second sequel, “Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End” (2007), which was the expected final to the series, though many in the film and movie industry understood that such a money making tool could not be shut down so easily. Knightley spent some of her time in 2006 filming several future film projects, including “The Best Time of Their Lives,” about Welsh poet Dylan Thomas, from a script by her mother. Knightley also received high honors as “Sexiest Woman” and similar awards from a number of men's magazines like "FHM" and "Maxim", and received significant awareness for posing nude with Scarlett Johansson and the omnipresent Tom Ford on the cover of Vanity Fair.

Regardless of her reputation in Hollywood, Knightley keeps a home in London and made no apology about her intentions of staying a UK citizen and resident, while continuing to do business in the United States. Her next few projects stayed outside the studio system, allowing Knightley to continue to expand her resume. She starred in the adaptation of Alessandro Baricco’s historical tale, “Silk” (2007), portraying the tender and loving wife of a silkworm merchant (Michael Pitt), who falls in love with a hooker (Sei Ashina) while on business in Japan. After “Silk,” Knightley played the sister of a young writer whose life is forever changed when her lover is accused of a crime he did not commit in “Atonement” (2007).

With her good looks and easy going personality it is certain that Keira Knightley will grace the silver screen year after year as we seem to never grow tired of her talents.

• Also Credited As:
  Keira Christina Knightley, Kiera Knightley
• Born:
  Keira Christina Knightley on 03/26/1985 in Teddington, London, England
• Job Titles:
  Actress

Family

• Brother: Caleb Knightley. Born in 1979
• Father: Will Knightley. English; born in 1946
• Mother: Sharman McDonald. Scottish; born in 1951

Significant Others

• Companion: Del Synnott. Met while working together on "Princess Of Thieves" (2001); split November 2003
• Companion: Jamie Dornan. Met at a Manhattan photo shoot in August 2003; split August 2005
• Companion: Rupert Friend. Met while co-starring in "Pride & Prejudice" (2005); began dating December 2005

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