Keira Christina Knightley (born March 26, 1985) is an Academy Award-nominated English film actress. She began her career as a child actress, and came to international fame in 2003, after major roles in the films Bend It Like Beckham and the Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy. Knightley has since become a notable lead actress, having starred in several Hollywood films. In 2005 she received a Best Actress Academy Award nomination for Pride & Prejudice. Her most recent film is Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest.
Knightley was born in Teddington, Middlesex, England to Sharman Macdonald, a Scottish and Irish actress turned award-winning playwright, and Will Knightley, an English theatre and television actor. She has an older brother, Caleb (b. 1979). Knightley lived most of her life in Richmond upon Thames, attending Teddington School and Esher College. Knightley suffers from dyslexia, but nevertheless achieved good grades in school to please her parents, and was thus permitted to have an agent and pursue an acting career. Knightley has noted that she was "so single-minded about acting" during her childhood.[2] She performed in a number of local amateur productions including After Juliet (written by her mother) and United States (written by her then drama teacher, John McShane). |
