Keira Knightley is one of the most successful actresses of her generation. On screen since the age of eight, the world has watched her blossom from a child star into a leading Hollywood actress, the face of Chanel and three-time Vogue cover girl.
Born Keira Christina Knightley on March 26, 1985.
Knightley grew up in Teddington, London with her mother Sharman Macdonald - an award-winning playwright - her father Will Knightley - a theatre and television actor - and her elder brother Caleb.
Having asked her parents for an agent as a child, she starred in a series of British television dramas from the age of eight to 13.
Her first major role was in Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace, in which she played Sabé, and she went on to star in The Hole in 2001.
Knightley's breakthrough role came in 2002, as Jules in blockbuster Bend It Like Beckham, gaining her worldwide recognition.
The following year, she was cast as Elizabeth Swann in Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl. Produced by Hollywood stalwart Jerry Bruckheimer, she starred alongside Johnny Depp and Orlando Bloom. This hugely successful franchise made Knightley a household name on both sides of the Atlantic.
In 2003, she appeared in Richard Curtis's star-studded film and Christmas classic, *Love Actually. *
She has featured on three covers of British Vogue: July 2004, October 2007 and January 2011.
From 2004 onwards, Knightley's career began to focus on period dramas and film adaptations, such as King Arthur in 2004, *Pride & Prejudice * in 2005, *Atonement * in 2007 and The Duchess in 2008.
Her performance as Elizabeth Bennet in *Pride & Prejudice * earned her Best Actress nominations at the Academy Awards and the Golden Globes, while her portrayal of Cecilia Tallis in Atonement won her Best Actress nominations at the Golden Globes and BAFTAs.
In 2006 she was named as the face of Chanel's perfume Coco Mademoiselle. "We think Keira is the perfect Coco Mademoiselle woman because she is always incredibly alluring and seductive," Christine Dagousset, executive vice president of fragrance and beauty for Chanel, told *WWD. *
She starred alongside fellow actress and Vogue cover girl Sienna Miller in Dylan Thomas's biopic *The Edge of Love * in 2008.The two young actresses sparked an off-screen friendship with Miller telling Vogue: "Don't be fooled and think she is a goody-goody. She can be a bloody good laugh."
In 2009, she made her West End debut in The Misanthrope alongside Damian Lewis. Her performance was well received, with The Independent describing it as "not only strikingly convincing but, at times, rather thrilling in its satiric aplomb." She was nominated for the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Supporting Actress and the Natasha Richardson Award for Best Actress at the *Evening Standard Awards * for her turn in the play.
In 2011, she was cast in David Cronenberg's historical drama A Dangerous Method. The director praised Knightley's performance, saying, "I have directed some of the best actresses who've ever lived - and Keira is as good as any of them."
She took the title role in Joe Wright's Anna Karenina in 2012 alongside Jude Law and Aaron Johnson.
Knightley's personal style is effortlessly chic. In the past she has confessed to preferring a casual approach to red-carpet glamour: "As long as I do it rarely, then I enjoy it," she told Stylist magazine. "It's nice to have an occasion to wear a silly frock and get dolled up but I'm not really that sort of person."
When she is not filming in various locations around the world, Knightley lives in London. She married Klaxons' musician James Righton in a low-key ceremony in the South of France in 2013, wearing a Chanel couture pale grey tulle dress. It was not the first or last time she appeared in the dress, having worn it to a BAFTAs after party in 2008 and then to a charity gala a few months after her wedding.
Later that year, Knightley starred as Coco Chanel, directed by Karl Lagerfeld, in the label's film, Once Upon A Time, about the founding designer and the opening of her debut store in 1913.
