Keira Knightley

Keira Knightley (born March 26, 1985, Teddington, Middlesex, England) is an English actress who is best known for the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise and a number of period dramas, including Pride & Prejudice (2005). Although extremely versatile, she is especially noted for portraying plucky heroines and tragic figures.

Early life and career

Knightley is the youngest of two children born to Sharman Macdonald and Will Knightley, both of whom acted; her mother was also a playwright and novelist. Caleb Knightley, her elder brother, later composed music for films. From a very young age, Keira Knightley knew that she wanted to act, and, when she was six years old, her parents helped her obtain an agent. In 1993 Knightley made her television debut, making a brief appearance in an episode of Screen One. Two years later she acted in her first film, Innocent Lies.

For the next few years, Knightley was cast in minor roles, appearing in such projects as the TV movie The Treasure Seekers (1996) and the miniseries Coming Home (1998). During this time she was also attending school, and there she struggled early on because of dyslexia. She was able to overcome this disability, in part, by reading books and screenplays.

Star Wars: Episode I—The Phantom Menace and Bend It Like Beckham

Knightley’s first role in a major film came at the age of 12 when she was cast as Sabé in Star Wars: Episode I—The Phantom Menace (1999). Her character is a handmaiden of Queen Amidala (played by Natalie Portman), and she serves as the monarch’s decoy. The film was a blockbuster, and much was made about Knightley’s uncanny resemblance to Portman. Knightley continued to act in a variety of roles, including those of Rose Fleming in the miniseries Oliver Twist (1999) and the main character Gwyn, who was the daughter of Maid Marian and Robin Hood, in the TV movie Princess of Thieves (2001). She subsequently enrolled at Esher College in Surrey, England, but left during her first year to devote herself to acting.

Knightley’s breakthrough in England came with her role in Bend It Like Beckham (2002). She played Jules, a football (soccer) fanatic who befriends a British-Indian teenager whose parents disapprove of her playing sports. The sports film proved enduring, in part because it deftly addressed such universal themes as gender and race. Also in 2002 Knightley starred in the miniseries Doctor Zhivago (2002), an adaptation of Boris Pasternak’s classic novel. She played the strong-willed Lara Antipova, the wife of a revolutionary who has a love affair with the title character.

Stardom: Pirates of the Caribbean, Pride & Prejudice, and Atonement

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The actress was starting to land more prominent roles, but it was the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise that made Knightley a global star. In Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003), which starred Johnny Depp and Orlando Bloom, Knightley played the adventurous Elizabeth Swann. The film was a major box-office success, and Knightley reprised her role in three other Pirates of the Caribbean films: Dead Man’s Chest (2006), At World’s End (2007), and Dead Men Tell No Tales (2017). The popularity of the franchise brought renewed interest in Bend It Like Beckham, which became a modest hit in the United States.

Other movies from the early 2000s include the hugely popular rom-com Love Actually (2003) and the action-drama King Arthur (2004). In 2005 Knightley played the high-spirited Elizabeth Bennet in an adaptation of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. For her role in the romantic film, Knightley received Academy Award and Golden Globe nominations for best actress. The movie was directed by Joe Wright, and the two reunited for Atonement (2007), which was based on Ian McEwan’s novel of the same name. Knightley played the wealthy Cecilia Tallis, whose secret affair with the housekeeper’s son (James McAvoy) in pre-World War II England sets off a series of tragic events. For her performance, she earned Golden Globe and BAFTA Award nominations.

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Later films and theatrical work

Knightley subsequently appeared in The Duchess (2008), a biopic about the scandalous Georgiana Cavendish, duchess of Devonshire; Never Let Me Go (2010), an adaptation of Kazuo Ishiguro’s novel about the ethics of genetic engineering; and Anna Karenina (2012), an adaptation of Leo Tolstoy’s classic novel that was also directed by Wright. In 2013 she showcased her singing in Begin Again, a crowd-pleaser about a singer-songwriter and a struggling record-label executive (Mark Ruffalo). The following year she appeared in the action thriller Jack Ryan: A New Recruit; it was directed by Kenneth Branagh and featured Chris Pine and Kevin Costner.

In 2014 Knightley took a supporting role in the World War II film The Imitation Game, about Alan Turing (Benedict Cumberbatch). Her portrayal of cryptanalyst Joan Clarke earned Oscar, BAFTA, and Golden Globe nominations. Knightley later was featured in the action-drama Everest (2015), about an ill-fated expedition on the mountain, and Colette (2018), a biopic of the legendary French author. Her credits from 2019 include The Aftermath, a romantic drama about a British colonel’s wife who has an affair with a German widower (Alexander Skarsgård) in post-World War II Hamburg. Knightley later appeared in Misbehaviour (2020), a dramedy about a beauty pageant, and the true-crime drama Boston Strangler (2023), in which she played the reporter who broke the story about the infamous serial killer.

In addition to film and television, Knightley occasionally acted in theatre. She made her West End debut in an updated take on Molière’s comedy The Misanthrope (2009). Despite mixed reviews, she earned an Olivier Award nomination for best supporting actress. In 2015–16 Knightley starred in her first Broadway production, an adaptation of Émile Zola’s Thérèse Raquin.

Other activities and personal life

Knightley frequently appeared on the covers of fashion magazines, notably Vogue. In 2006 she was introduced as the face of the Chanel line of perfume Coco Mademoiselle.

Knightley married musician James Righton in 2013, and the couple later had two daughters, Edie (2015) and Delilah (2019). In 2018 Knightley was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE).