Keira Knightley

Keira Knightley Introduction

We could make a silly little joke about the fact that she’s from a place called Middlesex. But that'd show us up as completely sex obsessed idiots, which of course we are. So we’ll just say this: If she got any more beautiful, she’d have to be from another planet. Voted #39 in the AskMen.com's Top 99 Women 2008 Edition.

Keira Knightley Life Story

The daughter of a playwright mother and an actor father, Keira performed as a young child in local productions (including a play written by Ian McShane—her drama coach in those days). At 7, she made her television debut in Ballykissangel (those Brits and their spellings…), and by 13 she was cast as Natalie Portman’s decoy queen in Star Wars: Episode 1 The Phantom Menace.

After a few starring roles in TV movies, Keira kick-started her career (pun intended) as soccer-loving teen Jules Paxton in Bend It Like Beckham (Parminder Nagra, Archie Panjabi). That led to film work that would cement her place in mega-babedom: the Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy, Love Actually, King Arthur and an Academy Award-nominated showing in Pride and Prejudice (Rosamund Pike, Jena Malone). (It was on the Pride set where she hooked up with current beau Ewald Bundervoet. Wait, no, we mean Rupert Friend.) Then in 2005, Keira got off on her bad side as a bounty hunter in Tony Scott’s Domino, and in 2007 she spiced up the screen again in Atonement (Romola Garai).

British through and through, Keira has said she prefers dating English men, and she’s a rabid supporter of football club West Ham United. Coming up, she’ll star in The Edge of Love (Sienna Miller), a movie penned by her mum, and she’ll embody the Duchess of Devonshire in The Duchess. We always saw her as more of a princess, but whatever.

Keira Knightley Present

Recent filmsinclude London Boulevard, with Colin Farrell, the script of which is written by William Monahan, who will also make his directing debut, the Mark Romanek film "Never Let Me Go" with Carey Mulligan, "Last Night" with Eva Mendes, and David Cronenberg's "A Dangerous Method".