Full Name: Keira Christina Knightley
Height: 5’7” (1.70m)
Date of Birth: March 26th, 1985
Current Age: 21
Star Sign: Aries
Place of Birth: Teddington, Middlesex, England
Hobbies: Collecting shoes
Education: Esher College, England
The London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, England
Family: Father – Will Knightley (60)
Mother – Sharman Macdonald (55)
Brother – Caleb Knightley (27)
Celebrity Relationships: Del Synnott (Actor)
Jamie
Dornan (Model)
Rupert Friend (Actor)
Celebrity Friends: Andrea Logiudice
Sienna Miller
Occupation: Actress
Filmography:
Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End (2007) playing Elizabeth Swann
Atonement (2007) playing Cecilia Tallis
Silk (2007) playing Helene Joncour
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest (2006) playing Elizabeth Swann
Domino (2005) playing Domino Harvey
Pride & Prejudice (2005) playing Elizabeth Bennet
The Jacket (2005) playing Jackie Price
King Arthur (2004) playing Guinevere
Love Actually (2003) playing Juliet
Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003) playing Elizabeth Swann
Gaijin (2003) playing the voice of Kate
The Seasons Alter (2002) playing Helena
New Year’s Eve (2002) playing Leah
Pure (2002) playing Louise
Thunderpants (2002) playing a Music school student
Bend It Like Beckham (2002) playing Juliette Paxton
The Hole (2001) playing Frances Almond Smith
Princess of Thieves (2001) playing Gwyn
Deflation (2001) playing Jogger
Star Wars: Episode 1 – The Phantom Menace (1999) playing Sabe
Coming Home (1998) playing Young Judith
Treasure Seekers (1996) playing the princess
Innocent Lies (1995) playing young Celia
A Village Affair (1994) playing Natasha Jordan
Royal Celebration (1993) playing a little girl
Her Family History: Keira’s father Will Knightley is an actor and her mother Sharman
Macdonald is an actress turned play writer who wrote 'When I Was A Girl I Used To Scream And Shout' and 'The Winter Guest'.
Her mother is of Black Scottish heritage who were descendants of the Spanish Armada. Keira’s brother Caleb is also an
actor. Keira was so keen to act that she asked for an agent when she was only 3 years old and when she was 6 she got one.
Interesting Facts about Keira:
Keira had severe reading and writing difficulties which
were never actually diagnosed as dyslexia as she never sat the formal tests required of the British Dyslexia Association,
these difficulties put her career on hold and meant that Keira had to wear special glasses in adolescence to help her read
Keira played Natalie Portman’s decoy Padme to
her character Amidala in ‘Star Wars: Episode 1 – The Phantom Menace’. This was a plot twist kept secret
by the movies director. During filming, Keira and Natalie looked so similar with their make-up on that their own parents couldn’t
tell them apart. It was several years before agreement was reached over which scenes featured Keira as the queen and which
Natalie
She filmed her first nude scene when she was only 15 in
‘The Hole’, but the film was not released until she was 16
After sitting her final school exams in 2001, she got
six A’s
‘Bend It Like Beckham’ in which Keira starred
cost only $3.5million to make and ended up raking in more than $76 million worldwide
Keira studied classics, English literature & political
History for A-Levels at Esher college but dropped out when she was offered the role of Lara in a TV production of “Doctor Zhivago”
Keira almost missed out on the role of Elizabeth Swann
in ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ as she was stuck in heavy city traffic on her way to the audition. ‘Pirates of
the Caribbean’ remained in the
top 3 at the box office for an incredible 21 weeks
In 2003, Keira was made the face of British Jeweller
and luxury goods retailer Asprey
She spent time visiting Ethiopia on behalf of the Comic
Relief charity
In 2004, Keira received the Hollywood Film Award for “Best
Breakthrough Female Actor”
Keira is a member of the Heathham House Youth Project
She is a trained dancer
She supports West Ham United
The Royal Shakespeare Company of Stratford, England held
a 2004 poll asking movie viewers to vote for the actress they would most like to see play “Juliet” in ‘Romeo
& Juliet’. Keira triumphed over other actresses such as Kate Winslet, Nicole Kidman, Scarlett Johansson and Juliet
Landau. Keira was thrilled as she says “Juliet” is a role she’d love to take on in the future
She shares a birthday with actress Amy Smart, play writer
Tennessee Williams and singers Steven Tyler and Diana Ross. She was also born on the same day as poet
Robert Frost
She was voted #1 on New Woman magazine’s
“50 Most Beautiful Celebs” list in 2004
She was voted “Sexiest Woman of all time” in
an Empire magazine poll in 2004
Keira was voted #11 on FHM’s “100 Sexiest
Women” list in 2005 and #1 in 2006
When auditioning for the role of Jackie Price
in ‘The Jacket’, she had suffered food poisoning a few days earlier. She decided to audition anyway and the film
makers liked her "acting" for the scene, as Jackie Price was to be a woman with many issues of loss and pain as well as being
physically sick in general
Keira bought a flat in Richmond Upon Thames which she
doesn’t get much time to spend in, but she plans to fill it with her own painted canvases
She was votes second “Sexiest Voice” behind
Sean Connery in a poll by th UK’s Royal National Institute for the Blind
Ranked #53 on the Maxim “Hot 100 of 2005” list
and #9 in 2006
She was named “Actress of the Year” in 2005
by The Daily Mirror newspaper
At the age of 20, Keira became the third youngest woman
to be nominated for “Best Actress” in Oscar history
She was considered for the role of Kate Meer in ‘Ghost
Seeker: Genesis’. Keira and her agent Lindy King both loved the script, but Keira’s ‘Pirates of the Caribbean 3’ filming schedule
meant she had to turn down the role
Her Hero is her cast mate in ‘Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl’, Geoffery Rush
She employed a stylist to dress her for premieres and
award ceremonies, her stylist also dresses Lindsay Lohan and Nicole Kidman
She attended the engagement party of Jennifer Lopez
and Chris Judd
Keira has denied rumours that she was heart broken when
she broke up with Jamie Dornan and says she’s happy to be single again
It was reported that when Keira ended her relationship
with actor Del Synnott he attempted suicide, although both have denied these claims
Keira is looking into taking up the Jewish Kabbalah
religion
Keira has denied rumours that she has had cosmetic surgery
to plump up her lips
Keira says that her toned body is down to her drinking
a bottle of wine a night and eating regular plates of pasta
She forgot to shave her legs for the June, 2006 Vanity
Fair cover on which she appears
naked with Scarlett Johansson
Her ex-boyfriend Jamie Dornan wrote a song called “On
The Outside” which is about their break-up
Her 2006 Vera Wang Oscar gown raised $7,855 on an eBay
auction to benefit Oxfam
She says she is scared to get married for fear that the
ceremony won’t live up to her dream wedding in romantic comedy ‘Love Actually’
She celebrated her 21st birthday with a 1920’s
themed party
Keira and actor Jake Gyllenhaal have been spotted many
times together sparking rumours they are an item
She replaced Kate Moss as the face of Chanel in 2006
Keira was Voted Britain's
third most Stylish Woman of all time by UK
weekly magazine Grazia in 2006
Keira said she is already
planning to go under the surgeon’s knife by 25 to keep her looking good
She was baffled by reports
that she was dating Australian pop star Kaz James because she’s never even met him
Keira admits she’s
clumsy, likes to swear a lot and she hates watching her own movies
Keira felt so comfortable
around her mother when she was a teenager that they would smoke and talk about sex together
Keira revealed that she got drunk to film her first
sex scene in ‘The Jacket’, he co-star Adrien Brody gave her a vodka and brandy before stripping off to calm her
nerves. Keira refused to bear her naked bottom in the film though
Keira’s real-life ‘Domino’ character
Domino Harvey criticised the film for falsely portraying her as heterosexual when in reality she is a proud lesbian.
Domino was found dead in a bathtub in her West Hollywood home later in 2005
Entertainment weekly named her “Top Breakout Star”
in 2003
At the premiere of ‘Pirate of the Caribbean: Curse
of the Black Pearl’ Keira wowed onlookers with a new hair-do, a black Alexander McQueen corset and $800,000 worth of
Asprey diamonds
Keira is dating and has moved in with her
‘Pride and Prejudice’ co-star Rupert Friend
Keira’s Personal Quotes:
"The problem for me was that by being in the film the magic was broken. I loved
the first Star Wars film and my mum was really into it too, that's why I took the part. But the Force wasn't there when we
were filming it, and they didn't have real light sabers, which annoyed me."
(About wearing a corset on Pirates of the Caribbean) "I had a Scarlet O'Hara thing, she gets her waist down to 18
and a half inches - so I thought I would try that. For 5 minutes it's fantastic - you have this tiny waist and fantastic cleavage,
but oxygen deprivation is a big problem!"
(About kissing Orlando Bloom in Pirates of the Caribbean) “There were these teenaged girls off-cam, and they were
ready to kill me because I kissed Orlando Bloom!”
"I feel less blonde now and, er, smarter!"
"I've always been a snob about qualifications."
(After being called the new Hayley
Mills) "That was cruel! Nothing against Hayley Mills, but I'm trying to be cool here. I'm trying to be edgy."
"Do you know that on all the sets I've been on, nobody has ever made a pass at
me?"
(On The View) "I met Barbara Walters backstage and didn't know who she was. She's
an American phenomenon, I was told later. I'm just sooo English."
(At a photo shoot) "I'm a hooker in these pictures, and I must be a high priced
one because I'm staying at the Ritz, which is good."
"I'm a tomboy beanpole? I can't use a computer, so maybe I'm a bit out of the
loop. I don't know whether to be flattered or not flattered. The beanpole bit, is that good? Can you be a sexy beanpole?"
"Katharine Hepburn and Vivien Leigh are my heroes. Not because of their ability,
but because of their perseverance."
"When in doubt, faint."
"We had kind of done all our wedding and we felt like the stars of the show, then
sudden you've got all these other people with storylines and you think: excuse me, I know you're Alan Rickman but get out
of my film, please, thank you."
(On her conception) “I was a bet. My mum was desperate for another child,
and my dad told her that the only way they could afford to have one was if she sold a play. So Mum wrote “When I Was
a Girl, I Used to Scream and Shout.”
“I don't think I can call myself an actress yet. I just don't think my skill
level is that high. I hope that with every job it gets better. But until I'm good, I can say I'm trying to be an actor, but
I don't think I've completely made it.”
"I don't have a problem with my body. I'm not just going to strip off all my clothing,
but if the part calls for it and I don't think there's any way round, I'm absolutely fine."
“It's also strange when people recognize you in the street and they know
you but you don't know them. It's a little weird, but nothing to complain about.”
“I don't think about nutrition. The very thought of a diet makes me want
chips and ice cream. And I just hate going to the gym. I cannot stand it.”
"Every part I've ever got, I always thought it was completely ridiculous that
I was up for it. With Pirates, I only packed for a week because I was sure that I was going to get sacked. I thought they'd
made the hugest mistake."
"We're all fans of cinema, you know. Forget about being an actor, I love watching
films. I really do. That's what I love doing, as a hobby. I find the whole process fascinating, as do my parents, they go
to the cinema a lot."
"I don't read any magazines or newspapers any more, because I find it really scary
and I get really scared when I'm followed by photographers. I have, on many occasions, broken down in tears because I find
it terrifying. I dropped out of school when I was 16 so there's nothing else that I can do."
"I don't like parties very much. I'm not a very sociable being."
"Three years after that I was diagnosed as dyslexic, and we struck a deal: I was
allowed to start acting on condition that I would read constantly and get good grades at school."
