Keira Knightley was born in South London, to actor Will Knightley and actress-turned-playwright Sharman Macdonald.
Being brought up in in the acting professions, it's no wonder Keira asked for her own agent when she was only three. She landed her first TV role in Royal Celebration when she was seven. Although she had difficulties in reading and writing during her younger age, she worked hard and improved by her teenage years. Keira attend Esher College for a while, but eventually left her study to pursue acting full-time. Her first major movie performance was on A Village Affair in 1994. But it wasn't until her role as Queen Amidala's decoy in Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999) in which the world first heard her name.
Keira's most popular role is as Elizabeth Swann in the blockbuster Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003), which also starred Johnny Depp and Orlando Bloom. She reprises her role in the successful sequels, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (2006) and Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (2007). Other films Knightley has starred in since then are Bend It Like Beckham (2002), Love Actually (2003), Anna Karenina (2012), and The Imitation Game (2014).
