Keira Knightley, an English actress and model, has appeared in several Hollywood films and has earned a lot of accolades for her performance.
Born to a playwright father and a theatre & television actor mother, on March 26, 1985, Keira Knightley started acting as a child itself. She focused on art, history, and English literature while at Esher, but left after a year to focus on her acting and she also turned down her spot at the London Academy of Music and Drama.
Her first role was "Little Girl" in Royal Celebration, a 1993 TV movie. Keira Knightley appeared in several television films in the mid to late 1990s—as well as ITV1's The Bill-before being cast as Sabé, Padmé Amidala's decoy, in the 1999 science fiction blockbuster Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace.
Knightley's first starring role followed in 2001, when she played the daughter of Robin Hood in the made-for-television Walt Disney Productions feature, Princess of Thieves. She trained for several weeks in archery, sword fighting, and horse riding. Knightley's breakthrough role was in the football-themed film, Bend It Like Beckham, which was a success in its August 2002 UK release. After this Keira's career got a lift and she secured roles in films like Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, Pride & Prejudice, A Dangerous Method, etc...
She earned nominations for the Academy Award for Best Actress and Golden Globe Award for Best Actress for her role as Elizabeth Bennet in Pride & Prejudice. Two years later she again was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress, as well as the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role for her performance in Atonement.
Apart from acting and modelling, Keira is the face of an Amnesty International campaign to support human rights. In November 2010, Knightley became patron of The Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA) Trust, a British charity that funds medical research into the children's disease Spinal Muscular Atrophy.
So far as her personal life is concerned, it hasn't been much under lime-light.
Fridaymoviez wishes Keira Knightley a Very Happy Birthday!