The daughter of actor Will Knightley and playwright Sharman Macdonald. After requesting an agent at the age of three, her parents allowed her to work on productions in her summer holidays. Her first role was at the age of 9, in Moira Armstrong's Village Affair, A (1994). However, Knightley's first high profile role came in 1999, as Sabe, Decoy Queen to Natalie Portman's Queen Amidala in Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999). Since then she has completed an impressive array of films including Hole, The (2001), but is probably best known for her role of tomboy footballer Jules Paxton in Gurinder Chadha's Bend It Like Beckham (2002) article continued below..

Keira Knightley was born on March 22, 1985 to actor/playwright parents in London, England. When she was three years old, she asked her mother for an agent, feeling jealous that she never received the same amount of calls that her parents did. At age six, the Knightleys finally agreed to let their daughter have an agent, provided that she'd study every day during summer holidays.

This was no small feat for little Keira, who suffers from dyslexia; however, she came through. Although her parents had envisioned a more secure career for their daughter, Keira started receiving various acting jobs. Schooling at a nearby comprehensive establishment remained her focal point, but, little by little, acting as a career became a reality. Pursuing artistic integrity and the satisfaction derived from taking on role after role, Keira's hard work paid off at an early age. European made-for-TV movies and shows started to dot her resume by the time she was eleven years old, but it was a stroke of luck that helped her along the way.

Thanks to hard work and a striking resemblance to Natalie Portman, Knightley was cast as Portman's handmaiden in Star Wars: Episode 1 - The Phantom Menace. Her small performance turned out to be very memorable, making audiences in both the UK and the U.S. take notice. After the release of the film in 1999, Knightley portrayed Rose Fleming in an Oliver Twist TV miniseries .

After Star Wars and Oliver Twist, things only improved. In 2001, she starred in the successful British film The Hole, and spent three months in Slovakia and Prague filming a 2002 TV version of Dr. Zhivago, in which she played Lara. All this came before her 18th birthday. But it was her other project in 2002 that became her breakthrough role. Keira starred in Bend It Like Beckham, a hugely popular British comedy whose unexpected success has been likened to that of My Big Fat Greek Wedding. No longer an underground hit, the film made it big in American box offices.

The summer of 2003 ushered in the release of the blockbuster Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, with Keira as the romantic lead alongside Johnny Depp and Orlando Bloom. A number of upcoming movies with high profiles will mean that Keira will be stealing the spotlight for some time to come.

• Daughter of actor Will Knightley.
• Member of the Heathham House Youth Project.
• Mother is actress-turned-author Sharman Macdonald, who wrote 'I used to scream and shout' and 'The Winter's Tale'
• One brother, Caleb, born in 1979.
• Trained in dancing.
• The similarity between her and Natalie Portman, meant that during the filming of Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999), their own mothers could not tell them apart once in makeup.
• Her role as the decoy queen in Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999) was kept secret in order to not spoil the surprise, it was maintained through the promotions that Portman played both the Queen and the decoy.
• Supports West Ham United
• Mother is actress-turned-author Sharman Macdonald, who wrote 'When I Was A Girl I Used To Scream And Shout' and 'The Winter Guest'
• Tatler announced that Keira is the most desirable single woman in Britain (2004)
• Has dyslexia. She had to wear special glasses in adolescence to help her read.