Keira Knightley
Keira Knightley's playwright mom and stage actor father both had agents, which lead her to believe at 3 that she should have one too. They made her wait until she was 6, allowing her to dabble in mostly TV movies until she went full-time in 1999 as a handmaiden who poses as Queen Amidala in Star Wars: The Phantom Menace. She wouldn't play second fiddle for long. Her time spent in a sports bra for Bend It Like Beckham in 2001 led to her earning her sea legs in 2003's Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, which takes in more than $650 million at the box office, and shedding her corset for a nude scene in PBS' 2003 version of Doctor Zhivago. Perhaps because of her porcelain skin, excellent posture or ability to perfect accents, she has become a go-to girl for period pieces (King Arthur, Anna Karenina) and earned awards show attention for two such films 2005's Pride & Prejudice (Oscar nomination) and 2007's Atonement (Golden Globe nomination). But it hasn't stopped her from trying out other genres like comedy (Love Actually, Seeking A Friend For The End Of The World), action (Domino) or fantasy (Tinker Bell in Neverland!). She took over for Kate Moss as the face of Coco Mademoiselle, modeled for Chanel and wowed audience on West End (The Misanthrope in 2009). Currently engaged to Klaxons keyboardist James Righton, she previously dated model Jamie Dornan, whom she met at a photo shoot in 2003, and Rupert Friend, the Mr. Wickham to her Elizabeth Bennett from 2006 to 2011.
