By 3 years old, Keira Knightley had decided to become an actress and she demanded an agent. It took another three years to get one, but 20 years later, her one-track mind has netted her an Oscar nomination and a spot as one of filmdom's highest-paid women.
Keira Knightley's big-budget debut came in 1999's Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace as Natalie Portman's decoy, but her role in Bend It Like Beckham won her much respect. Since then, blockbusters like the Pirates of the Caribbean have been balanced with critical favorites like Pride and Prejudice. Keira Knightley was nominated for an Oscar for her work in Pride and Prejudice, and her two performances in 2008 have won similar praise. First there was The Edge of Love, based on a screenplay by her mom, Sharman Macdonald, and then there was The Duchess, in which she played the Duchess of Devonshire.
Acting aside, Keira Knightley is also a total knockout. She topped the list of 2007 beauty icons by UK chain Superdrug, and she’ll continue her hallucinatory effects on the male libido in the 2009 film Last Night, with Sam Worthington and Eva Mendes.