Keira Knightley Nude

Keira Christina Knightley OBE is an English actress and model who rose to international prominence in 2002 after co-starring in the films Bend It Like Beckham and Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl. Knightley has since appeared in several Hollywood films and earned nominations for the Academy Award for Best Actress and Golden Globe Award for Best Actress for her role as Elizabeth Bennet in Joe Wright's 2005 adaptation of Jane Austen's novel Pride and Prejudice. Two years later, she was again 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. In 2008, Forbes reported that Knightley was the second highest paid actress in Hollywood, having reportedly earned $32 million in 2007. <br/><br/> Knightley was born in Teddington, within the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, to theatre actors Sharman Macdonald and Will Knightley. Her mother is Scottish and her father is English. She was meant to be named "Kiera", the anglicized form of "Kira", after Kira Ivanova, whom her father admired. However, Macdonald misspelled the name when she went to register her daughter, writing the letter "e" before the "i". Macdonald also worked as a playwright after her career as an actress came to an end. She introduced her children to theatre and ballet at an early age, which furthered Knightley's interest in acting. At the age of three, she requested an agent and took a number of small parts in TV dramas throughout her childhood. <br/><br/> Knightley attended Teddington School and was diagnosed with dyslexia at the age of six. With her parents' support, she was deemed to have overcome it sufficiently by the time she was eleven. She is still a slow reader and cannot read out loud. Knightley said she was "single-minded about acting" during her childhood. She focused on art, history, and English literature while studying at the Esher College, but left after a year to pursue an acting career.