In the early 2000s, you would have been hard pressed not to find Keira Knightley in a movie or on the cover of a magazine.
After bursting on to movie screens as the star of the surprise hit film Bend it Like Beckham, she followed this with roles in Love Actually and the Pirates of the Caribbean film franchise.
A string of movies followed before Knightley took a back seat from the spotlight.
Now, the star looks set to reprise the role that made her a household name, with the director of Bend it Like Beckham confirming this week a sequel is in the works.
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Knightley was born on March 26, 1985, in London to parents Will Knightley, an actor who co-founded London's Half Moon Theatre Company, and Sharman Macdonald, an actor and playwright.
She has an older brother Caleb, a composer.
Knightley showed an interest in acting early, and at six demanded her parents get her an agent.
At eight, she scored her first credited TV role in the series Screen One. This was followed by roles in The Bill and TV shows, a mini-series and movies. She also appeared in one of her mother's plays, After Juliet.

Her breakthrough came when she secured the role of Sabé, Padmé Amidala's handmaiden and decoy in the 1999 film Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace.
Her first starring role was in the 2001 Disney film Princess of Thieves, before she played one of four friends trapped underground in the film, The Hole.
But it was her role in the 2002 hit film Bend it Like Beckham that put Knightley on the map.
The film was a surprise hit, grossing $120 million. Knightley was just 16 when she was thrust into stardom.
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During a 2023 on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, she said neither she nor her friends expected it to be the giant hit it was.
"I literally remember telling people I was doing it and it's called Bend it Like Beckham and them going, 'Oh that's really embarrassing'," she said
"And they were all like, 'Don't worry. Nobody will see it. It's fine'."
Next, Knightley appeared in two of the biggest films of 2003.
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She was cast as Elizabeth Swann in Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, and was part of the ensemble cast of Love Actually, where she played Juliet.
The opening scenes of the film saw her character Juliet marrying Peter.
It later emerges that his best friend Mark is in love with her, leading to one of the film's most iconic scenes, when Mark arrives at the couple's door on Christmas Eve to profess his love using cue cards.

In a December 2024 interview with the Los Angeles Times, admitted the scene had a "slightly stalkerish aspect of it".
She recalled the film's director Richard Curtis pulling her up for looking at the character of Mark "like he's creepy".
"And I'm like, 'But it is quite creepy' and then having to redo it to fix my face to make him seem not creepy."
She said the fact she was only 17 when the scene was filmed (her character was meant to be 24), added to the "creep factor".

Knightley's star continued to rise over the next few years, with starring roles in a numerous films, including many period dramas.
Her role in 2005's Pride & Prejudice saw her become the third youngest actress in history to be nominated for an Oscar for Best Actress in a Leading Role.
"It's very brutal to have your privacy taken away in your teenage years ... and to be put under that scrutiny"
She also appeared in King Arthur, Atonement, Silk, The Duchess and two more Pirates of the Caribbean films.
But as her star rose, Knightley's mental health suffered.

In 2018, she revealed she suffered a mental breakdown and was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder at 22.
She has since blamed the extreme media interest in her life, and her weight – headlines screamed that she had an eating disorder – something she has always denied.
She underwent treatment, including hypnotherapy to prevent panic attacks, so she could attend the 2008 BAFTA awards.
She told the Los Angeles Times in 2024, "It's very brutal to have your privacy taken away in your teenage years, early 20s, and to be put under that scrutiny at a point when you are still growing.
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"I had a five-year period between the age of 17 and 21-ish, and I'm never going to have that kind of success again. It totally set me up for life.
"Did it come at a cost? Yes, it did. It came at a big cost."
But set her up for life it did, with Knightley now reported to have a net worth of about $120 million.
In the years that followed, Knightley stepped away from roles in mega films such as Pirates for more period dramas, a musical, 2013's Begin Again, and even the 2014 thriller, Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit.
She received praise and Best Actress in a Supporting Role nominations at the Oscars, BAFTAs and Golden Globes for the 2014 World War II drama The Imitation Game.
In early 2011, Knightley began dating musician James Righton, then of the band Klaxons.

They married two years later in France, and welcomed their first of two daughters, Edie, in 2015.
Over the next two years, she starred in only two movies, Everest and Collateral Beauty. She won praise for her role in the 2018 film Colette.
In 2019 she welcomed her second daughter, Delilah.
Since then, she has been more choosy about her roles. She appeared as the reporter who broke the Boston Strangler story and narrated 60 episodes of the children's TV series The Sound Collector.

Most recently, she starred in the Netflix mystery/thriller TV series Black Doves, where she played the posh wife of a politician who is also an undercover assassin.
She told the Los Angeles Times her "teenage self" would be thrilled with the role after year of heavier subject matter. It also allowed her to film close to home.
She told The Times last year, "I couldn't go job to job [abroad] now. It wouldn't be in any way fair on them, and I wouldn't want to.
"I've chosen to have children; I want to bring them up, so I've had to take a major step back."
Knightley has been all about keeping it real when it comes to motherhood.
Shortly after welcoming Edie, she wrote an essay in which she criticised the motherhood myth that saw Catherine, the Princess of Wales, pose on the steps of the Lindo Wing just hours after giving birth.

"We stand and watch the TV screen. She [Kate] was out of hospital seven hours later with her face made up and high heels on," she wrote.
"Look stylish, don't show your battleground, Kate. Seven hours after your fight with life and death, seven hours after your body breaks open, and bloody, screaming life comes out. Don't show. Don't tell."
She later denied her comments were meant to shame the princess, but instead, were about how mothers were perceived.
It seems there are no hard feelings.

In recent weeks, Knightley, 40, has re-emerged into the limelight, with an appearance in the Royal Box at Wimbledon's final day of play – on the same day the Prince and Princess of Wales were there with two of their children.
She was also spotted at Paris Fashion Week, attending both events with Righton, to whom she has now been married for 12 years.
And it may soon be a full-circle moment for Knightley, with Bend it Like Beckham director Gurinder Chadha announcing this week she is working on a sequel to the movie and wants the original stars to appear.
She said the film was already slated for a 2027 release to coincide with the 25th anniversary of the original film and the FIFA Women's World Cup in Brazil.
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Title: 'It came at a big cost': Keira Knightley was riding a career wave when she all but disappeared
Sourced From: celebrity.nine.com.au/latest/keira-knightley-what-happened-what-is-she-doing-now-explainer/de15c601-217e-4221-ab3b-39c5076190ff
Published Date: Fri, 01 Aug 2025 02:08:00 GMT