Keira Knightley

With an actor father and a playwright mother, it's no wonder this British beauty decided on a showbiz career. Knightley landed her first professional gig at age 8 and tackled a handful of British film and TV projects throughout the '90s. A small part as Natalie Portman's decoy in Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace won her attention, but her breakthrough came in 2003 when she appeared in the soccer movie Bend It Like Beckham. Later that year her talent for playing headstrong women (and her athletic figure) were put to excellent use in the adventure film Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, which turned her into an international star; she also appeared in two popular sequels. Adept at multiple genres, Knightley effortlessly moved from action flicks (Domino) to romantic comedies (Love Actually) to dramas, like 2005's Pride & Prejudice, which earned her Oscar and Golden Globe nods before she even hit 21, and her performance in the tragic, memorable 2007 film Atonement also yielded critical praise. Pride & Prejudice, though, yielded a bit more, as the film also snagged her a boyfriend, costar Rupert Friend. She also became involved in the late 2000s in such causes as the work of Amnesty International and efforts to combat domestic abuse.  ~ Rovi