Keira Knightley's Real Name: Keira Christina Knightley

Quick answer: Keira Knightley's full name is Keira Christina Knightley. Britannica and a Library of Congress name record both give that name and agree she was born March 26, 1985, in Teddington, Middlesex, England. She is best known as Elizabeth Swann in Pirates of the Caribbean and for Oscar-nominated roles in Pride & Prejudice and The Imitation Game (Britannica; LOC).

Real name and early life

Britannica says Knightley is the younger of two children of Will Knightley and Sharman Macdonald. Both parents acted, and her mother was also a playwright and novelist. Her older brother, Caleb, went on to compose music for films. She knew from a very young age that she wanted to act, and at six her parents helped her get an agent.

She made her TV debut in an episode of Screen One in 1993 and her film debut in Innocent Lies two years later. Britannica says she struggled at school with dyslexia and worked through it partly by reading books and screenplays. She enrolled at Esher College in Surrey but left in her first year to act full-time.

Career highlights

At 12 she was cast as Sabé, Queen Amidala's decoy, in Star Wars: Episode I—The Phantom Menace (1999). Her British breakthrough was Bend It Like Beckham (2002), as football-mad Jules. Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003) made her a global star, and she returned as Elizabeth Swann in Dead Man's Chest, At World's End, and Dead Men Tell No Tales.

She also appeared in Love Actually (2003) and King Arthur (2004). Joe Wright's Pride & Prejudice (2005) brought her Oscar and Golden Globe nominations for best actress, and she worked with Wright again on Atonement (2007) and Anna Karenina (2012). Her other films include The Duchess, Never Let Me Go, Begin Again, and Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit (2014), with Chris Pine. She earned a second Oscar nomination as cryptanalyst Joan Clarke in The Imitation Game (2014). Later work includes Colette (2018), Boston Strangler (2023), and the spy series Black Doves (2024), which earned her a Golden Globe nomination.

On stage, she drew an Olivier nomination for The Misanthrope (2009) and made her Broadway debut in Thérèse Raquin (2015–16). In 2006 she became the face of Chanel's Coco Mademoiselle fragrance. She married musician James Righton in 2013, and they have two daughters, Edie and Delilah.

Name notes for searchers

Keira is her first name, Christina her middle name, and Knightley her father's surname. The Library of Congress notes she is "sometimes credited as Kiera Knightley," and lists that spelling as a variant. "Keira" is the correct spelling of her name.