- Daughter of actor Will Knightley & actress turned playwright Sharman Macdonald.

- Member of the Heathham House Youth Project.

- Trained in dancing.

- The similarity between Knightley and Natalie Portman meant that during the filming of Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace (1999), their own mothers could not tell them apart once in makeup.

- Her role as the decoy queen in Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace (1999) was kept secret in order to not spoil the surprise, it was maintained through the promotions that Portman played both the Queen and the decoy.

- Tatler announced that Keira is the most desirable single woman in the UK (2004).

- Has dyslexia. She had to wear special glasses in adolescence to help her read.

- Glamour magazine’s choice for “Most Glamorous Film Actress” (2004).

- She did her first topless scene at the age of 15, in The Hole (2001), whilst the film was released in 2001 it was filmed in 2000. For legal reasons due to her age her mother had to agree and the set was closed.

- Auditioned for, and was accepted to the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA) in London, England.

- At 16, she went to Esher College to study for her A Levels, but quit the course when offered the role of Lara in Doctor Zhivago (2002) (TV).

- Credits her dark looks to her mother’s Black Scottish heritage, who were descendants of the Spanish Armada.

- When auditioning for the role of Jackie Price in The Jacket (2005), she had suffered food poisoning a few days earlier. She decided to audition anyway and the film makers liked her “acting” for the scene, as Jackie Price was to be a woman with many issues of loss and pain as well as being physically sick in general.

- At age 20, she was the third-youngest woman in Oscar history to be nominated for Best Actress.

- Loves to collect shoes.

- Employed a stylist to dress her for premieres and award ceremonies. The stylist also dresses Lindsay Lohan and Nicole Kidman.

- Trained four days a week for three months in preparation for King Arthur (2004). She did about two hours of weight lifting, and then three hours either boxing, fighting, or horseback riding. – Cosmopolitan, August 2004.

- Said auditioning for the role of Christine in The Phantom of the Opera (2004) was the singularly most embarrassing moment of her life because “I knew I couldn’t sing it.” The role eventually went to trained opera singer Emmy Rossum. – Marie Claire 2005.

- Was originally cast as Mary Boleyn in The Other Boleyn Girl (2008), but dropped out before filming began and Scarlett Johansson was subsequently cast instead.

- Was originally cast as Eliza Doolittle in My Fair Lady (2012), but later dropped out of the project. Carey Mulligan was then cast instead.