NAOMI WATTS
Date of Birth: September 28, 1968
Born in Shoreham, England, Watts moved to Australia when she was 14 years old. Watts acquired the acting bug at an early age while watching her stage actress mother perform. Naomi subsequently started acting in school plays.
Following school, Watts worked as assistant fashion editor at a fashion magazine in Sydney and began taking acting lessons at The Actor's Center on the side. Although she had landed a couple of small roles on the large and small screens, her first noticed role was in the Aussie flick, Flirting (1991), starring Nicole Kidman and Thandie Newton.
Inspired by Kidman's success in Hollywood, Watts ventured to the States to
make her fortune, but her dreams were cut short with parts in films that
ranged from being largely ignored by the viewing public like Gross
Misconduct (1993), to the big budget bomb, Tank Girl (1995).
With a film career that was going nowhere fast, she took refuge in
television films like Sleepwalkers and Children of the Corn IV. She
returned to features in the late '90s, landing a supporting role in the
well-received drama Dangerous Beauty. Her luck continued with a
strong performance in the telefilm, The Hunt for the Unicorn Killer
in 1999, and a multi-award winning performance in David Lynch's
telefilm-turned-feature Mulholland Dr. (2001). In 2004, she received a big career boost when she was nominated for an Oscar for her leading role in 21 Grams (2003).
Watts, a vegetarian, currently resides in Los Angeles. She was dating fellow Australian Heath Ledger since 2002 but they broke up in May 2004. She and current boyfriend, Liev Schreiber, have two sons together.