Keira Knightley defiantly declared herself a ‘nepo baby’ this week after she insisted she doesn’t get ‘annoyed’ at the expression.
The Hollywood actress, 40, hails from a family of creatives as the daughter of playwright and screenwriter Sharman MacDonald and stage actor Will Knightley.
From a young child Keira wished to follow in her parents footsteps and requested an agent when she was just three years old.
She previously revealed that after struggling with dyslexia following a diagnosis at six years old, her parents let her begin acting at 11.
She told the Independent. ‘I’m a slow reader. I always loved words, which is a strange thing given that I couldn’t actually read them. By the time I was 11, they deemed me to have got over it sufficiently.’
After a number of small roles she landed her first big gig as Sabé in Star Wars: Episode I — The Phantom Menace which was released in 1999.
Now, with roles in Pirates Of The Caribbean, Love Actually, The Imitation Game and Pride And Prejudice, she is a firm household name.
But who were her parents behind the star?
Keira Knightley hails from a family of creatives as the daughter of playwright and screenwriter Sharman MacDonald (L) and stage actor Will Knightley (R)
From a young child Keira wished to follow in her parents footsteps and requested an agent when she was just three years old (pictured in 1998 aged 13)
Keira’s mother, actress and playwright Sharman Macdonald
Raised in Scotland, Keira’s mum Sharman – maiden name Macdonald – set her sights on London soon after finishing up at the University of Edinburgh.
She enjoyed seven years of TV work during the 1970s and 1980s, appearing in the likes of prison drama Within These Walls and BBC drama Second City Firsts.
But her acting career was cut short due to her extreme stage fright.
Still set on fulfilling a career in the creative industry, Sharman turned her attention to writing.
Her first play, When I Was a Girl, I Used to Scream and Shout, was put on at the Bush Theatre in 1984. The play won her the Evening Standard Award for most promising playwright.
She previously said of the themes in the play: ‘It’s the result of a bet, this writing life. I was desperate for a second child. Desperate never to act again. Most of all desperate to stop eating lentils, French bread and tomatoes.
‘We were broke, Will and me. We had one child. My hormones were screaming at me to have another. So, Will bet me a child for the sale of a script.’
The play went on to be picked up by one of the country’s finest actors, Alan Rickman, who was working as a reader at the time.
Flicking through piles of scripts, Alan loved the play and told Bush Theatre they should put it on.
Clearly a fan of Sharman’s work, Alan later directed a film adaptation of another of her plays: The Winter Guest.
Her most recent piece of work was the 2008 film The Edge Of Love – which of course starred her daughter Keira.
Her first play, When I Was a Girl, I Used to Scream and Shout, was put on at the Bush Theatre in 1984. The play won her the Evening Standard Award for most promising playwright (pictured in 1987)
She also enjoyed seven years of TV work during the 1970s and 1980s, appearing in the likes of prison drama Within These Walls and BBC drama Second City Firsts
Keira’s father, actor Will Knightley
Meanwhile her father Will Knightley, 79, found fame on the small screen appearing in guest roles on TV shows The Bill, A Touch of Frost and Midsomer Murders.
As well as starring in a variety of adverts before appearing in BBC drama A Short Stay in Switzerland as Dr Jack Turner in 2009.
His biggest roles are likely a guest appearance in the 1995 series Cracker, which starred the late Robbie Coltrane, and his role as Doctor Mortimer in Sherlock Holmes mini series the Hound Of The Baskervilles (1982).
Will, who is a founding member of London’s Half Moon Theatre in London, has also worked on over 14 stage performances including in Calendar Girls, Flight Path and pantomime Cinderella.
Most recently the star portrayed Henry Summerhayes in EastEnders in 2014 for just one episode – but it is unknown of further projects since or if he has retired from the industry.
Despite regular small TV roles, the family weren’t extremely wealthy and Will is said to have told his wife Sharman they could only have another child if she sold another of her scripts.
Despite regular small TV roles, the family weren’t extremely wealthy and Will is said to have told his wife Sharman they could only have another child if she sold another of her scripts (pictured together with Kiera’s husband James Righton in 2018)
Meanwhile her father Will Knightley, 79, found fame on the small screen appearing in guest roles on TV shows The Bill, A Touch of Frost and Midsomer Murders (pictured in 2007)
Keira’s brother, composer Caleb Knightley
Moving away from the world of acting, Caleb Knightley – the lookalike brother of Keira – still kept a link to the world of screen.
The composer and sound engineer used to live with his famous sister in a flat in Hyde Park.
He has kept himself out of the spotlight, but he did accompany his sister to the UK premiere of Pride & Prejudice in 2005 and in 2006 joined her at the Vanity Fair Oscar Party in LA.
Among Caleb’s works include writing the scores for the 2010 short film Steve, starring Colin Firth, gothic fairytale The Continuing and Lamentable Saga of the Suicide Brothers (2009) and 2010 short film Come Here Today.
Caleb has been married to fellow composer Kerry Nixon since 2011.
Moving away from the world of acting, Caleb Knightley – the lookalike brother of Keira – still kept a link to the world of screen as a composer and sound engineer (pictured with his mum in 1985)
He has kept himself out of the spotlight, but he did accompany his sister to the UK premiere of Pride & Prejudice in 2005 and in 2006 joined her at the Vanity Fair Oscar Party in LA (pictured)
Keira’s childhood
The star has credited her famous parents for giving her the ‘connections’ at the beginning of her career and still has the same agent she started out with who was her mum’s best friend.
However it wasn’t an easy path to acting after she struggled with reading and writing at school after being diagnosed with dyslexia when she was six years old.
Keira’s parents threatened to ban her from the stage if she didn’t work extra hard to overcome the learning disability.
Speaking to John Wilson on Radio 4’s Front Row programme back in 2014, Lily explained that her favourite primary school teacher told her parents to find a ‘carrot’ to dangle in front of her – and they settled upon her passion for acting.
Keira said: ‘If I dropped a grade, I wasn’t allowed to [act], if I didn’t behave at school, I wasn’t allowed to do it, if I didn’t improve with reading, I wasn’t allowed to do it.
‘It was used like that to get me through it – and I definitely did it.’
Speaking about her road to success back in 2019 in an interview with The Talks she confessed: ‘I’ve never had an acting class. My plan was to go to drama school and I suddenly got all these jobs.
‘I never went to drama school, I’ve never had a teacher. I knew that I didn’t know what I was doing. I had my instincts, I knew sometimes I was good, I knew sometimes I was bad — I had no idea why. I think it did make me feel very insecure.
‘Would I have felt less insecure being that famous but having had that background? I think I would have been treated slightly differently if I’d come straight out of a reputable drama school or if I’d come out of university.’
Keira’s parents threatened to ban her from the stage if she didn’t work extra hard to overcome the learning disability (pictured with her friends in her Teddington School yearbook in 1996)
![Keira said: 'If I dropped a grade, I wasn't allowed to [act], if I didn't behave at school, I wasn't allowed to do it, if I didn't improve with reading, I wasn't allowed to do it' (the family pictured at a pre-Oscar party in 2006)](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2025/10/30/07/103420065-15239151-Keira_said_If_I_dropped_a_grade_I_wasn_t_allowed_to_act_if_I_did-a-6_1761808460925.jpg)
Keira said: ‘If I dropped a grade, I wasn’t allowed to [act], if I didn’t behave at school, I wasn’t allowed to do it, if I didn’t improve with reading, I wasn’t allowed to do it’ (the family pictured at a pre-Oscar party in 2006)
A self-proclaimed ‘nepo baby’
Keira admitted she isn’t annoyed at the ‘nepo baby’ label during her interview on Giovanna Fletcher’s Happy Mum Happy Baby podcast this week.
Keira said: ‘I don’t know about annoyed, I think I am a nepo baby. I mean my first proper agent was because she was my mum’s best mate, and she’s still my agent today.
‘So, I mean, I think it is true that there are connections that are made, and it’s true that within creative families, you know, a lot of the actors I know, it is generational.
‘And I think partly that is because it is a lifestyle, it’s a way of life that is quite other from a 9-to-5 job.’
Speaking about whether she wants her children to pick the same career and have a nepo baby title, she said: ‘My children, neither of them are showing any interest whatsoever, but if that’s what they choose to do, then that’s what they’ll have to deal with.
‘And I’m sure they’ll have an answer to it. Ultimately, with every job, no matter what it is, you might have help through the door, which is not nothing. But unless you bring the goods, you’re going to be chucked out very quickly.’
Keira admitted she isn’t annoyed at the ‘nepo baby’ label during her interview on Giovanna Fletcher’s Happy Mum Happy Baby podcast this week
