Naomi Watts

Naomi Watts was born in Shoreham, Kent, England, and lived there until the age of eight. Her parents Pete (sound engineer for Pink Floyd and the source of the manic laugh in The Dark Side of the Moon) and Myfanwy Watts, separated when she was four years old, and when she was seven, her father died.... More

Naomi Watts was born in Shoreham, Kent, England, and lived there until the age of eight. Her parents Pete (sound engineer for Pink Floyd and the source of the manic laugh in The Dark Side of the Moon) and Myfanwy Watts, separated when she was four years old, and when she was seven, her father died. Following her father's death, Myfanwy moved Naomi and her brother to the town on Llangefni, close to their grandparents. Watts lived there until she was 14, when the family was relocated to Australia after her mother was convinced that it was the land of opportunities after a trip there.

 

In Sydney, Naomi attended several acting schools, where she met her still-friend Nicole Kidman. In 1986 however, she took a break from acting to work as a model in Japan, which proved fruitless because she did not have the physical requirements for a runway model. Her career actually began in Australian television, where Watts appeared in commercials and TV melodramas such as Home and Away. She was featured in a supporting role in the acclaimed 1991 Australian film Flirting, which starred Nicole Kidman and Thandie Newton. As Watts made the transition from Australia to the United States, she landed a supporting role in the cult film Tank Girl.

 

It wasn't until 2001, when Watts performed in David Lynch's highly acclaimed Mulholland Drive that her name became well-known. For the film she won the National Society of Film Critics Award as Best Actress and the National Board of Review award as Breakthrough Performance of the year. Then in 2002 she starred in one of the biggest box office hits of that year, the English language remake of the Japanese horror film, The Ring. It was her performance opposite Sean Penn and Benicio del Toro in 21 Grams that earned Watts her first Academy Award nomination as Best Actress. Her most commercial film yet was 2005's King Kong, which won high praise and grossed $550 million worldwide.

In May 2006, Watts was named a special representative to the U.N. program from H.I.V./AIDS.