Naomi Watts (b. 1968), actress, was born in England and came to Australia from Wales at the age of fourteen. Having made a promising start to her career here – in Brides of Christ (1991) and Gross Misconduct (1993) – she settled in Hollywood. There she suffered a well-documented period of obscurity, failed auditions and regrettable ventures including the big-screen flop Tank Girl, the telemovie Children of the Corn IV and the swiftly-axed Sleepwalkers. Her break came with a mesmerising performance in David Lynch's Mulholland Drive (2001). After appearing in the highly diverse The Ring (2002), Le Divorce (2003) and Ned Kelly (2003), she became the first actress to be nominated for a Golden Globe, a BAFTA award and an Academy Award in the same year, for 21 Grams (2003). She won the Golden Globe. The Ring 2 was followed by King Kong (2005), the lavish period drama The Painted Veil (2006), which she produced with co-star Edward Norton, Funny Games (2008) and The Impossible (2012), for which she received her second Academy Award nomination, for Best Supporting Actress. These were followed by roles in Adore (2013), Birdman (2014), which won the Academy Award for Best Picture, St Vincent (2014), While We're Young (2014) and Ophelia (2018). In 2020 she starred in and co-produced Penguin Bloom. Away from her film roles, Watts has been a brand ambassador for the Thierry Mugler perfume Angel, Sportscraft, L'Oreal Paris and Bulgari.
