# What are the best Keira Knightley performances of all time?

> Corsets to car chases, Austen to the Blitz — Knightley has built a career navigating period drama and modern thriller with equal elegance and conviction. Which performance is her crowning achievement?

*By YPB Team · Published April 11, 2026 · https://youpick.best/ranking/what-are-the-best-keira-knightley-performances-of-all-time*

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## Current results (no votes yet)

1. **Pride & Prejudice (2005)**
   Knightley earned an Oscar nomination for her spirited, luminous Elizabeth Bennet — arguably the definitive screen incarnation of Austen's beloved heroine.
2. **Atonement (2007)**
   Knightley is heartbreaking as Cecilia Tallis, a woman separated from the man she loves by her sister's false accusation in Joe Wright's wartime romance.
3. **Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003)**
   Knightley plays Elizabeth Swann — resourceful, fearless, and surprisingly handy with a sword — in the swashbuckling adventure that made her a star.
4. **The Imitation Game (2014)**
   Knightley plays Joan Clarke, the brilliant cryptanalyst and Alan Turing's closest friend, navigating a world that refuses to acknowledge her genius.
5. **Love Actually (2003)**
   Knightley plays Juliet, the beautiful bride in one of the film's most iconic storylines, opposite Andrew Lincoln's secretly lovestruck best man.
6. **Bend It Like Beckham (2002)**
   Knightley plays Jules, a passionate footballer who defies family expectations to pursue the beautiful game alongside her Indian-British best friend.
7. **The Duchess (2008)**
   Knightley plays Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire — a celebrated Georgian socialite trapped in a loveless political marriage — in this lavish historical drama.
8. **Never Let Me Go (2010)**
   Knightley plays Ruth, one of three friends raised as organ donors, navigating jealousy, love, and an unbearable fate in this devastating sci-fi drama.
9. **Anna Karenina (2012)**
   Knightley brings fierce passion and tragic grandeur to Tolstoy's doomed aristocratic heroine in Joe Wright's boldly stylized adaptation.
10. **A Dangerous Method (2011)**
   Knightley plays Sabina Spielrein — Freud's patient, Jung's lover, and a pioneering psychoanalyst — in Cronenberg's intellectually charged period film.
11. **Begin Again (2013)**
   Knightley plays a singer-songwriter who finds artistic rebirth with a down-and-out music producer in this warmhearted New York musical drama.
12. **Official Secrets (2019)**
   Knightley plays real-life GCHQ whistleblower Katharine Gun, who leaked classified information to expose the illegal surveillance of UN diplomats before the Iraq War.

Tags: movies, actors, performances, keira knightley