As far as actresses go, Naomi Watts occupies a unique niche. She’s appeared in blockbusters like The Ring (2002) and King Kong (2005), but got her start in indie dramas (which she continues to appear in). Her early life was similarly unconventional. Naomi’s mother Myfanwy was an antiques deal and costume/set designer, while her father Peter was a road manager and sound engineer for Pink Floyd. The couple separated when Naomi was four, and Naomi, her mother, and her brother Ben moved to North Wales to live with her grandparents. In 1982, when Naomi was 14, the family moved to Australia.Watts decided to become an actress after seeing the hit 1980 film Fame. Before she achieved this, she would meet Nicole Kidman at North Sydney Girls’ High School, have an unsuccessful modeling career in Japan, and work as an assistant fashion editor at an Australian magazine. Her early acting work was mainly in television, although in 1986 she appeared in the films For Love Alone and The Custodian. She also appeared in the soap opera Home and Away and had her first major role in the 1991 miniseries Brides of Christ as a student at a convent school.In 1991, Watts also had her first major film appearance in the high school romance Flirting. This well-received indie drama also featured Noah Parker, Thandi Newton, and Nicole Kidman. Two years later, she played “a character in a film within a film” in the satiric comedy Matinee, starring John Goodman. She also appeared in the bizarre comic adaptation Tank Girl (1995), the horror film Children of the Corn IV: The Gathering (1996), and the romantic drama Under the Lighthouse Dancing (1997).The actress first came to widespread attention when she appeared in the difficult role of Betty Elms in David Lynch’s surreal neo-noir Mulholland Drive (2001). This role brought her a number of awards, including the Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Best Actress, the Las Vegas Film Critics Society Award for Best Actress, and the National Board of Review for Best Breakthrough Performance by an Actress. This last may have been difficult to swallow for an actress who had been active for fifteen years, but Watts bore it all with grace and continued to appear in fascinatingly diverse films, including three in 2003: Ned Kelly, Le Divorce, and 21 Grams. Her performance in the last gained her another round of awards.In 2010, Watts again appeared in three films: Mother and Child, You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger, and Fair Game. She also appears in the 2011 horror film Dream House along with Daniel Craig and Rachel Weisz. Outside of the movies, Watts spends her time with partner Liev Schreiber, to whom she’s been attached since 2005. The couple has two children.