Nationality: British

Height: 5' 8"

Hair: Dark Brown

Eyes: Brown

Born: July, 26 1973 in London, England, UK.

Discovered: With her difficult childhood behind her, which included a bout of anorexia and a smoking habit, Kate made her acting debut in the television movie called One Against the Wind in 1991.

While in her first year at Oxford University, Kate received her big break in Kenneth Branagh's film adaptation of Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing (1993).

After three years at Oxford, Kate decided to leave school to pursue acting full-time. The decision paid off. Kate went on to star in the romance/horror movie Haunted (1995), the comedy Shooting Fish (1997), and became an A-list celelbrity with her starring role in Pearl Harbor.

Resume: Click (2006)

Underworld: Evolution (2006)

The Aviator (2004)

Van Helsing (2004)

Tiptoes (2003)

Underworld (2003/I)

Serendipity (2001)

Pearl Harbor (2001)

The Golden Bowl (2000) Palace (1999)

Alice Through the Looking Glass (1998)

The Last Days of Disco (1998)

Shooting Fish (1997)

Emma (1996)

Haunted (1995)

Prince of Jutland (1994)

Much Ado About Nothing (1993)

Rachel's Dream (1992)

One Against the Wind (1991) (TV)

Romance: Married to director Len Wiseman since May 2004.

Dated Welsh actor Michael Sheen. She has one child from that relationship, a daughter, Lily Sheen.

Quotes: "If someone had told me years ago that sharing a sense of humour was so vital to partnerships, I could have avoided a lot of sex!" - Kate Beckinsale

"No one is more enslaved than a slave who doesn't think they're enslaved." - Kate Beckinsale

"Everybody likes the underdog, because everybody feels like the underdog. No matter how successful you are, you always think, no one's being nice enough to me!" - Kate Beckinsale

"I try and take lots of vitamins and I don't drink. I do smoke, though, I'd be insufferable if I didn't smoke, you'd have to push me off a balcony I'd be so boring." - Kate Beckinsale

"With every project you do, you bring out a part of yourself, and it seems to be quite a good way of expanding a person." - Kate Beckinsale

"Apparently, I get facials and manicures all the time. I read this and think, 'Oh, I wish I did that!' I don't think I've had a facial since I was 19. When I shave my legs, I use my child's shampoo and a razor - if I can find one. If I did everything they said I did, I would never see Lily." - Kate Beckinsale

"I dropped out of Oxford, and now I only speak Russian with the woman who gives me a bikini-wax. See what Hollywood does to you?" - Kate Beckinsale

"I think, at 19, I was very grown-up in certain ways and extremely not so in others. If I had come on to a movie set at that age and someone had said, 'You're a bit funny-looking, can you go on a diet?' - I might have jumped off a building. I just didn't have the confidence to put that into perspective at the time." - Kate Beckinsale

"I look at how Keira Knightley is coiffed when she attends events. I remember going to Cannes with Much Ado About Nothing (1993) when I was 18, and nobody told me, 'Oh, here's a make-up artist or, 'This person wants to dress you, what clothes are you wearing?' It just wasn't like that when I started. Nobody even told me I could bring a friend! I just sort of showed up in a very expensive pair of trousers I bought in Harvey Nichols, and something I bought in the Sock Shop at the airport. But Keira Knightley has like full hair and make-up and a proper outfit and I think, 'Wow, she's not going to have the before photos I had to endure!' She's really lucky." - Kate Beckinsale