Watts, Naomi, 1968-

Naomi Ellen Watts (born 28 September 1968) is a British actress. Known for her work predominantly in independent films, she has received various accolades, including an Actor Award, a Critics' Choice Award and two Saturn Awards as well as nominations for two Academy Awards, a Primetime Emmy Award, and two Golden Globe Awards. After her family moved to Australia, Watts made her film debut there in the drama For Love Alone (1986). She appeared in three television series, Hey Dad..! (1990), Brides of Christ (1991), and Home and Away (1991), and the film Flirting (1991). Ten years later, Watts moved to the United States, where she initially struggled as an actress. After appearing in a number of small-scale productions, she received the breakthrough role of an aspiring actress in David Lynch's mystery film Mulholland Drive (2001), which brought her to international attention. Watts played a tormented journalist in the horror remake The Ring (2002). For playing a grief-stricken mother in Alejandro González Iñárritu's 21 Grams (2003) and Maria Bennett in the disaster film The Impossible (2012), she received nominations for the Academy Award for Best Actress. Watts' other film credits include starring roles in I Heart Huckabees (2004), King Kong (2005), Eastern Promises (2007), The International (2009), Birdman (2014), St. Vincent (2014), While We're Young (2015), The Glass Castle (2017), and Luce (2019). She also appeared in the Divergent franchise (2015–2016). Watts ventured into television with the third season of Lynch's mystery series Twin Peaks (2017) and the biographical miniseries The Loudest Voice (2019). She then starred in the Netflix thriller series The Watcher (2022), the FX anthology series Feud: Capote vs. The Swans (2024) and the Hulu legal drama series All's Fair (2025–present). For her portrayal of Babe Paley in Feud, she received a nomination for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie. Her advocacy includes ambassadorships in the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS and Pantene's Beautiful Lengths. Separated from actor Liev Schreiber, with whom she shares two children, Watts married actor Billy Crudup in 2023.