Early life

Williams was born in north London. Both of her parents are barristers. Williams was educated at South Hampstead High School, an independent school for girls in Hampstead in north London, followed by Newnham College at the University of Cambridge, from which she graduated with a degree in English literature. She then studied drama at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School for two years and spent three years at the Royal Shakespeare Company.

Career

After graduation, Williams worked with the Royal Shakespeare Company in both Stratford-upon-Avon and London. In 1995, she toured the United States in a production of Shakespeare's Richard III starring Ian McKellen. Her first significant appearance before the cameras was as Jane Fairfax in the British TV film Emma (1996), based on Jane Austen's 1816 novel.

Williams made her film debut in 1997's The Postman, after doing a screen test for Kevin Costner. She later won the lead role of Rosemary Cross in Wes Anderson's Rushmore (1998). She then starred as Bruce Willis' wife in the blockbuster The Sixth Sense (1999), a film she would later parody during her brief appearance in the British sitcom Spaced. Since then, Williams has appeared in several British films, including Lucky Break (2001), The Heart of Me (2002), for which she won the British Independent Film Award for Best Actress, and An Education (2009). She played Mrs. Darling in the 2003 film adaptation of Peter Pan. Williams was uncredited for her role as Dr. Moira MacTaggert in the 2006 film X-Men: The Last Stand.

On TV, Williams portrayed British author Jane Austen in Miss Austen Regrets (2008) and was cast as Adelle DeWitt in Joss Whedon's Dollhouse, which ran on Fox from 2009 to 2010.

In 2010, she won acclaim for her performance as Ruth Lang in Roman Polanski's The Ghost Writer, winning the National Society of Film Critics Award, London Critics Circle Film Award for best supporting actress and was runner-up for best supporting actress at the Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards 2010.

In Hanna (2011), she played Rachel, a bohemian mother travelling across North Africa and Europe, who comes into contact with the eponymous teen assassin, who is on the run. The film starred Saoirse Ronan, Eric Bana and Cate Blanchett, and was a critical and sleeper hit. In 2014, Williams co-starred in David Cronenberg's Maps to the Stars, a dark comic look at Hollywood excess. In 2014 she portrayed Meg Hamilton in the British mystery film Altar.

In 2000, Williams wrote the short story "The Significance Of Hair" for BBC Radio, and read it on the air.

Personal life

Williams had a seven-year relationship and then engagement to the actor Jonathan Cake which ended two weeks before their planned wedding. In 2003, she married the actor and playwright Rhashan Stone, with whom she has two daughters.

After filming The Postman, she spent time in Bolivia studying spectacled bears in the rainforest. Since 2006, she has written occasional travel reports for the "Independent Traveller" section of the British newspaper The Independent on Sunday.

Selected works

Film

Year	Film	Role	Notes
1997	Beck	Karen Quinn
1997	Gaston's War	Nicky
1997	The Postman	Abby
1998	Rushmore	Rosemary Cross
1999	The Sixth Sense	Anna Crowe
2000	Four Dogs Playing Poker	Audrey
2000	Born Romantic	Eleanor
2000	Dead Babies	Diana	aka Mood Swingers
2001	The Body	Sharon Golban
2001	Lucky Break	Annabel Sweep/Lady Hamilton in show
2001	The Man from Elysian Fields	Andrea
2002	The Heart of Me	Madeleine
2002	Below	Claire
2003	To Kill a King	Lady Anne Fairfax
2003	Peter Pan	Mrs. Darling
2005	Valiant	Victoria (voice)
2005	Tara Road	Ria
2005	Mockingbird	Mother
2006	X-Men: The Last Stand	Moira MacTaggert	Uncredited
2008	Flashbacks of a Fool	Grace Scott
2008	Broken Lines	Zoe
2009	An Education	Miss Stubbs
2010	The Ghost Writer	Ruth Lang
2010	Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll	Betty Dury
2011	Collaborator	Emma Stiles
2011	Hanna	Rachel
2011	Wild Bill	Kelly
2012	Anna Karenina	Countess Vronskaya
2012	Now Is Good	Mother
2012	Hyde Park on Hudson	Eleanor Roosevelt
2013	The Last Days on Mars	Kim Aldrich
2013	Justin and the Knights of Valour	Queen (voice)
2014	Sabotage	Investigator Caroline Brentwood
2014	Maps to the Stars	Cristina Weiss
2014	Altar	Meg Hamilton
2015	Seventh Son	Mam Ward
2015	Man Up	Hilary

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1992	Van der Valk	Irene Kortman	1 episode: "Still Waters"
1992	The Ruth Rendell Mysteries	Jennifer Norris	1 episode: "The Speaker of Mandarin"
1996	Emma	Jane Fairfax
1998	Friends	Felicity	2 Episodes
2000	Jason and the Argonauts	Hera
2001	Spaced	Knocked-down Cyclist	1 episode: "Help"
2004	Agatha Christie - A Life in Pictures	Agatha Christie
2006	Krakatoa - The Last Days	Johanna Beijerinck
2007	Damage	Michelle Cahill
2008	Miss Austen Regrets	Jane Austen
2009-2010	Dollhouse	Adelle DeWitt	Series regular; 27 episodes
2010	Terriers	Miriam Foster
2011-2012	Case Sensitive	DS Charlie Zailer
2014	Salting the Battlefield	Belinda Kay
2014-2015	Manhattan	Liza Winter	Series regular; 20 episodes

Theatre

Year	Production	Role	Venue
1995	Richard III
2003	Love's Labour's Lost	The Princess	Olivier Theatre, Royal National Theatre, London
2003	The Hotel in Amsterdam	Annie	Donmar Warehouse, London
2006	The Changeling	Beatrice-Joanna	Cheek by Jowl production at the Barbican Centre, London
2011	In a Forest, Dark and Deep	Betty	Vaudeville Theatre, London
2015	Waste	Amy O'Connell	National Theatre, London

Awards and nominations

• 2001 - Lucky Break

Nominated — Empire Award for Best Actress

• 2002 - The Heart of Me

Won - British Independent Film Award for Best Actress

• 2009 - An Education

Nominated — London Film Critics Circle Award for British Supporting Actress of the Year
Nominated — Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture

• 2010 - The Ghost Writer

Won - London Film Critics Circle Award for British Supporting Actress of the Year
Won - National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Supporting Actress
Nominated — Empire Award for Best Actress
Nominated — Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actress

[ Source: Wikipedia ]