Naomi Ellen Watts was born September 28, 1968, and is a British-Australian actress most famous for her roles in the film remakes of The Ring and King Kong, as well as her Academy Award-nominated role in the film 21 Grams. However it wasn't until 2001, when Watts caught the attention of critics and audiences as she appeared in David Lynch's highly acclaimed Mulholland Drive. The film, which premiered at the 2001 Cannes Film Festival, won Watts high praise. She won the National Society of Film Critics Award as Best Actress and the National Board of Review award as Breakthrough Performance of the year. Watts worked with director/screenwriter Scott Coffey on Lynch's Mulholland Dr., where Watts had her breakout performance. It was her performance opposite Sean Penn and Benicio Del Toro in director Alejandro González Iñárritu's 21 Grams that earned Watts her first Academy Award nomination as Best Actress. Since then Watts has been one of the most in-demand actresses. She produced and starred in the well-received independent picture We Don't Live Here Anymore. She reunited with Sean Penn and Don Cheadle in The Assassination of Richard Nixon, teamed up with Jude Law and Dustin Hoffman in David O. Russell's ensemble I Heart Huckabees, and starred in the sequel to the Ring, The Ring Two. Aside from balancing both independent projects as Ellie Parker, she managed to star in the biggest remake of them all, 2005's King Kong. The role, which was immortalized by Fay Wray in the original, proved to be Watts' most commercial film yet. Directed by The Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson, the film won high praise and has since grossed more than $400 million worldwide.