Michelle Williams

Born: September 9, 1980
Where: Kalispell, Montana, USA

The Dawson's Creek star has established herself in Hollywood in movies ranging from the indie hit The Station Agent to the horror yarn Halloween H20.

However, she landed serious critical acclaim for her portrayal of Heath Ledger's wife in Ang Lee's Brokeback Mountain.

The daughter of a commodities trader, she attended Santa Fe Christian High School before legally freeing herself from her parents aged 15.

(the following year she won the Robbins Trading Company World Cup of Futures Trading by turning $10,000 into $100,000 - the second highest profit in the tournament's history.)

While acting in community theatre, she landed a small role in Baywatch before securing a featured role in Lassie in 1994.

She appeared as the young incarnation of Natasha Henstridge's alien in Species and took a role as Michelle Pfeiffer's daughter Pammy in the King Lear inspired drama A Thousand Acres.

In 1998 she took the role of Jen Lindley in Dawson's Creek (she was killed off in the last episode of the series after a six year run).

A year later, the young actress performed her horror duty as the teen female lead of the Halloween: H20.

Next she tackled comedy, first with Kirsten Dunst in Dick, and then in the gay comedy But I Am a Cheerleader, starring Natasha Lyonne as a teenager packed off to a lesbian-conversion facility by her parents.

In 2001, she learned an English accent from scratch to star alongside Anna Friel in Me Without You and appeared with Christina Ricci in an adaptation of Elizabeth Wurtzel's novel Prozac Nation.

She appeared in The United States of Leland before attracting acclaim as Emily in the touching 2003 drama The Station Agent.

In 2004, she starred alongside Sigourney Weaver in the domestic drama Imaginary Heroes.

Recent work includes the role of Alma, the wife of gay cowboy Heath Ledger in Brokeback Mountain.