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Kathryn Bailey "Kate" Beckinsale is an English actress. She initially came to prominence in the 1990s for her roles in costume dramas such as Cold Comfort Farm, Much Ado About Nothing and Emma. Following a breakout performance in 2001's Pearl Harbor, she has appeared in big-budget Hollywood movies like The Aviator, the Underworld films and Van Helsing as well as smaller independent movies such as Everybody's Fine and Winged Creatures. She earned a Critic's Choice Award nomination for her performance in 2008's Nothing But the Truth. She has three films set for release in 2012: Underworld 4, Contraband and Total Recall.

In her teens, she twice won the W. H. Smith Young Writers' competition—once for short stories and once for poetry. She studied French and Russian literature at New College, Oxford University and was involved with the Oxford University Dramatic Society, most notably being directed by fellow student Tom Hooper in a production of A View from the Bridge at the Oxford Playhouse. She spent her third year in Paris as part of Oxford's study-abroad program, after which she decided to leave university to concentrate on her burgeoning acting career.

Beckinsale married American director Len Wiseman on 9 May 2004 in Bel-Air, California. They live in Los Angeles with Beckinsale's daughter, Lily Mo Sheen. Beckinsale previously had a eight-year relationship with Welsh actor Michael Sheen from 1995 to 2003, after meeting when cast in a touring production of The Seagull. Their daughter, Lily Mo Sheen, was born 31 January 1999. The relationship ended after the filming of Underworld because Beckinsale realised she had fallen for the film's married director, Len Wiseman. The former couple have remained close friends. Beckinsale has said, "I love him dearly – I would miss him dreadfully if he wasn't in my life. He is one of the most thoughtful, principled people and Lily is so lucky to have him as a dad."