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Michelle Williamsis an Academy Award-nominated American actress. The youngest of five children, she was born in Kalispell, Montana, the daughter of Carla, a homemaker, and Larry Williams, a well-known stock and commodities trader. When she was nine, her family moved to San Diego, California, and, at an early age, she became interested in acting. At age fifteen, faced with her parents' disapproval, she emancipated herself from them. After completing the ninth grade at the Upper School of Santa Fe Christian Schools, in Solana Beach, California, she left school in order to pursue her acting career in Dawson's Creek.

Williams's career began in television, appearing in programs such as the 1990's version of Lassie, Baywatch, Step by Step, and Home Improvement. Williams' first film role was in the motion picture Species. Soon after, she won additional roles in movies such as the Jessica LangeMichelle Pfeifferfilm A Thousand Acres and the 1998 movie Halloween H20: 20 Years Later with Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Josh Hartnett Williams's star profile rose considerably when in 1998, she was cast as one of the lead characters on the WB show Dawson's Creek. She would play Jen Lindley for all six seasons of the successful show.

During and after Dawson's Creek's run, Williams made strong turns in several notable indie films. Her first starring role was as Arlene in the film Dick, a satire of the Watergate scandal, opposite Kirsten Dunst She starred opposite Christina Ricciin Prozac Nation, and also appeared in the HBO film If These Walls Could Talk 2, and several acclaimed indie pictures such as The United States of Leland, Me Without You, and Imaginary Heroes with Sigourney Weaver. For her performance in The Station Agent, Williams along with the rest of the cast received a Screen Actors Guild award nomination for Best Acting Ensemble. In 2005, critics and audiences took note of Williams' performance in Ang Lee's Brokeback Mountain. For her performance, she won a Critic's Choice Award and received Golden Globe, BAFTA, and Academy Award nominations for Best Supporting Actress.

In 2006, she appeared in The Hawk Is Dying, with Paul Giamatti and, in 2007, in both The Hottest State, opposite Ethan Hawke and I'm Not There, directed by Todd Haynes, with Cate Blanchett Richard Gere, Heath Ledger and Julianne Moore among others. She starred, along with Ewan McGregor and Hugh Jackmanin the film Deception, directed by Marcel Langenegger, which was released on April 25, 2008 in the U.S.

Williams was engaged to Australian actor Heath Ledgerand gave birth to their daughter, Matilda Rose Ledger, on October 28, 2005, in New York City. Matilda's godfather is Jake Gyllenhaalwhile her godmother is Busy Philipps Williams' co-star on Dawson's Creek. The couple met on the set of the film Brokeback Mountain, in which they played husband and wife. During their time together, they lived in Boerum Hill, Brooklyn, New York. On September 2, 2007, People.com reported that, after three years together, Williams and Ledger had decided to separate.

After Ledger was found dead in his New York apartment on January 22, 2008, from what was later determined to be an accidental overdose of prescription drugs, an unidentified source reported how Michelle Williamsreacted, while in a hotel room in Sweden, where she was filming Mammoth: "She cried and screamed as soon as she heard." On February 1, 2008, Ledger's publicist released her first public statement about his death: "Please respect our need to grieve privately. My heart is broken. I am the mother of the most tender-hearted, high-spirited, beautiful little girl who is the spitting image of her father. All that I can cling to is his presence inside her that reveals itself every day. His family and I watch Matilda as she whispers to trees, hugs animals, and takes steps two at a time and we know that he is with us still. She will be brought up with the best memories of him."