Michelle Ingrid Williams was born September 9, 1980, is an Academy Award-nominated American actress. Williams broke into stardom on the teen series Dawson's Creek and later graduated to full-length features, most notably Brokeback Mountain, for which she earned an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress. When Williams 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' first film role was in the motion picture Species. Soon after, she won additional roles, including the Jessica Lange-Michelle Pfeiffer film 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. Williams met Heath Ledger on the set of the film Broke back Mountain, in which they played husband and wife. During their time together, they lived in Boerum Hill, Brooklyn, New York Williams was engaged to Ledger and gave birth to their daughter, Matilda Rose Ledger, on October 28, 2005, in New York City. Matilda's godfather is Jake Gyllenhaal, while her godmother is Busy Philipps, Williams' co-star on Dawson's Creek. The couple separated in September 2007 after three years together.