Michelle Williams by Terry Tsiolis for Elle January 2017

Michelle Ingrid Williams (born September 9, 1980) is an American actress. After starting her career with television guest appearances in the early 1990s, Williams achieved recognition for her role as Jen Lindley on the WB television teen drama Dawson's Creek, from 1998 to 2003. Williams graduated to full-length features including Halloween H20: 20 Years Later, her first mainstream film, Dick (1999), a comedy, and Prozac Nation (2001), a biographical film adaption.

Since the 2000s, the actress mostly appeared in dramatic independent films. A career highlight for Williams was starring in 2005's controversial movie Brokeback Mountain, about a homosexual relationship in the 1960s. One of its eight Academy Award nominations was a Best Supporting Actress nomination for Williams. Brokeback Mountain was followed with I'm Not There (2007), Synecdoche, New York (2008) and Martin Scorsese's Shutter Island (2010). Williams's performance as a drifter in 2008's Wendy and Lucy earned her critical praise and her work opposite Ryan Gosling in Blue Valentine (2010) led to the actress receiving another Academy Award nomination, this time for Best Actress. She won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture Musical or Comedy for her portrayal of Marilyn Monroe in My Week with Marilyn (2011), which also garnered her third Academy Award nomination and her second nomination for Best Actress. She is scheduled to appear next in 2013's Oz: The Great and Powerful.

Williams had a relationship with the late actor Heath Ledger, her Brokeback Mountain co-star. They had a daughter, Matilda, before separating in 2007.