Gemma Ward

Gemma Ward is an Australian model turned actress who played the mermaid Tamara in the 2011 blockbuster "Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides." Ward's modeling career is the stuff of legend: discovered at age 14, by 16 she had become a supermodel and the latest "It Girl," gracing the cover of Vogue and the catwalks of top designers including Prada and Versace. Despite having gotten her start in modeling, she was originally interested in acting. One of her first roles was in a production of "Hansel and Gretel," after which she made her screen debut in a small Australian film called "Pink Pyjamas" in 2001. After her lucrative foray into the world of high fashion, she finally returned to the screen in 2008 with a prominent, ingénue-like role in the multiple award-winning Aussie romance "The Black Balloon." Ward switched gears dramatically that same year when she co-starred in the horror-thriller "The Strangers," playing Dollface, one of the evil assailants who haunt the characters played by Liv Tyler and Scott Speedman. Ward followed that role with an even more prominent part as Tamara, Queen of the Mermaids, in the 2011 "Pirates" movie. She was then cast in Baz Luhrmann's adaptation of the classic American novel "The Great Gatsby," with Leonardo DiCaprio in the title role. Ward is also known for having had a brief relationship with fellow Australian Heath Ledger. The two met in late 2007 and became close before Ledger's death in early 2008.