Keisha Castle-Hughes was born March 24, 1990 in Donnybrook, Western Australia, Australia. She is an Australian-New Zealand film actress who was born to Desrae Hughes, a Māori mother, and Tim Castle, an English-Australian father. Her parents, who were never married, later separated. She was 18 months old when her family moved to New Zealand; she became a New Zealand citizen in 2001. Castle-Hughes has four younger siblings, brothers Rhys (born 21 February 1992), Liam (born 1996) and Quade (born July 2006), and sister Maddisyn (born 2001). Castle-Hughes attended Waiuku Primary School, Bailey Road School, One Tree Hill College, and Rosehill College, all in Auckland.
Keisha rose to prominence at the age of eleven when playing Paikea "Pai" Apirana in the 2002 film Whale Rider. The film was nominated for many awards, including an Academy Award for Best Actress of which she was the youngest person nominated in the Best Actress category and an award at the Broadcast Film Critics Association Awards for Best Actress, which she won in 2004. She soon followed the role by appearing in Prince's controversial music video for his song "Cinnamon Girl" that showed she wasn't going to fade out of the light yet. In 2005 Castle-Hughes' had a small part as Queen Apailana in Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith. In 2006 she portrayed the starring role as the Virgin Mary in The Nativity Story. New York Times critic A. O. Scott said that she "seemed entirely unfazed by the demands of playing Mary. She had the poise and intelligence to play the character not as an icon of maternity, but rather as a headstrong, thoughtful adolescent transformed by an unimaginable responsibility." The Christian-themed film earned only $8 million during its opening week, but its box office surged during the week of Christmas,.Overall, it made approximately $44.3 million USD. One critic later speculated: "It may have been harmed by the fact that its leading lady, Keisha Castle-Hughes, was found to be unwed and pregnant just as the movie's publicity campaign began.".
Since then she has been in Hey Hey It's Esther Blueburger(2008) in 2009 she was in Piece of My Heart and The Vintner's Luck which is her 1st and only so far on screen nudity. In 2010 she played(Maia / The Creator) in Legend of the Seeker (TV series). In 2011 she was in Vampire, Red Dog and The Almighty Johnsons (TV series).
A coming-of-age story about a 13-year-old girl trying to fit into both a posh private school and an ordinary public school. This film is a smart, rueful and dead-on portrait of life's unending quest to fit in; and the girl who solves it by completely breaking out - introduces a feisty outsider hero unlike any other seen on screen. Esther Blueburger's quest begins when she escapes from her Bat Mitzvah party and is befriended by Sunni.., the effortlessly cool girl who is everything Esther thinks she wants to be. With the help of Sunni, Esther goes away from her ordinary life and leaves behind her malfunctioning Jewish family to hang out with Sunni's far breezier and super-hip single mom Mary and attend Sunni's forbidden public school as a Swedish exchange student.
