Naomi Ellen Watts was born in Shoreham, Kent in the UK on September 28th 1968, to Miv and Peter Watts. Her parents divorced when she was 4, and Naomi and her older brother Ben lived with their mother. Naomi's father, Peter, died of a heroin overdose when Naomi was just 7 years old, and following this tragedy Miv and her children moved to Llangefni on the isle of Anglessy in North Wales. The family moved again when Naomi was 14, when her mother decided that Australia was the "land of opportunity". In 1986 she took a break from acting and went to Japan to work as a model, but the experience was fruitless, and Watts describes it as one of the worst periods of her life, which lasted for about four months. Upon returning to Australia, Watts went to work for a local department store and from there she went to work as assistant fashion editor with an Australian fashion magazine. She only returned to acting when a casual invitation from a colleague to participate in a small play rekindled her passion for the scenic arts and prompted her to quit her job and dedicate herself completely to making it as an actress.