Emma Charlotte Duerre Watson (born 15 April 1990) is an English actress.<!--NEVER CHANGE THIS AT ALL!!! It will be immediately reverted. She is NOT a French citizen. Do not change from English to British without consensus on the Talk Page--> In the 2010s, she was ranked among the world's highest-paid actresses by Forbes and Vanity Fair, and was named one of the 100 most influential people in the world by Time magazine in 2015.
Watson attended the Dragon School and trained in acting at the Oxford branch of Stagecoach Theatre Arts. As a child, she rose to stardom after landing her first professional acting role as Hermione Granger in the Harry Potter film series, having previously acted only in school plays. Watson made her first major foray beyond the Potter franchise starring in Ballet Shoes (2007), and she lent her voice to The Tale of Despereaux (2008). After the final Harry Potter film, she took on a supporting role in My Week with Marilyn (2011), before starring as Sam, a flirtatious, free-spirited student in The Perks of Being a Wallflower (2012), to critical success. Further acclaim came from portraying Alexis Neiers in Sofia Coppola's The Bling Ring (2013) and the titular character's adoptive daughter in Darren Aronofsky's biblical epic Noah (2014). That same year, Watson was honoured by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts, winning British Artist of the Year. She also starred as Belle in the live-action musical romantic fantasy Beauty and the Beast (2017), and as Meg March in Greta Gerwig's coming-of-age drama Little Women (2019).
From 2011 to 2014, Watson split her time between working on films and continuing her education, graduating from Brown University with a bachelor's degree in English literature in May 2014. That year, she was appointed a UN Women Goodwill Ambassador and helped launch the UN Women campaign HeForShe, which advocates for gender equality. In 2018, she helped launch Time's Up UK as a founding member. Watson was appointed to a G7 advisory body for women's rights in 2019, consulting with leaders on foreign policy. Her modelling work has included campaigns for Burberry and Lancôme. She also lent her name to a clothing line for the sustainable brand People Tree. From 2020 to 2023, she sat on the board of directors of Kering, a luxury brand group, as an advocate for sustainable fashion.
Early life and education
Emma Charlotte Duerre Watson was born on 15 April 1990 in Paris, to English lawyers Jacqueline Luesby and Chris Watson. Watson lived in Maisons-Laffitte near Paris until age five, when her parents divorced. She moved to England to live with her mother in Oxfordshire while spending weekends at her father's house in London. In a 2008 interview, Watson said that she speaks some French, though "not as well" as she had previously. After moving to Oxford with her mother and brother, she attended the Dragon School until 2003. and trained at the Oxford branch of Stagecoach Theatre Arts, a part-time theatre school where she studied singing, dancing, and acting.
By age 10, Watson had performed in Stagecoach productions and school plays including Arthur: The Young Years and The Happy Prince, but she had never acted professionally prior to the Harry Potter series. After the Dragon School, Watson moved to Headington School, Oxford. In June 2006, she took GCSE school examinations in ten subjects, achieving eight A* and two A grades. In May 2007, she took AS levels in English, Geography, Art, and History of Art. The following year, she dropped History of Art to pursue the three A levels, receiving an A grade in each.
Watson took a gap year after finishing secondary school, to film Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Parts 1 & 2 beginning in February 2009. In March 2011, after 18 months, Watson announced she was deferring her course for "a semester or two", though she attended Worcester College, Oxford, during the 2011–12 academic year as part of the Visiting Student Programme. In a 2014 interview on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, Watson said just before graduation that it took five years to finish her degree instead of four because she had taken two semesters off owing to her acting work. On 25 May 2014, she graduated from Brown University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in English literature. In 2016, she was appointed a visiting fellow at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford. In 2023, she began a Master of Studies in creative writing at New College, Oxford.
Acting career
1999–2009: Harry Potter and worldwide recognition
<!-- EDITORS: "Philosopher's Stone" is the original title of the film. Please do not change it to "Sorcerer's Stone". -->
In 1999, casting began for Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, the film adaptation of British author J. K. Rowling's best-selling novel. Casting agents found Watson through her Oxford theatre teacher. She had acted in school plays, but had no film acting experience. Her first audition took place when she was nine years old.