EMMA WATSON (born 15 April 1990) is a British actress who rose to prominence playing Hermione Granger, one of three starring roles in the Harry Potter film series.
EMMA WATSON was cast as Hermione at the age of nine, having previously only acted in school plays. From 2001 to 2007,
EMMA WATSON starred in five Harry Potter films alongside Daniel Radcliffe and Rupert Grint;
EMMA WATSON will return for the final three installments:
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, due to be released in July 2009, and the two parts of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.
EMMA WATSON's work on the Harry Potter series has earned her several awards and more than £10 million.
In 2007,
EMMA WATSON announced her involvement in two non-Harry Potter productions: the made-for-television adaptation of the novel Ballet Shoes and an animated film, The Tale of Despereaux. Ballet Shoes was broadcast on 26 December 2007, to an audience of 5.2 million and The Tale of Despereaux, based on the novel by Kate DiCamillo, was released in 2008.
EMMA WATSON was born in Paris, the daughter of British lawyers Jacqueline Luesby and Chris Watson. Watson has one French grandmother, and lived in Paris until the age of five. She moved with her mother and younger brother, Alex, to Oxfordshire, following her parents' divorce.
From the age of six,
EMMA WATSON wanted to become an actress, and for a number of years,
EMMA WATSON trained at the Oxford branch of Stagecoach Theatre Arts, a part-time theatre school where she studied singing, dancing and acting. By age 10,
EMMA WATSON had performed in various Stagecoach productions and school plays, including Arthur: The Young Years and The Happy Prince, but
EMMA WATSON had never acted professionally before the Harry Potter series. "I had no idea of the scale of the film series",
EMMA WATSON said in a 2007 interview with Parade; "if I had I would have been completely overwhelmed".
EMMA WATSON's extended family has grown as her divorced parents have both had children by new partners.
EMMA WATSON's father has identical twin girls, Nina and Lucy, and a four-year-old son, Toby.
EMMA WATSON's mother's partner has two sons (
EMMA WATSON's stepbrothers), who "regularly stay with her".
EMMA WATSON's full brother, Alexander, has appeared as an extra in two Harry Potter films, and her half-sisters were cast as the young Pauline Fossil in the BBC's Ballet Shoes adaptation.
After moving to Oxford with her mother and brother,
EMMA WATSON attended The Dragon School, an independent preparatory school, until June 2003 and then moved to Headington School, an independent school for girls, also in Oxford. While on film sets,
EMMA WATSON and her peers were tutored for up to five hours a day; despite the focus on filming
EMMA WATSON maintained high academic standards. In June 2006,
EMMA WATSON took GCSE examinations in 10 subjects, achieving eight A* and two A grades;
EMMA WATSON was a target of friendly ridicule on the Harry Potter set because of her straight-A exam results.
EMMA WATSON received A grades in her 2008 A level examinations in English Literature, Geography and Art, and in her 2007 AS (advanced subsidiary) level in History of Art.
EMMA WATSON is currently taking a gap year, with filming of the two part adaptation of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows that began in February 2009, after which she "definitely wants to go to university". Despite numerous contradictory news stories, some from highly-reputable sources, claiming that
EMMA WATSON is 'definitely' attending Trinity College, Cambridge, Columbia University, Brown University or Yale,
EMMA WATSON has yet to publicly commit to any one institution, saying that she will announce her decision first on the
EMMA WATSON official website. In an interview with Jonathan Ross in July 2009,
EMMA WATSON confirmed that she was planning to study in the United States, saying that – having missed so much school as a child for filming – the "broad curriculum" of American higher education appealed to her more than British universities, "where you have to just choose one thing to study for three years".
EMMA WATSON's work in the Harry Potter series has earned her more than £10 million, and she has acknowledged she will never have to work for money – in March 2009
EMMA WATSON was ranked 6th on the Forbes list of "Most Valuable Young Stars". However,
EMMA WATSON has declined to leave school to become a full-time actress, saying "People can’t understand why I don’t want to ... but school life keeps me in touch with my friends. It keeps me in touch with reality".
EMMA WATSON has been positive about working as a child actress, saying her parents and colleagues helped make her experience a positive one.
EMMA WATSON enjoys a close friendship with her fellow Harry Potter stars Daniel Radcliffe and Rupert Grint, describing them as a "unique support system" for the stresses of film work, and saying that after working with them for the ten years of the film series, "they really are like my sibilings".
EMMA WATSON lists her interests as dancing, singing, field hockey, tennis, art, fly fishing, and donates to WTT (Wild Trout Trust).
EMMA WATSON describes herself as "a bit of a feminist", and admires fellow actors Johnny Depp and Julia Roberts.