Emma Watson was born in Paris, France, to English parents, Jacqueline Luesby and Chris Watson, both lawyers. She moved to Oxfordshire when she was five, where she attended the Dragon School. From the age of six, Emma knew that she wanted to be an actress and, for a number of years, she trained at the Oxford branch of Stagecoach Theatre Arts, a part-time theatre school where she studied singing, dancing and acting.
By the age of ten, she had performed and taken the lead in various Stagecoach productions and school plays.
Emma Watson Filmography
In 1999, casting began for Harry Potter and the Sorcerers (2001), the film adaptation of British author J.K. Rowling’s bestselling novel.
Casting agents found Emma through her Oxford theatre teacher. After eight consistent auditions, producer David Heyman told Emma and fellow applicants, Daniel Radcliffe and Rupert Grint, that they had been cast for the roles of the three leads, Hermione Granger, Harry Potter and Ron Weasley.
The release of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (2001) was Emma’s cinematic screen debut. The film broke records for opening-day sales and opening-weekend takings and was the highest-grossing film of 2001.
Critics praised the film and the performances of the three leading young actors. The highly distributed British newspaper, ‘The Daily Telegraph’, called her performance “admirable”. Later, Emma was nominated for five awards for her performance in the film, winning the Young Artist Award for Leading Young Actress in a Feature Film.
Emma Watson was most recently seen in Darren Aronofsky’s Noah (2014) opposite Russell Crowe, Jennifer Connelly, Ray Winstone, Douglas Booth, Logan Lerman and Anthony Hopkins. The film told the epic, biblical tale of Noah and the ark. Emma plays the role of Ila, a young woman who develops a close relationship with Noah’s son, Shem (Booth). Noah has made an outstanding $300m since its release in March. Emma has completed filming her next project, Regression, written and directed by Alejandro Amenábar. Emma will star in the thriller opposite Oscar nominated Ethan Hawke.
Set in Minnesota 1990, Regression tells the story of Detective Bruce Kenner (Hawke) who investigates the case of young Angela, played by Emma, who accuses her father of sexual abuse. The film is expected to be released in 2015. Emma will next play Kelsea Glynn in the film adaptation of The Queen Of The Tearling, Erika Johansen’s page-turner of a novel about a young woman raised by foster parents in a cottage hidden away in a remote forest.
On her 19th birthday, Kelsea is removed from her home to take her rightful place as sovereign of a fictional post-Utopian country that hides dark secrets and is menaced by a neighboring monarch. The screenplay for The Queen Of The Tearling has been written by Mark L. Smith. David Heyman will be producing the film and Emma will also serve as an executive producer. David and Emma worked together on all the Harry Potter films.
The producer snapped up the rights to J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series very early, before publication; and he and Warner Bros have done the same thing with the Tearling trilogy. Filming is due to commence next year.
In 2012,Emma Watson was honored with the Calvin Klein Emerging Star Award at the ELLE Women in Hollywood Awards. In 2013, Emma was awarded the Trailblazer Award at the MTV Movie Awards in April and was honored with the GQ Woman of the Year Award at the GQ Awards in September.
Further to her acting career, Emma is a Goodwill Ambassador for the UN, promoting gender equality and the empowerment of women. Emma graduated from Brown University in May 2014.
