Emma Watson

Background

Emma Charlotte Duerre Watson is an actress who is best known for her role in the “Harry Potter” film series. After her success, she has grown to become one of the highest-paid actresses, according to “Forbes” and “Vanity Fair” magazines. In 2015, she was named as one of the 100 most influential people in the world by “Time” magazine.

Watson was born on April 15, 1990, in Paris, to Chris Watson and Jacqueline Luesby, who are both lawyers. The family lived in Maisons-Laffitte until her parents divorced when she was five. Watson then moved to England to live with her mother in Oxford and she spent the weekends at her father’s house in London.

While living in Oxford, Watson attended the Dragon School. She discovered her passion for acting at age six, and her parents enrolled her in a part-time theater school, Stagecoach Theatre Arts, where she studied acting, dancing, and singing. By the time she was 10, Watson had performed in several Stagecoach productions and school plays.

In 1999, the casting agents for the “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone” movie found Watson through her Oxford theater teacher. After eight auditions, she was cast in the role of Hermione Granger alongside fellow applicants Daniel Radcliffe and Rupert Grint. The release of the movie in 2001 was Watson’s cinematic screen debut. The movie broke records for opening-day sales and was rated the highest-grossing movie of 2001. She continued to play the role in all the subsequent “Harry Potter“ films over the next 10 years. Watson has been signed up for other major roles in independent movies, such as a supporting role in “My Week with Marilyn” (2011) and “The Bling Ring” (2013).