Emma Watson

Emma Watson (born April 15, 1990, Paris, France) is an English actress and activist best known for playing the studious young wizard Hermione Granger in the Harry Potter films (2001–11), based on the popular book series by J.K. Rowling. The enormous success of that movie franchise rocketed Watson to worldwide fame at a young age—she was 10 years old when the first film came out and 21 when the series concluded. She later used her visibility and renown to become a prominent advocate for feminism and gender equality. Watson also appeared in several other films, including Sofia Coppola’s The Bling Ring (2013), Beauty and the Beast (2017), and Greta Gerwig’s Little Women (2019), but since the latter’s release she has not acted and has kept a low public profile.

Childhood and family background

Watson was born in Paris to English parents, Chris Watson and Jacqueline Luesby, both of whom are lawyers. They divorced when she was young, and she and her brother went to live with their mother in Oxfordshire, England. While a child, Watson decided she wanted to be an actress. Besides attending school, she took acting and singing classes. She also appeared in several school plays.

Playing Hermione Granger

1 of 2

2 of 2

Watson became a huge fan of the Harry Potter books after her father read them to her. In 1999 the producers of the films began the casting process and scoured England looking for potential child actors. They came to Watson’s school, and she was among a large group of children who were photographed. Several weeks later she received an invitation to audition, and, after eight rounds, she landed the part of Hermione in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (2001). She strongly identified with the smart and logical Hermione, who becomes one of Harry Potter’s best friends at the wizarding school of Hogwarts.

Discover the fascinating events that shaped the world, straight from our editors.

SIGN UP

By clicking “Sign Up”, you consent to the Britannica Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.

Britannica Quiz

Pop Culture Quiz

The film was a box-office hit, and Watson reprised her role in the franchise’s other movies: Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002), Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004), Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005), Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007), Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2009), Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 (2010), and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 (2011).

Later acting roles

After the Potter films ended, Watson began to look for more mature roles. Her first credit was in a supporting role as a wardrobe assistant in My Week with Marilyn (2011), which chronicled a short period in the life of Marilyn Monroe. Watson’s first major part in this period was in the drama The Perks of Being a Wallflower (2012), in which she played a high-school senior who becomes friends with a clinically depressed freshman. She subsequently played against type—and employed a convincing Southern California Valley accent—as a young woman who steals jewelry and couture handbags from celebrities’ homes in Sofia Coppola’s crime drama The Bling Ring (2013). Watson spoke to The Guardian at the time about how she relished playing a character so different from Hermione: “I’m probably the least obvious choice to play the role…The character is everything that I felt really strongly against—she’s superficial, materialistic, vain, amoral.”

Watson then performed in Darren Aronofsky’s biblical epic Noah (2014), the historical drama The Colony (also known as Colonia; 2015), and the sci-fi thriller The Circle (2017). These films had limited success at the box-office, but Watson had another blockbuster hit with the live-action Disney adaptation (2017) of Beauty and the Beast, in which she starred as Belle. In 2019 she appeared as Meg March in Greta Gerwig’s acclaimed Little Women, which was based on Louisa May Alcott’s classic children’s book.

Education and advocacy

Meanwhile, in the midst of her acting career, Watson pursued a college degree. In 2009 she began attending Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, where she stayed in the freshman dorms, determined to have as normal an experience as possible despite her celebrity. She took time off as needed for filming and promoting her movies, and she also studied for a year at the University of Oxford. Watson graduated from Brown in 2014 with a bachelor’s degree in English literature. In 2023 she returned to Oxford to begin a master’s program in creative writing.

Explore Britannica Premium!

The trusted destination for professionals, college students, and lifelong learners.

SUBSCRIBE

In 2014 Watson was named a United Nations Women Goodwill Ambassador. In that role she promoted the HeForShe campaign, which sought to enlist both men and women in the fight for women’s rights and gender equality. From 2016 to 2020 Watson ran an online feminist book club, Our Shared Shelf, to read and discuss books by and about women. In addition she was a leading supporter of Time’s Up, an organization founded in 2018 after the rise of the Me Too movement that raised funds for victims of sexual harassment.