

By the age of ten, she had performed and taken the lead in various Stagecoach productions and school plays. 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. She moved to Oxfordshire when she was five, where she attended the Dragon School. In 2020, she joined the board of directors of Kering, a luxury brand group, in her capacity as an advocate for sustainable fashion.Emma Charlotte Duerre Watson was born in Paris, France, to British parents, Jacqueline Luesby and Chris Watson, both lawyers. She also lent her name to a clothing line for the sustainable brand People Tree. Her modelling work has included campaigns for Burberry and Lancôme. Watson was appointed to a G7 advisory body for women's rights in 2019, consulting with leaders on foreign policy. In 2018, she helped launch Time's Up UK as a founding member. That year, she was appointed a UN Women Goodwill Ambassador and helped launch the UN Women campaign HeForShe, which advocates for gender equality. She also starred as Belle in the musical romantic fantasy Beauty and the Beast (2017), which ranks among the highest-grossing films of all time, and Meg March in the coming-of-age drama Little Women (2019).įrom 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 same year, Watson was honoured by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts, winning British Artist of the Year.

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.įurther acclaim came from portraying Alexis Neiers in Sofia Coppola's The Bling Ring (2013) and the titular character's adoptive daughter in the biblical epic Noah. Watson also starred in the 2007 television adaptation of the novel Ballet Shoes and lent her voice to The Tale of Despereaux (2008). As a child, she rose to stardom after landing her first professional acting role as Hermione Granger in the Harry Potter film series, having acted only in school plays previously. Watson attended the Dragon School and trained in acting at the Oxford branch of Stagecoach Theatre Arts. Watson has been 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. She has gained recognition for her roles in both blockbusters and independent films, as well as her women's rights work. Emma Charlotte Duerre Watson (born 15 April 1990) is an English actress and activist.
