Emma Charlotte Duerre Watson (born April 15, 1990 in Oxford, Oxfordshire, England) is an English actress recognized primarily for her portrayal of Hermione Granger in the Harry Potter film series.

Watson's parents, Jacqueline Duerre and Chris Watson, are both lawyers, and have been divorced since 1995. She has a brother, Alex, who was born in 1993.

Early life

Watson attended The Dragon School, a renowned preparatory school in Oxford. ("To go on [The] Dragon School is like to be in a club", Watson has said, "and, if you leave, you will still be a member of this club. So I will always be a Dragon.") By 2005, she was attending the all-girls Headington School, also in Oxford.

An avid sports player, Watson enjoys field hockey, tennis and rounders.

Before being cast in the Harry Potter films, her dramatic performances had been limited to school plays. At school, she took leading roles in several plays, including Arthur: The Young Years and The Happy Prince. Besides acting, Watson participated in many other school productions, including the Daisy Pratt Poetry Competition, in which she won first place for her year (age seven).

Acting career

Hired at age ten, Watson was 11 years old when she made her acting debut in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (released in the United States as Harry Potter and the Sorceror's Stone) playing Hermione Granger. She has also appeared in the Potter sequels: Chamber of Secrets (2002), Prisoner of Azkaban (2004), and Goblet of Fire (2005).

By February 5, 2006, Watson is set to start principal photography for Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (set for release in 2007), in which she once again reprises her role as "the brightest witch of [her] age."

Through Order of the Phoenix, shooting on the Potter films had kept her too busy to take on other projects; however, she told ES magazine in 2005, "I wouldn't want Harry Potter to be the last thing I do."

Trivia

• In noting that Watson shares her name with a grandmother, numerous fansites end Emma's full name with the suffix "II" [1]; however, numerical suffixes are almost never used in Britain (outside of royalty). The source of this error may be her entry at the IMDb, where she was the second "Emma Watson" listed. Standard IMDb practice is to add "(II)", "(III)", etc., to duplicate names; thus, she is listed as "Emma Watson (II)".

• In an odd coincidence, Emma Watson shares her name with a fictional character in The Watsons, an unfinished novel by English author Jane Austen (later "finished" by another English writer, Joan Aiken, in her 1996 novel Emma Watson: The Watsons Completed). Potter author J. K. Rowling has professed her admiration for Austen's work in several interviews, and says she based the feline character Mrs. Norris on the busybody aunt in Austen's Mansfield Park. [2]

• Potter fans have mixed opinions about Emma's portrayal of Hermione Granger: Some fans feel she is perfect; others believe Watson fails to capture Hermione's insecurities and flaws, and complain that she is "too pretty" [3] for the role (American film critic Roger Ebert described Watson as being "in the early stages of babehood" when he reviewed Chamber of Secrets [4]) since, in the book series, Hermione was generally described as being very "plain" (neither "pretty" nor "ugly"). The Potter screenplays, however, have made Hermione a wiser and more powerful and prominent character than originally written by Rowling.

Awards

Nominated:

• Best Youth Performance: Phoenix Film Critics Society, 2002
• Best Ensemble in a Feature Film: Young Artists Awards, 2002
• Outstanding Supporting Actress: American Moviegoer Awards, 2002
• Saturn Award: for Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
• Empire Award: for Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone

Won:

• Best Female Film Star (Silver): Otto Awards, 2003
• Leading Young Actress Feature Film: Young Artists Awards, March 2002
• Best Female Child Artist: Phoenix Film Critics Society, for Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
• Best Ensemble in Feature Film: Young Artist Awards, for Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
• Best Performance in Feature Film: Young Artist Awards, for Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone

Filmography

See also

• Daniel Radcliffe
• Rupert Grint
• Tom Felton
• J. K. Rowling
• Harry Potter cast

External links

• Emma Watson at the Internet Movie Database
• Emma Watson at TV.com
• List of Fan Sites at Yahoo! Directoryde:Emma Watson