Emma Watson

Emma Charlotte Duerre Watson (born 15 April 1990) is an English actress and model. She rose to prominence playing Hermione Granger in the Harry Potter film series; she was cast as Hermione at the age of nine, having previously acted only in school plays. She starred in all eight Harry Potter films, alongside Daniel Radcliffe and Rupert Grint. Watson's work on the Harry Potter series has earned her several awards and more than £10 million. She made her modelling debut for Burberry's autumn/winter campaign in 2009. In October 2013, she was voted Hottest Female Movie Star in a worldwide poll conducted by Empire magazine.

In 2007, Watson announced her involvement in The Tale of Despereaux and the television adaptation of the novel Ballet Shoes, which was broadcast on 26 December 2007 to an audience of 5.2 million. The Tale of Despereaux, based on the novel by Kate DiCamillo, was released in 2008 and grossed more than US $86 million in worldwide sales. In 2012, she starred in Stephen Chbosky's film adaptation of The Perks of Being a Wallflower, and was cast in the role of Ila in Darren Aronofsky's biblical epic Noah.

Emma Watson was born in Paris, France, the daughter of English lawyers Jacqueline Luesby and Chris Watson. Watson lived in Paris until the age of five. Her parents separated when she was young; following their divorce, she moved with her mother and younger brother to Oxfordshire, spending weekends at her father's house in London. Watson has stated that she speaks some French, though "not as well" as she used to.

After moving to Oxford with her mother and brother, Watson attended the Dragon School in Oxford, remaining there until 2003. From the age of six, she wanted to become an actress, and 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 in various Stagecoach productions and school plays, including Arthur: The Young Years and The Happy Prince, but she had never acted professionally before the Harry Potter series. Following the Dragon School, Watson moved on to Headington School. While on film sets, she and her peers were tutored for up to five hours a day. In June 2006, she took GCSE examinations in ten subjects, achieving eight A* and two A grades.

After leaving school, Watson took a gap year to film Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows beginning in February 2009, but said she "definitely want[ed] to go to university". The Providence Journal reported that Watson had confirmed that she had chosen Brown University, located in Providence, Rhode Island. In March 2011, after 18 months at the university, Watson announced that she was deferring her course for "a semester or two." Watson was a visitor student at Worcester College, Oxford for the 2011–12 academic year.