Emma Watson Pictures

Emma Charlotte Duerre Watson born 15 April 1990 is an English actress and model who rose to prominence playing Hermione Granger, one of three starring roles in the Harry Potter film series. Watson was cast as Hermione at the age of nine, having previously acted only in school plays. From 2001 to 2010, she starred in seven Harry Potter films alongside Daniel Radcliffe and Rupert Grint; she will return for the final installment: the second part of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows 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 2007, Watson announced her involvement in two non-Harry Potter productions: the television adaptation of the novel Ballet Shoes and an animated film, The Tale of Despereaux. Ballet Shoes was broadcast on 26 December 2007 to an audience of 5.2 million, and The Tale of Despereaux, based on the novel by Kate DiCamillo, was released in 2008 and grossed over US $70 million in worldwide sales.

Emma Charlotte Duerre Watson was born to parents, Jacqueline Luesby and Chris Watson. At the age of five, Emma's parents divorced and she then moved to Oxfordshire, England with her mother and younger brother, Alexander. Since the divorce, Emma's extended family has grown as her parents both have new partners. Her father has a son named Toby, and identical twin daughters, Nina and Lucy, and her mother's partner has two sons. Emma now resides in England with her mother, younger brother, and her two stepbrothers.

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. By the age of ten, she had performed and taken the lead in various Stagecoach productions and school plays, including "Arthur: The Young Years" and "The Happy Prince". In 1999, casting began for Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (2001), the film adaptation of British author J.K. Rowling's bestselling novel. Casting agents found Emma through her Oxford theatre teacher, and the producers of the film were impressed by her confidence and her natural acting abilities. After eight consistent auditions, producer David Heyman told Emma and fellow applicants, Daniel Radcliffe and Rupert Grint, that they had been cast for the roles of the three leads, Hermione Granger, Harry Potter and Ron Weasley. It has even been said that Rowling had Emma as her first choice for Hermione Granger since her first screen test.

The release of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (2001) was Emma's cinematic screen debut. The film broke records for opening-day sales and opening-weekend takings and was the highest-grossing film of 2001. Critics praised the film and the performances of the three leading young actors, often singling out Emma in particular. The highly distributed British newspaper, 'The Daily Telegraph', called her performance "admirable" and multimedia news website, 'IGN', stated that she "stole the show". Later, Emma was nominated for five awards for her performance in the film, winning the Young Artist Award for Leading Young Actress in a Feature Film.

Since the release of the first film of the highly successful franchise, Emma has quickly become one of the most talented and recognizable young actresses in the world. She has continued to portray Hermione Granger in all of the following Harry Potter films (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)) as well as branch out into other films such as Ballet Shoes (2007) (TV) and The Tale of Despereaux (2008). With a successful acting and modeling career under her belt, and a soon-to-be college degree from Brown University, Emma Watson is a lovely, confident, smart, and talented triple threat that we will be watching on the big screen for many years to come.