Emma Charlotte Duerre Watson (born 15 April 1990) is an English actress, model, and activist. She has gained recognition for her roles in both blockbusters and independent films, as well as her women's rights work, 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.
Born in Paris and raised in Oxfordshire, Watson attended the Dragon School and trained as an actress at the Oxford branch of Stagecoach Theatre Arts. As a child, she rose to prominence with her first professional acting role as Hermione Granger in the Harry Potter film series, having acted only in school plays previously. Watson also starred in the 2007 television adaptation of the novel Ballet Shoes and lent her voice to The Tale of Despereaux (2008). After the last Harry Potter film, she took on a supporting role in My Week with Marilyn (2011), before starring in The Perks of Being a Wallflower (2012) opposite Logan Lerman and The Bling Ring (2013) alongside an ensemble cast, both to critical acclaim. In 2014, Watson played the titular character's adopted daughter in biblical epic Noah and was honoured by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts, winning British Artist of the Year. She starred as Belle in the 2017 musical romantic fantasy Beauty and the Beast, which became one of the highest-grossing films of all time, and Meg March in the coming-of-age drama Little Women (2019), which was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture. Other notable film roles include This Is the End (2013), Regression, Colonia (both 2015), and The Circle (2017).