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.
Emma Watson was born in Paris, the daughter of British lawyers Jacqueline Luesby and Chris Watson. Watson has one French grandmother, and lived in Paris until the age of five.
Later, following her parents' divorce, she moved with her mother and younger brother, Alex, to Oxfordshire. From the age of six, Watson wanted to become 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 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.