Emma Watson rose to fame as Hermione Granger in the Harry Potter films, then graduated from Brown University and became a UN Women Goodwill Ambassador.
Born in Paris, Raised in Oxford
Emma Charlotte Duerre Watson was born on 15 April 1990 in Paris and moved to Oxfordshire with her mother after her parents divorced. She trained at the Oxford branch of Stagecoach Theatre Arts and had acted only in school plays before winning the role of Hermione Granger.
Beyond Hogwarts
After the Harry Potter series she appeared in My Week with Marilyn (2011) and The Perks of Being a Wallflower (2012), then The Bling Ring (2013) and Noah (2014). She played Belle in Beauty and the Beast (2017) and Meg March in Little Women (2019). BAFTA named her British Artist of the Year in 2014.
Education and Activism
Watson graduated from Brown University with a degree in English literature in May 2014. That year she became a UN Women Goodwill Ambassador and helped launch the HeForShe gender-equality campaign. She was a founding member of Time’s Up UK in 2018 and sat on the board of Kering from 2020 to 2023. Time named her one of the 100 most influential people in 2015.
Business
In April 2023 Watson and her brother Alex launched Renais, a sustainable gin made from recycled grape skins and certified carbon neutral. They won the Soho House Award for “Breakthrough Entrepreneur” in September 2023, and the company reportedly raised $6 million in January 2025.
Image: The Van Wickle Gates at Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, where Emma Watson earned her degree (not a photo of Watson). Photo: Farragutful / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
