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Oscar-winning actress and screenwriter
She became the only person in Academy Awards history to win Oscars for both acting and screenwriting.
Dame Emma Thompson, born April 15, 1959, is a British actress and screenwriter who made history as the only person to win Academy Awards for both acting (Howards End, 1993) and writing (Sense and Sensibility, 1996). The Aries-born star portrayed Professor Sybill Trelawney in the Harry Potter films and earned acclaim in Saving Mr. Banks, Love Actually, and Good Luck to You, Leo Grande. Standing 5'8" tall, Thompson was made a Dame by Queen Elizabeth II in 2018 for her contributions to drama.
Thompson studied English literature at Newnham College, Cambridge, where she joined the prestigious Footlights comedy troupe alongside Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie. In 1981, her Footlights team won the Perrier Award at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe for the sketch show The Cellar Tapes. She broke through in the mid-1980s with the West End musical Me and My Girl (1985) and the BBC series Fortunes of War (1987), for which she won her first BAFTA TV Award.
Thompson married actor Greg Wise in 2003 after meeting on the set of Sense and Sensibility in 1995. She was previously married to actor-director Kenneth Branagh from 1989 to 1995, collaborating with him on films like Henry V and Much Ado About Nothing. Thompson and Wise have a daughter born in 1999 and an adopted son, and she remains active in feminist causes and environmental activism.
Standing 5'8" (1.73m) tall, she portrayed the eccentric Divination professor Sybill Trelawney in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004) and Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007).
She was 35-36 years old during the filming of Sense and Sensibility in 1995, playing Elinor Dashwood while also writing the Oscar-winning screenplay.
Thompson wrote three authorized Peter Rabbit children's books, continuing the legacy of Beatrix Potter.
She became a self-described 'punk rocker' at Cambridge with short red hair and a motorbike, inspired by reading The Madwoman in the Attic.
Her Footlights colleagues nicknamed her 'Emma Talented' because they knew she would go the distance in her career.
Any problem, big or small, within a family, always seems to start with bad communication. Someone isn't listening.
I have a definite feeling of inheriting space. And power.
At the same time, it's possible that were he still alive I might never have had the space or courage to do what I've done.
Born on April 15 in Paddington, London to actors Eric Thompson and Phyllida Law
Began studying English literature at Newnham College, Cambridge and joined the Footlights troupe
Won the Perrier Award at Edinburgh Festival Fringe with Footlights for The Cellar Tapes
Won BAFTA TV Award for Best Actress for performances in Tutti Frutti and Fortunes of War
Married actor-director Kenneth Branagh in August
Won Academy Award for Best Actress for Howards End at age 33
Divorced Kenneth Branagh in October; met Greg Wise on the set of Sense and Sensibility
Won Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for Sense and Sensibility at age 36, becoming the only person to win Oscars for both acting and writing
Married actor Greg Wise and starred in Love Actually
Portrayed Professor Sybill Trelawney in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
Made Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II in June
Starred in Good Luck to You, Leo Grande and Roald Dahl's Matilda the Musical