Emma Thompson Biography

Emma Thompson is an English actress known for appearing in the Harry Potter movies and for her Oscar-winning screenplay for the 1995 film version of Jane Austen‘s Sense and Sensibility. She had her first success in the 1980s, in British television — especially the series Tutti Frutti and Fortunes of War. She then became internationally famous as a film star, and in the 1990s she became a regular nominee at the Oscars. Thompson was nominated for her performances in Howard’s End (1992, and she won), In the Name of the Father (1993), The Remains of the Day (1993) and Sense and Sensibility. She was also a newsworthy celebrity because of her marriage at the time to Kenneth Branagh, with whom she appeared in Henry V (1989), Dead Again (1991) and Much Ado About Nothing (1993).

From leading lady in the 1990s, Thompson opted for more supporting roles in the 2000s, while raising kids and writing. Memorable screen roles were as Sybil Trelawney in the Harry Potter series of movies, as Alan Rickman‘s wife in Love Actually (2003), as Nanny McPhee in the children’s films she also scripted (2005 and 2010), and as P.L. Travers, the author of Mary Poppins, in Saving Mr. Banks (2013, also starring Tom Hanks as Walt Disney).