Emma Watson's 37th Birthday Countdown

Emma Watson Timeline

About Emma Watson

Cast as Hermione Granger at nine years old, Watson grew up on the Harry Potter set, then balanced acting with a Brown University degree and global advocacy as the face of UN Women's HeForShe campaign.

Nine, photographed in the school gym

When casting scouts swept England looking for Harry Potter's leads, they found Emma Watson through her Oxford theatre teacher and photographed her in her school gym. Eight auditions followed over more than a year, with Watson sitting by the phone at home waiting for each callback - and J.K. Rowling championing her from her very first screen test. Producer David Heyman finally told her she was the 'preferred' candidate, and in 2001 the world met her as Hermione Granger.

The 7.7-billion-dollar decade, then Belle

The eight Harry Potter films Watson grew up inside grossed over $7.7 billion worldwide, one of the most successful film series ever made. Rather than coast, she enrolled at Brown University mid-franchise and graduated in 2014 with a degree in English literature. Then came her biggest solo swing: playing Belle in Disney's 2017 Beauty and the Beast, which sang its way to about $1.26 billion worldwide and finished as the second-highest-grossing film of that year.

Gender equality is your issue too

Appointed a UN Women Goodwill Ambassador in July 2014, Watson launched the HeForShe campaign that September with a UN speech inviting men and boys into the fight for gender equality - the first UN campaign of its kind. She has long served as an ambassador for Camfed, which funds girls' education in rural Africa, and founded Our Shared Shelf, a feminist book club that grew into a huge online reading community sharing a new book every couple of months.

Quick facts

• Born April 15, 1990, in Paris, France
• Cast as Hermione at nine after eight auditions
• The eight Harry Potter films grossed over $7.7 billion worldwide
• Graduated from Brown University in 2014 with a degree in English literature
• Launched the UN's HeForShe campaign with her September 2014 speech
• Played Belle in the $1.26 billion Beauty and the Beast (2017)

Emma Watson's biggest films