Emma Thompson's Main TV Roles Show Character(s) Angels in America The Angel o… Alfresco (UK) Various rol… Assaulted Nuts (UK) Various (6) Fortunes of War (UK) Harriet Pri…

Main Movie Roles 2012 - Men in Black III 2010 - Nanny McPhee and the Big Bang 2009 - An Education 2009 - Last Chance Harvey 2009 - The Boat That Rocked 2008 - Brideshead Revisited 2007 - Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix 2007 - I Am Legend 2005 - Nanny McPhee 2004 - Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban 2003 - Love Actually 2002 - Treasure Planet 2000 - Maybe Baby 1998 - Primary Colors 1997 - The Winter Guest 1995 - Carrington 1995 - Sense and Sensibility 1994 - Junior 1994 - My Father, The Hero 1993 - In the Name of the Father 1993 - Much Ado About Nothing 1993 - The Remains of the Day 1992 - Peter's Friends 1992 - Howards End 1991 - Impromptu 1991 - Dead Again 1989 - The Tall Guy 1989 - Henry V

BIOGRAPHY:

Emma Thompson was born in London on April 15, 1959, into a family of actors - her father was Eric Thompson (I), who has passed away, and her mother, Phyllida Law, has co-starred with Thompson in several films (her sister, Sophie Thompson, is an actor as well). Thompson's wit was earlier cultivated by a cheerful, clever, creative family atmosphere, and she was a popular and successful student. She attended Cambridge University, studying English Literature, and was part of the university's Footlights Group, the famous group where, previously, many of the Monty Python members had first met.

Thompson graduated in 1980 and embarked on her career in entertainment, beginning with stints on BBC radio and touring with comedy shows. She soon got her first major break in television, on the comedy skit program "Alfresco" (1983), writing and performing along with her fellow Footlights Group alums Stephen Fry (I) and Hugh Laurie. She also worked on other TV comedy review programs in the mid-1980s, occasionally with some of her fellow Footlights alums, and often with actor Robbie Coltrane.

Thompson found herself collaborating again with Fry in 1985, this time in his stage adaptation of the play "Me and My Girl" in London's West End, in which she had a leading role, playing Sally Smith. The show was a success and she received favorable reviews, and the strength of her performance led to her casting as the lead in the BBC television miniseries "Fortunes of War" (1987), in which Thompson and her co-star, Kenneth Branagh, play an English ex-patriate couple living in Eastern Europe as the Second World War erupts. Thompson won a BAFTA award for her work on the program. She married Branagh in 1989, continued to work with him professionally, and formed a production company with him. In the late 80s and early 90s, she starred in a string of well-received and successful television and film productions, most notably her lead role in the Merchant-Ivory production of Howards End (1992), which confirmed her ability to carry a movie on both sides of the Atlantic and appropriately showered her with trans-Atlantic honors - both an Oscar and a BAFTA award.

Since then, Thompson has continued to move effortlessly between the art film world and mainstream Hollywood, though even her Hollywood roles tend to be in more up-market productions. She continues to work on television as well, but is generally very selective about which roles she takes. She writes for the screen as well, such as the screenplay for Ang Lee's Sense and Sensibility (1995), in which she also starred as Elinor Dashwood, and the teleplay adaptation of Margaret Edson's acclaimed play Wit (2001) (TV), in which she also starred.

Thompson is known for her sophisticated, skillful, though her critics say somewhat mannered, performances, and of course for her arch wit, which she is unafraid to point at herself - she is a fearless self-satirist. Thompson and Branagh divorced in 1994, and Thompson is now married to fellow actor Greg Wise, who had played Willoughby in Ang Lee's Sense and Sensibility (1995). Thompson and Wise have one child, Gaia, born in 1999.


TRIVIA:

• Graduated from Camden School for Girls, and the all-women Newnham College of Cambridge University with a degree in English (1982). 'Jodhi May' (qv) also attended Camden School for Girls.
• Turned down the 'Jodie Foster' (qv) role in _Anna and the King (1999)_ (qv).
• Accepted the role of Professor Trelawny in _Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004)_ (qv) to impress her daughter, Gaia.
• Her performance as Miss Kenton in _The Remains of the Day (1993)_ (qv) is ranked #52 on Premiere Magazine's 100 Greatest Performances of All Time (2006).
• Her daughter's name is Gaia Romilly Wise.
• Cambridge Footlights Revue (198?) with 'Hugh Laurie' (qv), 'Stephen Fry (I)' (qv).
• Her mother is 'Phyllida Law' (qv), who has appeared in several movies with her.
• (1998) Was to executive produce the film "Johnny Hit and Run Pauline", that was to be written and directed by 'Fay Efrosini Lellios' (qv). Actors 'Sherilyn Fenn' (qv), 'Kate Winslet' (qv), 'Rufus Sewell' (qv), 'Miranda Richardson (I)' (qv) and 'Paul McGann (I)' (qv) were involved in the project. The shooting was set to start in June 1998 in New Hampshire. The film was canceled due to financial withdrawal.