Emma Thompson was born on April 15, 1959, in Paddington, a district of London. Her father was the actor Eric Thompson, famous for narrating children's television classic The Magic Roundabout, and her mother is Phyllida Law, known for her performances in Mad Cows and The Time Machine. Emma's younger sister, Sophie Thompson, also went on to become an actress, winning a Laurence Olivier Award for her work in theatre.
Thompson studied English Literature at Newnham College, Cambridge, where she joined the famous Footlights troupe, dating fellow member Hugh Laurie (who later starred in House). She subsequently moved into television work, focusing on her talents as a comedian, and performed in The Comic Strip Presents: Slags, with Anthony Stuart Head and Jennifer Saunders, and an episode of The Young Ones, with Rik Mayall, Adrian Edmondson, and Nigel Planer. Thompson then won a major role as Robbie Coltrane's love interest in John Byrne's Tutti Frutti and made a change of pace in Fortunes of War, alongside Kenneth Branagh and Rupert Graves. Two years later, she and Branagh married, and they went on to form their own production company, starring together in a film of Shakespeare's Henry V, with Derek Jacobi and Brian Blessed, for which Branagh received Oscar nominations as both actor and director.
Prior to Henry V, Thompson had enjoyed a breakthrough film role in energetic romantic comedy The Tall Guy, opposite Jeff Goldblum. This marked the start of a highly successful career whose highlights were to include an adaptation of Kazuo Ishiguru's The Remains of the Day, with Anthony Hopkins and Christopher Reeve; biopic Carrington, with Jonathan Pryce and Rufus Sewell; Ang Lee's Jane Austen adaptation (from Thompson's own script) Sense and Sensibility, with Hugh Grant and Keira Knightley; and the popular romantic comedy Love Actually, with Bill Nighy and Liam Neeson. She returned to Shakespeare in 1993's Much Ado About Nothing, alongside Keanu Reeves, Kate Beckinsale, and Robert Sean Leonard. Thompson has recently become a children's favorite with her performances as Professor Sybil Trelawney in the Harry Potter films.
As well as winning a Best Actress Oscar and a Golden Globe for her work opposite Anthony Hopkins in Howard's End, Thompson has won two Best Actress BAFTAs and has received numerous award nominations, most notably for In The Name of the Father, with Daniel Day Lewis. She has used her influence to support independent films, to take a stand on political issues (most recently the Make Poverty History campaign), and to develop her own projects; after nine years she finally succeeded in making Nanny McPhee with Colin Firth and Kelly Macdonald.
Thompson split from Branagh in 1995 after his rumored affair with Helena Bonham Carter (the couple later lived together; Bonham Carter has since become engaged to director Tim Burton). In 2003, Thompson married actor Greg Wise, and they have a daughter, Gaia Romilly Wise.
Thompson's latest film, Stranger than Fiction, with Will Ferrell, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Dustin Hoffman, and Queen Latifah opened in 2006.
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