Emma Charlotte Duerre Watson (born April 15, 1990) is a British actress who played Hermione Granger in the Harry Potter films Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (2001) and its sequels Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002) and Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004). She is to reprise the role in the fourth movie in the series, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, which is as of 2004 in production.

Watson, who was born and raised in the city of Oxford, was named after her aunt of the same name. She began showing interest in acting as soon as she entered school and began to participate in several plays (including Arthur the Young Years, where she played Morgan Le Faye), The Daisy Pratt Poetry contest (which she won first place), and even on a video production they made. However, she had no professional acting experience prior to her being cast as Hermione.

She has most recently starred in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, which opened in June 2004. After its start Emma Watson became, according to the Lycos Top 50, the most popular "Potter Star" – she made place 8 in the list of the most searches. There is no other star of the Potter movies within the top 50.

As a result of her critically acclaimed performance in The Chamber of Secrets, on 14 January 2003, she won the award for "Best Performance by a Youth in a Lead or Supporting Role - Female" in the Phoenix Film Critics Awards.