Dame Emma Thompson

Growing up in England, Emma Thompson gravitated towards writing and the arts, eventually pursuing an English degree at Newnham College at Cambridge. While there, she began to find her calling to acting, especially when she joined the school's sketch comedy group that included the likes of Hugh Laurie and Stephen Fry. As she finished her time in school, she began to work her way onto the small screen, starting to break out in the mid-1980s with roles on shows such as "Tutti Frutti" (BBC 1987) and "Fortunes of War" (BBC1 1987), the latter of which is where she met her first husband Kenneth Branagh, who she would also go on to work with on a variety of films, including "Henry V" (1989), "Dead Again" (1991), and "Much Ado About Nothing" (1993). Her role in the Anthony Hopkins-starring "Howards End" (1992) drew her much acclaim and earned Thompson numerous Best Actress accolades, including an Academy Award, a Golden Globe, and a BAFTA. The following year, she joined the exclusive club of getting a nomination for two projects, in this case, for "In the Name of the Father" (1993) and "The Remains of the Day" (1993), though she won neither award. Her marriage with Branagh ended around the same time as "Sense and Sensibility" (1995) debuted, which Thompson starred in and also wrote. Both her performance and her screenplay received critical acclaim, resulting in another Oscar win, this time for Best Adapted Screenplay. Following that, Thompson focused her acting more on the small screen again, finding plaudits for her work in various miniseries and TV movies including "Wit" (HBO 2001) and "Angels in America" (HBO 2003). Around the same time, she also appeared as Professor Trelawney in multiple Harry Potter films, first in "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban" (2004). That was part of her return to more mainstream movies, as she appeared in both more nuanced dramas such as "Saving Mr. Banks" (2013) and box office smashes like "Beauty and the Beast" (2017) and "Men in Black 3" (2012). In 2019, Thompson starred in the Mindy Kaling-penned comedy "Late Night" (2019) as a beleaguered late night talk show host.