Dame Emma Thompson (born April 15, 1959) is a British actress and screenwriter. Her work spans over four decades of screen and stage, and her accolades include two Academy Awards, three BAFTA Awards, two Golden Globe Awards and a Primetime Emmy Award. In 2018, she was made a dame (DBE) by Queen Elizabeth II for her contributions to drama. Born to actors Eric Thompson and Phyllida Law, Thompson was educated at Newnham College, Cambridge, where she became a member of the Footlights troupe and appeared in the comedy sketch series Alfresco (1983–1984). In 1985, she starred in the West End revival of the musical Me and My Girl, which was a breakthrough in her career. In 1987, she became famous for her performances in two BBC series, Tutti Frutti and Fortunes of War, winning the BAFTA TV Award for Best Actress for her work on both series. In the early 1990s, she often collaborated with then-husband, actor and director Kenneth Branagh in films such as Henry V (1989), Dead Again (1991), and Much Ado About Nothing (1993). Thompson won the BAFTA Award and the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in the Merchant-Ivory period drama Howards End (1992). In 1993, she received two Academy Award nominations—Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress—for the respective roles of the housekeeper of a grand household in The Remains of the Day and a lawyer in In the Name of the Father, becoming one of the few actors to achieve this feat. Thompson wrote and starred in Sense and Sensibility (1995), for which she won the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay—making her the only person in history to win Oscars for both acting and writing—and once again won the BAFTA. Further critical acclaim came for her roles in Primary Colors (1998), Love Actually (2003), Saving Mr. Banks (2013), Late Night (2019), and Good Luck to You, Leo Grande (2022). Other notable film credits include the Harry Potter series (2004–2011), Nanny McPhee (2005), Stranger than Fiction (2006), An Education (2009), Men in Black 3 (2012) and the spin-off Men in Black: International (2019), Brave (2012), Beauty and the Beast (2017), Cruella (2021), and Matilda the Musical (2022). Her television credits include Wit (2001), Angels in America (2003), The Song of Lunch (2010), King Lear (2018) and Years and Years (2019). She portrayed Mrs. Lovett in a Lincoln Center production of Stephen Sondheim's Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street in 2014. Authorised by the publishers of Beatrix Potter, Thompson has also written three Peter Rabbit children's books.
105 movies · 44 shows
The Sheep Detectives
2026·7.9
Everybody to Kenmure Street
2026·8.3
Dead of Winter
2025·6.4
Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy
2025·6.4
Bad Tidings
2024·6.5
Merchant Ivory
2024·7.7
What's Love Got to Do with It?
2023·6.1
The Laughter & Secrets of Love Actually: 20 Years Later – A Diane Sawyer Special
2022·7.0
Roald Dahl's Matilda the Musical
2022·6.8
The Fringe, Fame and Me
2022·0.0
Good Luck to You, Leo Grande
2022·7.0
An Audience with Adele
2021·8.4
Cruella
2021·8.0
Hannibal Hopkins & Sir Anthony
2021·4.5
How to Build a Girl
2020·5.8
Dolittle
2020·6.6
Last Christmas
2019·7.2
Extinction
2019·0.0
Hollywood's Dark Secret
2019·0.0
Men in Black: International
2019·5.9
Missing Link
2019·6.9
Late Night
2019·6.4
Johnny English Strikes Again
2018·6.3
Beyond Boundaries: The Harvey Weinstein Scandal
2018·5.4
Greenpeace: There's a Rang-Tan in My Bedroom
2018·0.0
The Children Act
2018·6.6
King Lear
2018·6.1
Sea Sorrow
2017·5.3
The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected)
2017·6.5
Beauty and the Beast
2017·7.0
Die vielen Gesichter der Emma Thompson
2016·0.0
The Doubt Machine: Inside the Koch Brothers' War on Climate Science
2016·0.0
To the Ends of the Earth
2016·0.0
Bridget Jones's Baby
2016·6.4
Alone in Berlin
2016·6.7
Sainsbury's: Mog's Christmas Calamity
2015·9.0
Burnt
2015·6.5
A Walk in the Woods
2015·6.1
The Legend of Barney Thomson
2015·6.1
Men, Women & Children
2014·6.5
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
2014·8.1
Effie Gray
2014·6.0
The Real Mary Poppins
2014·4.0
The Love Punch
2014·6.0
Saving Mr. Banks
2013·7.3
Beautiful Creatures
2013·6.0
Brave
2012·7.0
Walking the Dogs
2012·0.0
Men in Black 3
2012·6.5
When Harry Left Hogwarts
2011·7.2
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2
2011·8.1
Fry and Laurie Reunited
2010·6.8
The Song of Lunch
2010·6.6
Nanny McPhee and the Big Bang
2010·6.3
An Education
2009·6.9
The Boat That Rocked
2009·7.2
A Sense of Character
2009·0.0
A Very Quiet Man
2009·0.0
Locating the World of Sense & Sensibility
2009·0.0
Elegance & Simplicity: The Wardrobe of Sense & Sensibility
2009·0.0
Last Chance Harvey
2008·6.3
Brideshead Revisited
2008·6.3
I Am Legend
2007·7.2
Stephen Fry: 50 Not Out
2007·0.0
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
2007·7.7
Stranger Than Fiction
2006·7.3
A Tribute To Ismail Merchant
2005·10.0
Nanny McPhee
2005·6.7
Nos Bastidores de Hollywood
2005·10.0
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
2004·8.0
Imagining Argentina
2003·5.7
Love Actually
2003·7.1
Treasure Planet
2002·7.6
Love & Loyalty: The Making of 'The Remains of the Day'
2001·6.5
Wit
2001·7.3
Blind Loyalty, Hollow Honor: England's Fatal Flaw
2001·7.0
The Remains of the Day: The Filmmaker's Journey
2001·6.5
Maybe Baby
2000·5.4
Junket Whore
1998·5.0
Judas Kiss
1998·5.7
Primary Colors
1998·6.3
The Winter Guest
1997·6.5
Hospital!
1997·6.0
Sense and Sensibility
1995·7.4
Carrington
1995·6.2
Junior
1994·5.2
The Blue Boy
1994·6.3
My Father the Hero
1994·5.4
In the Name of the Father
1993·7.9
The Remains of the Day
1993·7.4
Much Ado About Nothing
1993·6.9
Peter's Friends
1992·6.6
Howards End
1992·7.0
Rabbit Ears - The White Cat
1991·0.0
Dead Again
1991·6.4
Impromptu
1991·6.1
Tin Fish
1990·0.0
Look Back in Anger
1989·9.3
Henry V
1989·7.1
The Winslow Boy
1989·8.0
The Tall Guy
1989·5.7
Colleagues From Hell
1989·0.0
Royal Variety Performance 1984
1984·0.0
Slags
1984·2.0
The Cellar Tapes
1982·7.0