Emily Watson

Emily Margaret Watson, OBE (born 14 January 1967) is an English actress. She was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress for her debut film role as Bess McNeil in Lars von Trier's Breaking the Waves (1996) and for her role as Jacqueline du Pré in Hilary and Jackie (1998). She won the BAFTA TV Award for Best Actress for the 2011 ITV drama Appropriate Adult.

Watson began her career on stage and joined the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1992. In 2002, she starred in productions of Twelfth Night and Uncle Vanya at the Donmar Warehouse, and was nominated for the 2003 Olivier Award for Best Actress for the latter. Her other films include The Boxer (1997), Angela's Ashes (1999), Gosford Park (2001), Punch-Drunk Love (2002), Red Dragon (2002), Equilibrium (2002), The Life and Death of Peter Sellers (2004), Within the Whirlwind (2009), War Horse (2011) and The Book Thief (2013).

Early life and education

Watson was born in Islington, London. Her father, Richard Watson, was an architect and her mother, Katharine (Venables), was an English teacher at St David's Girls' School, West London. She was brought up as an Anglican. Watson has described her childhood self as a "Nice middle class English girl ... I'd love to say I was a rebellious teenager but I wasn't".