Emma Thompson (born April 15, 1959 in Paddington, London) is an Academy Award-winning British actress. She is the daughter of actor Eric Thompson (of The Magic Roundabout fame) and actress Phyllida Law. Her sister is actress Sophie Thompson .

Emma Thompson read English Literature at Newnham College, Cambridge where she was a member of the Footlights comedy club. After Cambridge she came to fame with a leading role in the BBC drama serial, Fortunes of War (based on the novels of Olivia Manning), in which she played opposite Kenneth Branagh, whom she later married (August 20, 1989). They appeared together in hit films such as Dead Again, Henry V and Much Ado About Nothing, but eventually divorced (October 1995). Thompson later (2003) married actor Greg Wise , with whom she had a daughter (born 1999)

Thompson also starred in romantic comedies such as The Tall Guy, and more serious films such as Howards End, based on the E. M. Forster novel, the sombre The Remains of the Day opposite Anthony Hopkins, and The Winter Guest (direcor: Alan Rickman). However, the pinnacle of her career was winning an Academy Award in 1996 for the screenplay adaptation of Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility, in which she also played the lead, Elinor Dashwood .

Thompson appeared as Sibyll Trelawney in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004) following her divorced husband Kenneth Branagh who played Gilderoy Lockhart in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002).

She also appeared as Cecilia in Imagining Argentina (2003), playing alongside Antonio Banderas.

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