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Emma Thompson was born in London on April 15, 1959, into a family of actors - her father was Eric Thompson, who has passed away, and her mother, Phyllida Law, has co-starred with Thompson in several films (her sister, Sophie Thompson, is an actor as well). Thompson's wit was earlier cultivated by a cheerful, clever, creative family atmosphere, and she was a popular and successful student. She attended Cambridge University, studying English Literature, and was part of the university's Footlights Group, the famous group where, previously, many of the Monty Python members had first met.

Thompson graduated in 1980 and embarked on her career in entertainment, beginning with stints on BBC radio and touring with comedy shows. She soon got her first major break in television, on the comedy skit program "Alfresco" (1983), writing and performing along with her fellow Footlights Group alums Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie. She also worked on other TV comedy review programs in the mid-1980s, occasionally with some of her fellow Footlights alums, and often with actor Robbie Coltrane.

Thompson found herself collaborating again with Fry in 1985, this time in his stage adaptation of the play "Me and My Girl" in London's West End, in which she had a leading role, playing Sally Smith. The show was a success and she received favorable reviews, and the strength of her performance led to her casting as the lead in the BBC television miniseries "Fortunes of War" (1987) (mini), in which Thompson and her co-star, Kenneth Branagh, play an English ex-patriate couple living in Eastern Europe as the Second World War erupts. Thompson won a BAFTA award for her work on the program. She married Branagh in 1989, continued to work with him professionally, and formed a production company with him. In the late 80s and early 90s, she starred in a string of well-received and successful television and film productions, most notably her lead role in the Merchant-Ivory production of Howards End (1992), which confirmed her ability to carry a movie on both sides of the Atlantic and appropriately showered her with trans-Atlantic honors - both an Oscar and a BAFTA award.

Since then, Thompson has continued to move effortlessly between the art film world and mainstream Hollywood, though even her Hollywood roles tend to be in more up-market productions. She continues to work on television as well, but is generally very selective about which roles she takes. She writes for the screen as well, such as the screenplay for Ang Lee's Sense and Sensibility (1995), in which she also starred as Elinor Dashwood, and the teleplay adaptation of Margaret Edson's acclaimed play Wit (2001) (TV), in which she also starred.

Thompson is known for her sophisticated, skillful, though her critics say somewhat mannered, performances, and of course for her arch wit, which she is unafraid to point at herself - she is a fearless self-satirist. Thompson and Branagh divorced in 1994, and Thompson is now married to fellow actor Greg Wise, who had played Willoughby in Ang Lee's Sense and Sensibility (1995). Thompson and Wise have one child, Gaia, born in 1999. SPECIAL THANKS TO ELLEN ARMSTRONG FOR ADDITIONAL MILESTONES! THANKS ELLEN! :) ADRIANE

Milestones 1979 Acted with Cambridge University's Footlights revue at the Edinburgh Fringe (date approximate)

1981 Co-wrote, co-produced, co-directed and performed with Cambridge's first all-female revue, "Woman's Hour"

1981 Emma participated in the Fringe Festival, Edinburgh, with Stephen Fry, Hugh Laurie and others in 'A Sense of Nonsense'

1984 Thompson appeared in an episode of 'The Young Ones' once more with Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie.

1983 Worked with Hugh Laurie and Stephen Fry on the TV show "Alfresco"

1983 She co-wrote, co-produced, and co-directed Cambridge University's first all-female revue "Woman's Hour".

1985 Co-starred opposite Robert Lindsay in the West End hit musical, "Me and My Girl" for a 16-month run

1987 Starred with Robbie Coltrane in six-hour BBC-TV miniseries, "Tutti Frutti"

1988 Hosted and wrote own BBC-TV comedy-variety series, "Thompson"

1989 Acted the role of Katherine in "Henry V", directed and starring Branagh

1989 Film debut in "The Tall Guy"

1989 Joined Renaissance Theatre Company and was directed by Branagh as the Fool in "King Lear" and as Helena in "A Midsummer's Night's Dream"

1989 Played opposite Kenneth Branagh in stage revival of "Look Back in Anger", directed by Dame Judi Dench; production was filmed for TV directed by David Jones

1992 Breakthrough screen role, Margaret Schlegel in the Merchant-Ivory production of "Howards End", co-starring

Anthony Hopkins; received Best Actress Academy Award

1992 Made memorable guest appearance on the NBC sitcom "Cheers" as Nanny Gee, a woman from Dr Frasier Crane's past

1993 Earned two Oscar nominations: Best Actress for her performance as a housekeeper in Merchant-Ivory's "The Remains of the Day", again opposite Hopkins; and Best Supporting Actress for her turn as a barrister in "In the Name of the Father"

1994 Played a rare comic lead in "Junior" opposite Arnold Schwarzenegger

1994 Starred in the British TV drama "The Blue Boy"; first time her mother, actress Phyllida Law was cast as her onscreen mother

1995 Made screenwriting debut with adaptation of Jane Austen's "Sense and Sensibility"; also starred; received a Best Actress Academy Award nomination and won Best Screenplay Oscar

1997 Made guest appearance on the ABC sitcom "Ellen" playing a British actress named "Emma Thompson" who reveals she's a lesbian from Ohio

1997 Played opposite her real-life mother as mother and daughter in "The Winter Guest", directed by Alan Rickman 1998 Cast as the wife of a presidential candidate in "Primary Colors"

2000 Made cameo appearance in "Maybe Baby"

2001 Returned to acting playing a professor who develops ovarian cancer in the HBO adaptation of the Pulitzer Prize-winning "Wit", directed by Mike Nichols; premiered at the Berlin Film Festival; also credited with penning the screenplay with Nichols; received Emmy nominations for writing and starring

2003 Reunited with Nichols to play the Angel in the HBO miniseries adaptation of "Angels in America"; received a SAG and an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Actress in a Miniseries or Movie (2004)

2003 Starred in Richard Curtis' directorial debut "Love Actually"

2004 Cast as Sibyl Trelawney, the ethereal and quirky professor of divination in "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban"; based on the third book in the best-selling children's series by J.K. Rowling

2006 Co-starred as the narrator dictating Will Ferrell's life in the Marc Forster comedy, "Stranger Than Fiction"

2006 Played a governess who uses magic to rein in the behavior of seven ne'er-do-well children in "Nanny McPhee"; also wrote screenplay Performed in her first solo show, "Short Vehicle" Played Harriet Pringle opposite Kenneth Branagh in the nine-part miniseries "Fortunes of War" Took time off from acting to write the script for "Victor-An Unfinished Song", a biopic of Chilean folk singer Victor Jara and for motherhood

You are Elinor Dashwood from Sense and Sensibility! You are sensible and possess great strength of understanding and coolness of judgement. Your affectionate heart feels deeply, however, you guard your emotions carefully, so that others might be ignorant of your feelings towards them. Drawing has always been your favourite pastime.A typical comment that could have been made by you: ~I cannot attempt to deny that I honour him...that I greatly esteem him...that I like him.~
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