Emily Watson
Born: January 1967
Where: London, UK
Watson's debut saw her burst onto the scene as the flawed, lovelorn bride in Lars Von Trier's heartbreaking Breaking The Waves.
The daughter of an architect and an English professor, she studied at the London Drama Studio in Ealing.
She joined the Royal Shakespeare Company - where she met her husband actor Jack Walters - and performed in The Taming of the Shrew and The Changeling.
In 1994 Watson had her first TV appearance in the film Summer Day's Dream before Breaking The Waves, which became a big hit at Cannes.
She was named Best Actress by both the New York Film Critics Circle and the National Society of Film Critics and garnered a Best Actress Academy Award nomination for her debut.
This led to the challenging role in 1997 when she starred opposite Daniel Day Lewis in The Boxer.
The following year she received rave reviews for her performance as eccentric cellist Jacqueline du Pre in the Oscar Nominated Hilary and Jackie.
Subsequent work has included Alan Parker's Angela's Ashes and Robert Altman's ensemble country house murder mystery Gosford Park.
She was also cast in Red Dragon, Brett Ratner's prequel to The Silence of the Lambs, and opposite Adam Sandler in the off-kilter rom-com Punch-Drunk Love.
In 2002, she starred in the sci-fi thriller Equilibrium opposite Christian Bale and followed it with the German cartoon Boo, Zino And The Snurks.
She appeared in The Life and Death of Peter Sellers as the comic actor's wife and also starred in Tim Burton's Corpse Bride.
In 2005 she starred alongside Tom Wilkinson in the middle-class thriller Separate Lies and also appeared in Richard E Grant's autobiographic Wah-Wah.
