Emilia Clarke Biography – a British Actress who known as Daenerys Targaryen

Emilia Isobel Euphemia Rose Clarke (born 23 October 1986) is a British actress. She is best known for her portrayal of Daenerys Targaryen in the HBO fantasy series Game of Thrones (2011–2019), for which she received nominations for four Primetime Emmy Awards.

Clarke studied at Drama Centre London, appearing in several stage productions. Her television debut was a guest appearance in the BBC One medical soap opera Doctors in 2009, at age 22. Clarke made her Broadway debut as Holly Golightly in the 2013 play Breakfast at Tiffany’s and played Nina in a West End production of The Seagull that was suspended due to the COVID-19 lockdowns. Her film roles include Sarah Connor in the science fiction film Terminator Genisys (2015), Qi’ra in the Star Wars film Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018), and the romance films Me Before You (2016) and Last Christmas (2019). She starred as G’iah in the Marvel Cinematic Universe miniseries Secret Invasion (2023).

Early life (Emilia Clarke Biography)

Emilia Isobel Euphemia Rose Clarke was born on 23 October 1986 in London. She grew up in Oxfordshire. Her father, Peter Clarke, was a theatre sound engineer from Wolverhampton. Her mother, Jennifer, was a businesswoman and is the vice president for marketing at a global management consultancy firm as of 2020. Clarke has Indian ancestry on her mother’s side of the family; her maternal grandmother was the child of a secret affair between Clarke’s great-grandmother and a man from the Indian subcontinent and wore light make-up to conceal the darker complexion she had inherited from her father. She credits this background to her family’s having a “history of fighters”, stating, “The fact that [my grandmother] had to hide her skin color, essentially, and try desperately to fit in with everyone else must’ve been incredibly difficult.” She stated that her grandmother “loved India more than she loved England” and as such, when she died, sixteen-year-old Clarke traveled to India to scatter her ashes. She has an older brother, Bennett, who works in the entertainment industry and was part of the camera department on Game of Thrones.

Clarke became interested in acting at age three after seeing a production of the musical Show Boat. When she was ten, her father took her to a West End audition for The Goodbye Girl, a musical by Neil Simon. Clarke was educated at Rye St Antony School in Headington and St Edward’s School, Oxford, which she left in 2005. In a 2016 interview with Time Out, she stated “I went to posh boarding schools, but I wasn’t the posh girl at the posh boarding schools.” She also stated that most of the people at her boarding school in Oxford were from Conservative backgrounds, which meant she and some of her friends often felt like outsiders. After graduation, Clarke unsuccessfully applied to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. She worked and traveled before enrolling at Drama Centre London, where she graduated in 2009.

Career (Emilia Clarke Biography)

2000–2010: Beginnings

Clarke started to act in stage productions while attending school. She appeared in student productions of Twelfth Night and West Side Story while attending St Edward’s School. After taking a sabbatical year, she was accepted into Drama Centre London. Clarke also appeared in the 2009 production of Sense, co-produced by theatre company Company of Angels and Drama Centre London.

One of her first film roles was in Drop the Dog, a University of London student short film. She graduated from drama school in 2009. She worked at various non-acting jobs after graduating while auditioning for roles. She starred in two commercials for the charity Samaritans, portraying a domestic abuse victim. Her first credited television role was a bit part in a 2009 episode of the British soap opera Doctors. Clarke was cast in her first professional film role, playing Savannah in the 2010 television film Triassic Attack. The film was released in November 2010 on the Syfy channel in the United States where it received negative reviews. Despite the film’s reviews, she was named a “UK Star of Tomorrow” by the film magazine Screen International.

2011–2019: Game of Thrones and worldwide recognition

Clarke was cast in her third professional role in 2010, as Daenerys Targaryen in the HBO fantasy series Game of Thrones. It is based on the fantasy book series A Song of Ice and Fire by George R. R. Martin. Daenerys is one of the last surviving members of House Targaryen who had ruled Westeros from the Iron Throne for nearly three hundred years before being ousted. Actress Tamzin Merchant was originally cast for the part of Daenerys. When the pilot episode was re-shot in early 2010, Merchant was replaced by Clarke. The show ran from April 2011 until May 2019, with Clarke portraying Daenerys throughout all eight seasons.

In addition to the television show, she lent her voice and likeness to the 2014 video game of the same name. She also made a cameo appearance during Kit Harington‘s monologue on Saturday Night Live in April 2019. She said in a November 2019 NPR interview that if she “were to get stereotyped as the mother of dragons, I could ask for worse. It’s quite wonderful.” In a 2021 interview with theSkimm, Clarke stated that she would change the way her character died.

2012–2021: Varied roles, franchise films, and publishing

Clarke’s first film role was in the short film Shackled (2012). The film was featured in the 2020 Amazon Prime Video horror anthology series Murder Manual. The same year, she starred alongside Elliott Tittensor in the comedy film Spike Island. It details a group of friends who try to get to the namesake island of The Stone Roses 1990 concert. The movie was originally distributed only in the United Kingdom but was subsequently picked up by Level 33 Entertainment for North American distribution in March 2015. From March to April 2013, she played Holly Golightly in a Broadway production of Breakfast at Tiffany’s, a role requiring her to perform a nude scene. The production, along with her performance, received mixed reviews from critics. Later that year, she also starred in the black comedy-crime drama film Dom Hemingway alongside Jude Law.

She was cast as the female lead in Solo: A Star Wars Story in November 2016. The movie, which was directed by Ron Howard and premiered in May 2018, details the origins of Star Wars characters Han Solo and Chewbacca. Clarke played Qi’ra, Han’s childhood friend and love interest. The film received favorable critical reviews despite being the second-lowest-grossing Star Wars film. The film was released worldwide on 25 May 2018. Her performance received positive critical reviews with many calling her one of the standouts of the film. Clarke, along with Jack Huston, was cast in 2016 as the lead in the film Above Suspicion (2019). The film is based on a thriller novel by Joe Sharkey and directed by Phillip Noyce and was announced at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival. The film received generally favourable reviews with Clarke’s performance being highly praised by critics. It also had a turbulent release which left it vulnerable to piracy. In late 2019, Clarke starred opposite Henry Golding in the romantic comedy Last Christmas. The film was written by Emma Thompson and directed by Paul Feig. In a January 2020 interview with Bustle magazine, Clarke stated she was inspired by Will Ferrell‘s character in the 2003 comedy film Elf. Despite its unfavorable reviews, critics praised Clarke’s performance, and the film went on to become a box office success grossing over $121 million worldwide.

Clarke starred as Nina in the West End production of Anton Chekhov’s The Seagull, directed by Jamie Lloyd, which began previews on 11 March 2020 at the Playhouse Theatre. The production was suspended on 16 March due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The play was Clarke’s first West End production. It resumed two years later in July 2022 and was broadcast internationally via National Theatre Live. In 2021, Clarke published the first in a series of comic books titled M.O.M.: Mother of Madness which she co-wrote with Marguerite Bennett.

2022–present

In 2022, Clarke was cast in the animation film The Amazing Maurice. The film, which is an adaptation of The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents by Terry Pratchett, was released in the United Kingdom on 16 December 2022 and in the United States on 3 February 2023. In January 2023, Clarke starred in and executive produced The Pod Generation. The film had its premiere at the Sundance Film Festival and was directed by Sophie Barthes.

Clarke was cast as the lead in the English language adaptation of the 2015 Korean romantic comedy The Beauty Inside. As of October 2019, the film was yet to begin production. It was announced in May 2019 that Clarke is set to play the English poet Elizabeth Barrett in the film Let Me Count the Ways, which The Wife director Björn Runge is set to direct.

In April 2021, Clarke joined the cast of Secret Invasion for Disney+, set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The show premiered on 21 June 2023. In October 2021, Clarke was cast to portray Jean Kerr, wife of Joseph McCarthy, in a biopic titled McCarthy. In October 2022, it was announced that Clarke is set to play Irish author Constance Lloyd in director Sophie Hyde’s film, An Ideal Wife.

Other ventures (Emilia Clarke Biography)

Advertising and endorsements

In 2015, luxury goods company Dior signed Clarke to be the face of the Rose des Vents jewelry collection. In 2018, Dolce & Gabbana announced she would be the brand ambassador for the fragrance “The Only One”. She starred in an advertisement, which was directed by Matteo Garrone for the perfume. Cosmetics company Clinique announced Clarke as their first global ambassador in early 2020.

Philanthropy (Emilia Clarke Biography)

Clarke has lent her support to various charitable organizations. In September 2011, she joined the SMA UK Trust Team as their celebrity ambassador. The SMA Trust raises funds for research into spinal muscular atrophy. In August 2017, she became a patron of Open Door, a nonprofit that aims to help young people gain access to drama school auditions. She auctioned a chance to watch an episode of Game of Thrones with her at the 2018 Sean Penn Charity Gala, which raised over $120,000 benefiting the J/P HRO & Disaster Relief Organizations. In February 2018, she introduced the award recipients at London’s Centrepoint Awards, which celebrates the courage shown by homeless young people.

In April 2018, she was named the sole ambassador to the Royal College of Nursing (RCN). As the RCN’s ambassador, Clarke pledged to use her voice to fight for greater investment in nursing and to challenge misconceptions. Clarke also pledged to join nurses and healthcare workers to tackle the issues affecting the profession, including a falling number in training and shortages in the current workforce.

In September 2020, she joined Emma Thompson, Sanjeev Bhaskar, and Robert Lindsay in a virtual reading of the play Private Lives by English playwright Noël Coward. It was announced that all funds raised from the performance would be used as a crisis grant to support those in the theatre industry who were struggling financially as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Personal life and public image

Clarke lives in the London Borough of Islington. She also owned a house in the Venice Beach neighborhood of Los Angeles, which she purchased in 2016 and sold in December 2020.

In a 2013 interview with Allure, Clarke stated that her mother had rules when she was growing up: “Don’t do drugs, don’t have sex, and don’t touch your eyebrows.” She stated that she was bullied as a child for “having ridiculous eyebrows”.

In an essay she wrote for The New Yorker in 2019, Clarke revealed that she had suffered a subarachnoid hemorrhage caused by a ruptured aneurysm in February 2011. She underwent urgent endovascular coiling surgery and subsequently suffered from aphasia, at one point being unable to say her name. She had a second aneurysm surgically treated in 2013.

Clarke was voted the most desirable woman in the world by AskMen readers in 2014. In 2015, she was named Esquire‘s Sexiest Woman Alive and was also recognized with the GQ Woman of the Year Award. Clarke appeared on FHM‘s 100 Sexiest Women in the World list in 2015, 2016, and 2017. She was also included on Glamour‘s list of Best Dressed Women in 2017.

Once filming wrapped on the final season of Game of Thrones, Clarke, as a tribute to her role as Daenerys Targaryen, celebrated her time on the show with a wrist tattoo featuring a trio of flying dragons.

Filmography (Emilia Clarke Biography)

Film

Television (Emilia Clarke Biography)

Discography (Emilia Clarke Biography)

Theatre

Accolades (Emilia Clarke Biography)

Awards and nominations

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