Biography
Dame Emma Thompson (born 15 April 1959) is a British actress and screenwriter. Her work spans over four decades of screen and stage, and her accolades include two Academy Awards, three BAFTA Awards, two Golden Globe Awards and a Primetime Emmy Award. In 2018, she was made a dame (DBE) by Queen Elizabeth II for her contributions to drama. Born to actors Eric Thompson and Phyllida Law, Thompson was educated at Newnham College, Cambridge, where she became a member of the Footlights troupe and appe...
Known For
Complete Filmography

Three Bags Full: A Sheep Detective Movie
2026
George Hardy, a shepherd who loves his sheep and raises them only for their wool. Every night he reads aloud a murder mystery, pretending his sheep ca...

The Dead of Winter
2025
A widowed fisherwoman, while trapped in a Minnesotan blizzard, interrupts the kidnapping of a teenager and soon finds she is the young victim's only h...

The Dead of Winter
2025
Executive Producer
A widowed fisherwoman, while trapped in a Minnesotan blizzard, interrupts the kidnapping of a teenager and soon finds she is the young victim's only h...

Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy
2025
as Dr. Rawlings
Bridget Jones navigates life as a widow and single mum with the help of her family, friends, and former lover, Daniel. Back to work and on the apps, s...

The Untold Story of Mary Poppins: A Special Edition of 20/20
2024
as Self
ABC takes viewers on a magical journey to celebrate the 60th anniversary of one of Walt Disney’s most beloved films.

Mediha
2024
Executive Producer
A teenager from northern Iraq, Mediha is a member of the Yazidi ethnic and religious minority. She’s also the survivor of an ISIS-orchestrated genocid...

Merchant Ivory
2024
as Self
The first definitive feature documentary to lend new and compelling perspectives on the partnership, both professional and personal, of director James...

What's Love Got to Do with It?
2023
as Cath
Two childhood friends now in their thirties must decide whether to follow their heads or their hearts once the man decides to follow his parents' advi...

The Laughter & Secrets of Love Actually: 20 Years Later – A Diane Sawyer Special
2022
as Self
ABC News anchor Diane Sawyer marks the 20th anniversary of the making of the holiday classic movie “Love Actually” in this primetime special. Featurin...

Roald Dahl's Matilda the Musical
2022
as Agatha Trunchbull
An extraordinary young girl discovers her superpower and summons the remarkable courage, against all odds, to help others change their stories, whilst...

The Fringe, Fame and Me
2022
as Self
The Fringe, Fame and Me is the story of how a small Scottish arts festival that began 75 years ago this year became a national institution – a crucibl...

Good Luck to You, Leo Grande
2022
as Nancy Stokes
Nancy Stokes, a retired schoolteacher, is pretty sure she has never had good sex. Now that her husband has died, she is determined to take a tour of s...

Twelve Nights
2021
as Narrator
This film not only lays bare the brutal realities that people experiencing homelessness face, but also highlights the true value of Crisis and its ser...

An Audience with Adele
2021
as Self
Joining multi-Grammy Award winning and one of the biggest UK artists of all time, Adele, for a unique and special night at the legendary London Pallad...

Cruella
2021
as The Baroness
In 1970s London amidst the punk rock revolution, a young grifter named Estella is determined to make a name for herself with her designs. She befriend...

Hannibal Hopkins & Sir Anthony
2021
as Self (archive footage)
Hopkins’ career has spanned several decades, which is why we will also use many interviews that he gave throughout his life, allowing us to put him ba...

How to Build a Girl
2020
as Amanda
The journey of Midlands teenager Johanna Morrigan, who reinvents herself as Dolly Wilde: fast-talking, lady sex-adventurer, moves to London, and gets ...

Dolittle
2020
as Poly (voice)
After losing his wife seven years earlier, the eccentric Dr. John Dolittle, famed doctor and veterinarian of Queen Victoria’s England, hermits himself...

Last Christmas
2019
as Petra Andrich
Kate is a young woman who has a habit of making bad decisions, and her last date with disaster occurs after she accepts work as Santa's elf for a depa...

Last Christmas
2019
Producer, Screenplay
Kate is a young woman who has a habit of making bad decisions, and her last date with disaster occurs after she accepts work as Santa's elf for a depa...

Extinction
2019
A political satire about climate change. Focused on the protest group Extinction Rebellion.

Hollywood's Dark Secret
2019
as Self
After decades of secrecy and cover-ups, Hollywood's Dark Secret was revealed to the world- on the wings of inspiring bravery. Voices that had long bee...

Men in Black: International
2019
as Agent O
The Men in Black have always protected the Earth from the scum of the universe. In this new adventure, they tackle their biggest, most global threat t...

Missing Link
2019
as Dora the Yeti Elder (voice)
The charismatic Sir Lionel Frost considers himself to be the world's foremost investigator of myths and monsters. Trouble is, none of his small-minded...

Ponyboi
2019
Co-Producer
An intersex runaway searches for love and a way out of his working class neighborhood in New Jersey.

Late Night
2019
as Katherine Newbury
A legendary late-night talk show host's world is turned upside down when she hires her only female staff writer. Originally intended to smooth over di...

Johnny English Strikes Again
2018
as Prime Minister
Disaster strikes when a criminal mastermind reveals the identities of all active undercover agents in Britain. The secret service can now rely on only...

Beyond Boundaries: The Harvey Weinstein Scandal
2018
as Self (archive footage)
Examine the rise and fall of Hollywood media mogul Harvey Weinstein following the scandal in 2017. Learn from exclusive interviews with those who knew...

Greenpeace: There's a Rang-Tan in My Bedroom
2018
as Narrator (voice)
Greenpeace brings the rampant destruction of rainforest habitat in Indonesia to grow palm oil into the spotlight.

The Children Act
2018
as Fiona Maye
In the midst of a marital crisis, a High Court judge must decide if she should order a life-saving blood transfusion for a teen with cancer despite hi...

King Lear
2018
as Goneril
An aging King invites disaster, when he abdicates to his corrupt, toadying daughters, and rejects his loving and honest one.

Sea Sorrow
2017
as Self
A very personal and dynamic meditation on the current global refugee crisis through the eyes and voices of campaigners, specially children, where past...

The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected)
2017
as Maureen Meyerowitz
An estranged family gathers together in New York for an event celebrating the artistic work of their father.

Beauty and the Beast
2017
as Mrs. Potts
A live-action adaptation of Disney's version of the classic tale of a cursed prince and a beautiful young woman who helps him break the spell.

Die vielen Gesichter der Emma Thompson
2016
as Elle-Même
The Doubt Machine: Inside the Koch Brothers' War on Climate Science
2016
as Narrator (voice)
Narrated by two-time Oscar winner Emma Thompson, this documentary exposes how two of America's richest citizens, Charles and David Koch, built a vast ...

To the Ends of the Earth
2016
as Narrator (voice)
This compassionate doc follows concerned citizens living at the frontiers of extreme oil and gas extraction; as they denounce the rise of extreme ener...

Bridget Jones's Baby
2016
as Dr Rawlings
After breaking up with Mark Darcy five years earlier, Bridget Jones' happily-ever-after hasn't quite gone according to plan. Fortysomething and single...

Bridget Jones's Baby
2016
Screenplay
After breaking up with Mark Darcy five years earlier, Bridget Jones' happily-ever-after hasn't quite gone according to plan. Fortysomething and single...

Sold
2016
Executive Producer
Lakshmi is a thirteen-year-old girl who lives with her family in a small hut on a mountain in Nepal. When the Himalayan monsoons wash away all that re...

Alone in Berlin
2016
as Anna Quangel
Berlin in June of 1940. While Nazi propaganda celebrates the regime’s victory over France, a kitchen-cum-living room in Prenzlauer Berg is filled with...

Sainsbury's: Mog's Christmas Calamity
2015
as Narrator (voice)
Christmas 2015 saw Judith Kerr's family favourite literary character, Mog, reimagined in her first-ever animated foray.

Burnt
2015
as Dr. Rosshilde
Adam Jones is a Chef who destroyed his career with drugs and diva behavior. He cleans up and returns to London, determined to redeem himself by spearh...

A Walk in the Woods
2015
as Catherine Bryson
After spending two decades in England, Bill Bryson returns to the U.S., where he decides the best way to connect with his homeland is to hike the Appa...

The Legend of Barney Thomson
2015
as Cemolina
Barney Thomson, awkward, diffident, Glasgow barber, lives a life of desperate mediocrity and his uninteresting life is about to go from 0 to 60 in fiv...

Men, Women & Children
2014
as Narrator (voice)
Follows the story of a group of high school teenagers and their parents as they attempt to navigate the many ways the internet has changed their relat...

Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
2014
as Mrs. Lovett
In 1846, Anthony Hope sails into London with the mysterious Sweeney Todd, a once-naive barber whose life and marriage was uprooted by a corrupt justic...

Effie Gray
2014
as Lady Eastlake
A look at the mysterious relationship between Victorian art critic John Ruskin and his teenage bride Effie Gray.

Effie Gray
2014
Screenplay
A look at the mysterious relationship between Victorian art critic John Ruskin and his teenage bride Effie Gray.

And the Oscar Goes To...
2014
as Self (archive footage)
The story of the gold-plated statuette that became the film industry's most coveted prize, AND THE OSCAR GOES TO... traces the history of the Academy ...

The Real Mary Poppins
2014
as Self
Explore the fascinating relationship between author P. L. Travers and her much-loved character, Mary Poppins. This is the story of a complex woman who...

The Love Punch
2014
as Kate Jones
Retirement at last! Middle-aged and divorced, company owner Richard Jones is looking forward to a worry-free existence as he arrives at his office on ...

Saving Mr. Banks
2013
as P.L. Travers
Author P.L. Travers looks back on her childhood while reluctantly meeting with Walt Disney, who seeks to adapt her Mary Poppins books for the big scre...

Beautiful Creatures
2013
as Mrs. Lincoln / Sarafine Duchannes
Ethan Wate just wants to get to know Lena Duchannes better, but unbeknownst to him, Lena has strange powers. As Lena's 16th birthday approaches she m...

Brave
2012
as Elinor (voice)
Brave is set in the mystical Scottish Highlands, where Mérida is the princess of a kingdom ruled by King Fergus and Queen Elinor. An unruly daughter a...

Walking the Dogs
2012
as The Queen
A Buckingham Palace guard attending to Queen Elizabeth's room takes her dogs for a walk and while he's away an intruder breaks in for a chat with the ...

Men in Black 3
2012
as Agent O
Agents J and K are back...in time. J has seen some inexplicable things in his 15 years with the Men in Black, but nothing, not even aliens, perplexes ...

When Harry Left Hogwarts
2011
as Self
BAFTA award-winning filmmaker Morgan Matthews was given unprecedented access to the behind-the-scenes of the final days of the final two Harry Potter ...

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2
2011
as Sybill Trelawney
Harry, Ron and Hermione continue their quest to vanquish the evil Voldemort once and for all. Just as things begin to look hopeless for the young wiza...

Fry and Laurie Reunited
2010
as Self
Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie reunite for a TV special to mark the 30th anniversary of their partnership.

The Song of Lunch
2010
as She
A dramatisation of Christopher Reid's narrative poem that tells the story of an unnamed book editor who, fifteen years after their break-up, is meetin...

Nanny McPhee and the Big Bang
2010
as Nanny McPhee
Nanny McPhee appears at the door of a harried young mother who is trying to run the family farm while her husband is away at war. But once she’s arriv...

Nanny McPhee and the Big Bang
2010
Executive Producer, Screenplay
Nanny McPhee appears at the door of a harried young mother who is trying to run the family farm while her husband is away at war. But once she’s arriv...

An Education
2009
as Headmistress
Despite her sheltered upbringing, Jenny is a teen with a bright future; she's smart, pretty, and has aspirations of attending Oxford University. When ...

The Boat That Rocked
2009
as Charlotte
An ensemble comedy, where the romance is between the young people of the 60s, and pop music. It's about a band of DJs that captivate Britain, playing ...

Last Chance Harvey
2008
as Kate Walker
In London for his daughter's wedding, a struggling jingle-writer, Harvey Shine, misses his plane to New York, and thus loses his job. While drowning h...

Brideshead Revisited
2008
as Lady Marchmain
Artist Charles Ryder runs into aristocrat Julia Flyte and recalls his friendship with her eccentric family prior to the outbreak of the Second World W...

I Am Legend
2007
as Dr. Alice Krippin
Robert Neville is a scientist who was unable to stop the spread of the terrible virus that was incurable and man-made. Immune, Neville is now the last...

Stephen Fry: 50 Not Out
2007
as Self
Stephen Fry: 50 Not Out was a one-off, one-hour documentary/biography about Stephen Fry released in 2007 by the BBC, celebrating Stephen Fry's fiftiet...

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
2007
as Sybill Trelawney
Returning for his fifth year of study at Hogwarts, Harry is stunned to find that his warnings about the return of Lord Voldemort have been ignored. Le...

Stranger Than Fiction
2006
as Karen Eiffel
Harold Crick is a lonely IRS agent whose mundane existence is transformed when he hears a mysterious voice narrating his life.

Hoodwinked!
2005
as Lesa (voice) (uncredited)
Little Red Riding Hood: A classic story, but there's more to every tale than meets the eye. Before you judge a book by its cover, you've got to flip t...

A Tribute To Ismail Merchant
2005
as Self (archive footage)

Nanny McPhee
2005
as Nanny McPhee
Widower Cedric Brown hires Nanny McPhee to care for his seven rambunctious children, who have chased away all previous nannies. Taunted by Simon and h...

Nanny McPhee
2005
Screenplay
Widower Cedric Brown hires Nanny McPhee to care for his seven rambunctious children, who have chased away all previous nannies. Taunted by Simon and h...

Nos Bastidores de Hollywood
2005
as Self

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
2004
as Sybill Trelawney
Year three at Hogwarts means new fun and challenges as Harry learns the delicate art of approaching a Hippogriff, transforming shape-shifting Boggarts...

Imagining Argentina
2003
as Cecilia Rueda
Set during the unsettling disappearances in Buenos Aires during the dictatorship of the 1970s, the film involves theater director Carlos Rueda and his...

Love Actually
2003
as Karen
Eight very different couples deal with their love lives in various loosely interrelated tales all set during a frantic month before Christmas in Londo...

Treasure Planet
2002
as Captain Amelia (voice)
When space galleon cabin boy Jim Hawkins discovers a map to an intergalactic "loot of a thousand worlds," a cyborg cook named John Silver teaches him ...

Love & Loyalty: The Making of 'The Remains of the Day'
2001
as Self
The filmmakers and lead actors of The Remains of the Day (1993) discuss how they came to make the film, and the subtle power of its execution.

Wit
2001
as Vivian Bearing
A renowned professor is forced to reassess her life when she is diagnosed with terminal ovarian cancer.

Wit
2001
Writer, Teleplay
A renowned professor is forced to reassess her life when she is diagnosed with terminal ovarian cancer.

Blind Loyalty, Hollow Honor: England's Fatal Flaw
2001
as Self
Historical context for The Remains of the Day.

The Remains of the Day: The Filmmaker's Journey
2001
as Self
A documentary about making The Remains of the Day.

Maybe Baby
2000
as Druscilla
Sam and Lucie Bell are a married couple who seem to have it all: good looks, successful careers, matching motorbikes, and an enthusiastic love life. T...

Junket Whore
1998
as Self
A documentary film that explores the relationship between publicists and journalists in Hollywood.
Eight
1998
Thanks
A day in the life of an eight-year-old soccer fan who has to come to terms with living in a strange new town and the loss of his father.

Judas Kiss
1998
as FBI Agent Sadie Hawkins
The shooting of a U.S. senator's wife raises the stakes for kidnappers seeking a hefty ransom for a computer magnate.

Primary Colors
1998
as Susan Stanton
In this adaptation of the best-selling roman à clef about Bill Clinton's 1992 run for the White House, the young and gifted Henry Burton is tapped to ...

The Winter Guest
1997
as Frances
It's winter in a small Scottish village near the sea, and multiple lives intersect in a day. Frances has just lost her husband to an early death, so h...

Hospital!
1997
as Elephant Woman
Comedy about a brilliant young brain surgeon set in an unorthodox hospital. A "Naked Gun" type comedy from Britain, this one-off special was made spe...

Sense and Sensibility
1995
as Elinor Dashwood
The Dashwood sisters, sensible Elinor and passionate Marianne, whose chances at marriage seem doomed by their family's sudden loss of fortune. When H...

Sense and Sensibility
1995
Screenplay
The Dashwood sisters, sensible Elinor and passionate Marianne, whose chances at marriage seem doomed by their family's sudden loss of fortune. When H...

Carrington
1995
as Dora Carrington
Painter Dora Carrington develops an intimate but extremely complex bond with writer Lytton Strachey. Though Lytton is a homosexual, he is enchanted by...

Junior
1994
as Dr. Diana Reddin
A research scientist becomes the world's first pregnant man in order to test a drug he and a colleague have designed for expectant women. To carry out...

The Blue Boy
1994
as Marie Bonnar
Marie is an insecure housewife whose husband, Joe, is having an affair. The two of them take a holiday to rural Scotland, but by sheer bad luck, end u...

My Father the Hero
1994
as Isabel (uncredited)
A teenage girl on vacation in the Bahamas with her divorced father tries to impress a potential boyfriend by saying that her father is actually her lo...

In the Name of the Father
1993
as Gareth Peirce
A small-time Belfast thief, Gerry Conlon, is wrongly convicted of an IRA bombing in London, along with his father and friends, and spends 15 years in ...

The Remains of the Day
1993
as Miss Kenton
A rule-bound head butler's world of manners and decorum in the household he maintains is tested by the arrival of a housekeeper who falls in love with...

Much Ado About Nothing
1993
as Beatrice
In this Shakespearean farce, Hero and her groom-to-be, Claudio, team up with Claudio's commanding officer, Don Pedro, the week before their wedding to...

Peter's Friends
1992
as Maggie Chester
After inheriting a large country estate from his late father, Peter invites his friends from college: married couple Roger and Mary, the lonely Maggie...

Howards End
1992
as Margaret Schlegel
A saga of class relations and changing times in an Edwardian England on the brink of modernity, the film centers on liberal Margaret Schlegel, who, al...
Rabbit Ears - The White Cat
1991
as Narrator (voice)
Based on an 18th century French fairy tale, this is a magically romantic story about a young prince who befriends an enchanted cat-queen. She provides...

Dead Again
1991
as Margaret Strauss / Grace
In 1949, composer Roman Strauss is executed for the murder of his wife. In 1990s Los Angeles, a detective comes across a mute amnesiac woman who is so...

Impromptu
1991
as Duchess D'Antan
In 1830s France, pianist/composer Frédéric Chopin is pursued romantically by the determined, individualistic woman who uses the name George Sand.

Tin Fish
1990
Drama set against the backdrop of the American submarine base at Holy Loch, Scotland.

Look Back in Anger
1989
as Alison Porter
Look Back in Anger is a love triangle involving the brilliant-but-disaffected young Jimmy Porter, his upper-middle-class, impassive wife Alison Porter...

Henry V
1989
as Katherine
In the midst of the Hundred Years War, the young King Henry V of England embarks on the conquest of France in 1415.
The Winslow Boy
1989
as Catherine Winslow
In pre-WW1 England, a youngster is expelled from a naval academy over a petty theft, but his parents raise a political furor by demanding a trial.

The Tall Guy
1989
as Kate
An American actor in England tries to find love and work.

Slags
1984
as Young Woman
Teen-age gang leaders Passion and Little Sister are released from prison, only to find that their gang the Slags has disbanded due to a rival gang, th...

The Cellar Tapes
1982
as various
A TV version of the Cambridge Footlights Revue. Starring Stephen Fry, Hugh Laurie, Emma Thompson, Tony Slattery, Paul Shearer, and Penny Dwyer.

The Cellar Tapes
1982
Writer
A TV version of the Cambridge Footlights Revue. Starring Stephen Fry, Hugh Laurie, Emma Thompson, Tony Slattery, Paul Shearer, and Penny Dwyer.
How to Stop a Nuclear War
N/A
as Narrator
Follows Pentagon Papers leaker Daniel Ellsberg’s efforts to raise an alarm about the threat of a devastating nuclear war and his concerns about the Un...
James Ivory: In Search of Love and Beauty
N/A
as Self
The documentary will feature such frequent Ivory collaborators Emma Thompson , Helena Bonham Carter and Hugh Grant, as well as director Wes Anderson. ...
Hear Me Roar
N/A
as Elizabeth Butler-Sloss
Elizabeth Bellinger became one of the few transgender people in Britain to get married in the 1980s. She kept this ceremony secret from almost everyon...