Emma Thompson was born on April 15, 1959, in Paddington, London, to a family of actors, with her father Eric Thompson being English-born and her mother Phyllida Law being Scottish-born. Her sister, Sophie Thompson, is also an actor. Thompson's family atmosphere was cheerful, clever, and creative, which helped cultivate her wit. She was a popular and successful student, attending Cambridge University to study English Literature.
At Cambridge, Thompson was part of the famous Footlights Group, where many Monty Python members had first met. She graduated in 1980 and began her career in entertainment, working on BBC radio and touring with comedy shows. Thompson's first major break came in television, on the comedy skit program Alfresco (1983),where she wrote and performed alongside fellow Footlights Group alums Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie.
Thompson continued to work on TV comedy review programs in the mid-1980s, often with Robbie Coltrane. In 1985, she collaborated with Fry again, starring in his stage adaptation of "Me and My Girl" in London's West End. Her performance earned her favorable reviews and led to her casting as the lead in the BBC television miniseries Fortunes of War (1987),opposite Kenneth Branagh.
Thompson won a BAFTA Award for her work on Fortunes of War and married Branagh in 1989. She continued to work with him professionally and formed a production company with him. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Thompson starred in a string of successful television and film productions, including Howards End (1992),which earned her an Oscar and a BAFTA Award.
Since then, Thompson has continued to move between art films and mainstream Hollywood, being selective about her roles. She has also written screenplays, including Sense and Sensibility (1995) and Wit (2001),in which she also starred. Thompson is known for her sophisticated performances and her arch wit, which she is unafraid to use on herself. She has been married to actor Greg Wise since 2003 and has one child, Gaia, born in 1999.
In 2018, Thompson was appointed Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire for her services to drama.
