EMILIA CLARKE — DAENERYS TARGARYEN FROM GAME OF THRONES

EMILIA CLARKE — DAENERYS TARGARYEN FROM GAME OF THRONES

1. Emilia Isobel Euphemia Rose Clarke was born on 23 October 1986. She is an English actress.
2. She studied at the Drama Centre London, appearing in a number of stage productions, including one by the Company of Angels.
3. She grew up in Oxfordshire. Her father, Peter Clarke, was a theatre sound engineer from Wolverhampton, while her mother, Jennifer, is the vice-president for marketing at a global management consulting firm as of 2020. Clarke’s older brother, Bennett, works in the entertainment industry and was part of the camera department on Game of Thrones.
4. Clarke became interested in acting at the age of three after seeing the musical Show Boat. When she was ten, her father took her to a West End audition for the musical The Goodbye Girl, a musical by Neil Simon. Clarke attended Rye St Antony School in Headington and St Edward’s School, Oxford, which she left in 2005.
5. After graduation, Clarke unsuccessfully applied to RADA, LAMDA, and Guildhall. She worked and traveled before entering the Drama Centre London, from which she graduated in 2009.
6. Her television debut came with a guest appearance in an episode of the BBC One medical soap opera Doctors in 2009. The following year, she was named as one of the “UK Stars of Tomorrow” by Screen International magazine for her role in the Syfy film Triassic Attack (2010).
7. 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.
8. 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. Her first credited television role was a bit part in a 2009 episode of the British soap opera Doctors.
9. 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.
10. In 2010, Clarke was cast in her third professional role as Daenerys Targaryen in the HBO fantasy series Game of Thrones, based on the book series A Song of Ice and Fire by George R. R. Martin.
11. Daenerys is one of the last surviving members of House Targaryen who had ruled Westeros from the Iron Throne for nearly three hundred years prior to being ousted. Actress Tamzin Merchant was originally cast for the part of Daenerys.
12. 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.
13. Clarke received widespread praise for her portrayal of Daenerys, which traces an arc from frightened girl to empowered woman.
14. In 2017, she reportedly became one of the highest-paid actors on television, reportedly earning £2 million per episode of Game of Thrones.
15. In 2019, she said she had been uncomfortable acting nude in her first experience at age 23 of a large film set but had since become “a lot more savvy” about what level of nudity is needed for a scene.
16. Clarke received multiple award nominations and wins for her role of Daenerys. After the first season, Clarke won Best Supporting Actress in a Drama at the 2011 EWwy Awards.
17. She was also nominated three times for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series in 2013, 2015, and 2016.
18. At the 2019 Emmys, she was nominated for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series, her first nomination in the category.
19. In addition to the television show, she lent her voice and likeness to the 2014 video game of the same name.
20. Clarke’s first film role was in the short film Shackled (2012). The film was featured in the 2020 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.
21. In May 2013, Clarke was cast in a film adaptation of the novel The Garden of Last Days. James Franco was set to direct and star in the film however he left the project two weeks before filming after creative differences with the film distributor Millennium Entertainment.
22. In a 2019 interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Clarke said she was offered the role of Anastasia Steele in Fifty Shades of Grey. She said she turned down the part because of the nudity required.
23. She starred as the female lead, opposite Sam Claflin, in the movie adaption of the best-selling novel of the same name, Me Before You. The film which was released on 3 June 2016 and directed by Thea Sharrock, received mixed critical reviews. The film grossed $200 million worldwide and was a box office success. For her role as Louisa Clark, she shared nominations with Sam Claflin for the Teen Choice Award for Choice Movie Liplock and the MTV Television Tearjerker Award.
24. In 2017, she played the lead as Nurse Verena in the supernatural psychological thriller film Voice from the Stone. The film was released in April 2017 for a limited theatre run, followed by a video on demand and digital HD.
25. 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 November 2018, details the origins of Star Wars characters Han Solo and Chewbacca.
26. In January 2017, Clarke was cast as the lead in the upcoming 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. 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 in the Playhouse Theatre. The production was suspended on 16 March due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The play is Clarke’s first West End production.
27. 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.
28. 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.
29. In 2019, following the announcement of the brain aneurysms she suffered in 2011 and 2013, Clarke launched her own charity SameYou. The charity aims to broaden neurorehabilitation access for young people after a brain injury or stroke. On 26 September 2019, she co-hosted a YouTube live stream with Irish YouTuber Jacksepticeye that raised over £200,000 for SameYou. In 2020, Clarke was presented with the Public Leadership in Neurology award by the American Brain Foundation for her efforts in raising awareness about neuro-rehabilitation.
30. In April 2020, Clarke started a fundraiser to help raise funds for her charity’s COVID-19 fund. The fundraiser, which aimed to raise £250,000, would support both the Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts, U.S. and the University College Hospital in London. In a further response to the coronavirus pandemic, Clarke announced the launch of an Instagram series of poetry readings. The readings derive from a collection called The Poetry Pharmacy: Tried-and-True Prescriptions for the Heart, Mind, and Soul.
31. Clarke lives in Islington, London. In 2016, she purchased a $4.64 million house in Venice Beach, California.
32. In a March 2019 article she wrote for The New Yorker, she revealed she had 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 she was unable to recall her own name. She had a second aneurysm surgically treated in 2013.
33. She was voted the most desirable woman in the world by AskMen readers in 2014.
34. In 2015 she was named Esquire’s Sexiest Woman Alive and was recognized with the GQ Woman of the Year Award that same year.
35. Men’s lifestyle magazine FHM named Clarke one of the 100 sexiest women in 2015, 2016, and 2017. She was also named in Glamour’s list of Best Dressed Women in 2017.
36. Once filming concluded on the final season of Game of Thrones, Clarke, as a tribute to her role as Daenerys Targaryen, commemorated her time on the show with a wrist tattoo featuring a trio of flying dragons.