Emilia Clarke

Emilia Clarke is an English actor best known for playing Daenerys Targaryen in HBO’s *Game of Thrones*. Born in London in 1986, she grew up in Oxfordshire and studied at Drama Centre London. Before her breakthrough, she appeared in an episode of the British medical drama *Doctors* and the television film *Triassic Attack*. She joined *Game of Thrones* for its first season in 2011 and remained with the series through its eighth and final season in 2019.

Daenerys begins the story as an exiled member of House Targaryen, whose family once ruled Westeros. Over the series, she gains three dragons, builds armies and seeks the Iron Throne. Clarke’s performance had to accommodate a character who could inspire fierce loyalty while making increasingly ruthless decisions. The role brought her four Primetime Emmy nominations: three for supporting actress in a drama series and one for lead actress. It also made her one of the most recognizable performers associated with the show.

Clarke’s film work includes Sarah Connor in *Terminator Genisys* (2015), a new installment in the *Terminator* franchise. In the romantic drama *Me Before You* (2016), adapted from Jojo Moyes’s novel, she played Louisa Clark opposite Sam Claflin’s Will Traynor. She portrayed Qi’ra, a figure from Han Solo’s past, in *Solo: A Star Wars Story* (2018). In *Last Christmas* (2019), she played Kate, an aspiring singer working in a year-round Christmas shop in London. She later entered the Marvel Cinematic Universe as G’iah in the 2023 series *Secret Invasion*.

Her stage credits include playing Holly Golightly in the 2013 Broadway adaptation of *Breakfast at Tiffany’s*. In 2022, she played Nina in a West End production of Anton Chekhov’s *The Seagull*, directed by Jamie Lloyd. That production had originally been scheduled for 2020 but was disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Clarke has also spoken publicly about surviving two brain aneurysms. The first caused a subarachnoid hemorrhage in 2011, shortly after the first season of *Game of Thrones* finished filming; she underwent further surgery after a second aneurysm was found. She described those experiences in a 2019 essay for *The New Yorker* titled “A Battle for My Life.” That year, she and her mother, Jenny Clarke, launched SameYou, a charity focused on rehabilitation for people recovering from brain injury and stroke. In the 2024 New Year Honours, both women were appointed Members of the Order of the British Empire for their work supporting people with brain injuries.