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

[4][5] Her mother, Jennifer Susan "Jenny" Dodd Clarke, MBE, was a businesswoman and is the vice-president for marketing at a global management consultancy firm as of 2020[update] and the director of The Anima Foundation, a charity aimed at helping young people in Ghana.

She credits this background for her family's having a "history of fighters", stating, "The fact that [my grandmother] had to hide her skin colour, essentially, and try desperately to fit in with everyone else must've been incredibly difficult.

Clarke has also emphasised her ties to India, stating that she loves her Indian heritage and sees it as an integral part of her identity.

"[13] 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.

She appeared in student productions of Twelfth Night and West Side Story while attending St Edward's School.

[15] 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.

[31] Clarke received critical acclaim for her portrayal of Daenerys, which traces an arc from frightened girl to powerful woman.

[32] Matthew Gilbert of The Boston Globe called her scenes "mesmerising", adding that "Clarke doesn't have a lot of emotional variety to work with as Daenerys, aside from fierce determination, and yet she is riveting.

[a] 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.

[48] 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 film, which also stars Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jai Courtney, and Jason Clarke, received unfavourable reviews from critics[57] but was a box office success, grossing over $440 million worldwide.

[65] The movie, which was directed by Ron Howard and premiered in May 2018, details the origins of Star Wars characters Han Solo and Chewbacca.

[76] Despite its unfavourable reviews, critics praised Clarke's performance,[77][78] and the film went on to become a box office success grossing over $121 million worldwide.

[79][80] 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.

[84] The play, along with her portrayal of Nina won acclaim, with critics calling Clarke's performance, "magnetic" and "undeniably charismatic.

[97] 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.

[98] In 2015, luxury goods company Dior signed Clarke to be the face of the Rose des Vents jewellery collection.

[104] In August 2017, she became a patron of Open Door, a nonprofit that aims to help young people gain access to drama school auditions.

[105] 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.

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.

[108] Clarke was also one of the numerous UK-based actresses to lend her voice to the Time's Up initiative, aimed at exposing sexual harassment and abuse, and creating a society free of gender-based discrimination in the workplace.

[109] In August 2018, Clarke, as well as Gemma Arterton, Lena Headey, Tom Hiddleston, Felicity Jones, Wunmi Mosaku, Florence Pugh, Gemma Chan, and Catherine Tate, featured in the short film titled Leading Lady Parts which took aim at the film industry's issue of gender inequality during the casting process.

[112] After the conclusion of the final season of Game of Thrones, a fundraiser called "Justice for Daenerys" was started in which fans of the series raised over £83,000 for her charity.

[114] In 2020, Clarke was presented with the Public Leadership in Neurology award by the American Brain Foundation for her efforts in raising awareness about neurorehabilitation.

The organisation's new initiative aims to make a larger portion of beds available to coronavirus patients by providing a virtual rehabilitation clinic for people recovering from brain injuries and strokes.

[124] 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.

[144] 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.

She was nominated for four Primetime Emmy Awards, including Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series in 2019, for her role in Game of Thrones.