Emilia Clarke (born 26 October 1986 or 1 May 1987) is an English actress, best known for her role as Daenerys Targaryen in the HBO series Game of Thrones, for which she received two Emmy Award nominations for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series in 2013 and 2015. Clarke made her Broadway debut in a Broadway production of Breakfast at Tiffany's as Holly Golightly in March 2013. In 2015, she starred as Sarah Connor in the film Terminator Genisys. Emilia Clarke was born in London and grew up in Berkshire. Her father is a theatre sound engineer, and her mother is a businesswoman. She has an older brother. Clarke's interest in acting began at the age of three after seeing the musical Show Boat, on which her father was working at the time. She was educated at Rye St Antony School and at St Edward's School, Oxford. She then attended Drama Centre London, graduating in 2009.
Clarke's early work includes two plays at St. Edwards, ten plays at Drama Centre London, the 2009 Company of Angels production of Sense, and two 2009 commercials for Samaritans. One of her first film roles was for a University of London students' short film.[14] Her first television roles were Saskia Mayer in a 2009 episode of the British soap opera Doctors and Savannah in Syfy's 2010 film Triassic Attack. Screen International magazine named her as one of the "UK Stars of Tomorrow".In 2012, Clarke appeared in Spike Island, a film named after the location of The Stone Roses's seminal 1990 gig. From March to April 2013, Clarke played Holly Golightly in a Broadway production of Breakfast at Tiffany's. In 2013, she also starred in Dom Hemingway alongside Jude Law. In May 2014, it was announced that she had joined the feature film Garden of Last Days alongside James Franco, but the movie was scrapped two weeks before production was due to begin. Clarke was offered the role of Anastasia Steele in Fifty Shades of Grey but turned down the part because of the required. She played Sarah Connor in 2015's Terminator Genisys, opposite Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jai Courtney, and Jason Clarke. She will play the lead as Nurse Verena, in the up-coming movie Voice from the Stone (2015).
