Born in the fall of 1986, Emilia Clarke grew up in the picturesque county of Buckinghamshire, in the south of England.
Source: Marie Claire
At boarding school, she coxed, or steered, the boys' eight-rower boat. That is, until she steered the team down the wrong tunnel and got them disqualified at a Henley regatta.
Source: The Guardian
A girlie-girl, she developed an early obsession with Audrey Hepburn in "My Fair Lady." She would often say, "I swear on Chanel," when she wanted to be taken seriously.
Source: Harpers Bazaar
Clarke attended the famed Drama Centre London, which counts Colin Firth, Michael Fassbender, and Tom Hardy among its alumni.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter
Her first television appearance was a walk-on role in "Doctors," a UK soap opera based in a fictitious hospital.
A year later, she played a teen in the made-for-TV monster movie "Triassic Attack." The film follows a sheriff as he battles three dinosaur fossils brought to life in a small town.
Fresh out of drama school, she worked six jobs to pay the rent. When her agent called to say she landed an audition for a new HBO show, Clarke had to call in sick to her catering job ...
In preparation for the "Game of Thrones" audition, she "Wikipedia-ed the crap out of" George R.R. Martin's "A Song of Ice and Fire" series and listened to Tupac Shakur music to feel fierce.
Source: Marie Claire and The Hollywood Reporter
"We saw hundreds of people for the role," said D.B. Weiss, screenwriter and executive producer of "Game of Thrones. "This character needed to step into Joan of Arc territory, to deliver a messianic level of intensity. There was only one actress [we saw] who could do that.”
Source: The Hollywood Reporter
Clarke's character, Daenerys Targaryen, is a strong, confident, and courageous young woman on a quest to reclaim the Iron Throne for the House of Targaryen.
In season one, Daenerys hatched three dragons, earning her the moniker "Mother of Dragons." In real life, Clarke wears a golden necklace inscribed with the initials "MOD," given to her by Weiss and showrunner David Benioff.
There's an infamous scene in which Daenerys eats a raw stallion heart for part of a ritual. Clarke had to eat 25 of them, and said, "They tasted like congealed jam, with a hint of bleach."
Source: The Guardian
The show's leads, Clarke, Peter Dinklage (Tyrion Lannister), Nikolaj Coster-Waldau (Jaime Lannister), Kit Harington (Jon Snow), and Lena Headey (Cersei Lannister), banded together to negotiate higher salaries.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter
Still, Clarke has other sources of income now. She played Jude Law's daughter in the British black comedy "Dom Hemingway."
She also played Holly Golightly in the Broadway version of "Breakfast at Tiffany's." Critics were not kind, and the show closed after 38 performances.
The role even required her to sing! Clarke has hinted before about a potential foray into a singing career.
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Source: The Guardian
There have been opportunities she's turned down, too. Clarke refused the role of Anastasia Steele in "Fifty Shades of Grey" because she didn't want to be labeled for doing nudity.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter
Through it all, Clarke's managed to stay out of the spotlight and out of trouble. She briefly dated "Family Guy" creator Seth MacFarlane.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter
She manages to go unnoticed in public because her natural dark hair looks nothing like Daenerys'. That's about to change ...
Source: Harpers Bazaar
July 1, Clarke stars alongside Arnold Schwarzenegger in "Terminator Genisys," Paramount and Skydance's estimated $170 million reboot of the 31-year-old franchise. She has top billing as Sarah Connor.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter
The role was a little more physical than "Game of Thrones" requires. “The hours were so long and the guns were so heavy, so I had to get myself into a place where I wouldn’t crap out at four o’clock,” she says.
Source: Harpers Bazaar
And there's more work to be done. "'Game of Thrones' opened a lot of doors," Clarke said in a recent interview. "It opened them all."
Source: Harpers Bazaar