British actress Emma Thompson is the daughter of actors Eric Thompson (creator of the hit British TV series "The Magic Roundabout") and Phyllida Law. While studying English Literature at Cambridge University, Thompson became one of the few women allowed to perform in Cambridge's Footlights Theatrical Troupe; eventually she staged the Footlights' first all-female revue. Though well versed in the Classics, Thompson aspired to become a stand-up comic. She appeared in the British TV revue series "Al Fresco" with prominent comedians Robbie Coltrane, Hugh Laurie, and Stephen Fry, and also starred in the sitcoms "Up For Grabs" and "Tutti Frutti." In 1988 she was given the opportunity to create and star in her own TV series, Thompson, which curiously turned out to be a humorless disaster (which Thompson will readily admit). On the dramatic scene, Thompson did plenty of Shakespeare on stage and appeared in the mid 1980s "Masterpiece Theatre" miniseries "Fortunes of War" with her husband, actor/director Kenneth Branagh. A film actress of astonishing range, Thompson has costarred with Branagh in Henry V (1989); Dead Again (1991), in two roles -- one convincingly American; Peter's Friends (1992), which featured her mother Phyllida Law; Much Ado About Nothing (1993); and Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (1994). She has also been copacetically teamed with Anthony Hopkins in Howard's End (1992) and Remains of the Day (1993). In 1994, Thompson returned to comedy in Junior, winning a Golden Globe nomination for her portrayal of a scientist who discovers that one of her eggs has been successfully fertilized and transplanted into Arnold Schwarzenegger's abdomen. The subsequent year, Thompson received an Oscar nomination for her work in Sense and Sensibility (1995). Thompson again teamed up with her mother-in-law in Alan Rickman's touching The Winter Guest.