Daniel Radcliffe Bio: In His Own Words – Video Exclusive, News, Photos

Daniel Radcliffe Biography

Daniel Radcliffe was born in Fulham, London, on July 23, 1989. He is the only child of Alan George Radcliffe and Marcia Jeannine Gresham Jacobson—a literary agent and casting agent respectively. Both of his parents acted as children, and Radcliffe himself expressed a desire to act at the age of five. He made his debut at age ten, playing in a two-part adaptation of Charles Dickens’ David Copperfield for BBC One; Radcliffe played the titular lead.

Daniel Radcliffe Harry Potter

Director Chris Columbus happened to see Radcliffe in David Copperfield and wanted him cast as the lead in his adaptation of JK Rowling’s massive Harry Potter series. After several auditions, Radcliffe won the role. While Columbus didn’t stay for the entire Harry Potter film franchise, Radcliffe did along with co-stars Rupert Grint and Emma Watson. The film series was a massive critical and financial success, garnering over $7 billion in the box office over eight films. Despite some minor bullying when he was a young man at school, Radcliffe’s portrayal of Harry Potter was nearly universally adored. Rowling referred to him as “perfect.”

Daniel Radcliffe Filmography

While most child stars eventually fade into obscurity—largely because of being typecast, Radcliffe’s love of acting made him take several risks to keep himself fresh to audiences and producers. Immediately after production on the final Harry Potter film wrapped, Radcliffe went to the stage, performing in adaptations of Equus and How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying where he received unanimous praise.

Starting in 2012, Radcliffe returned to the screen, this time in the horror film The Woman in Black, which was a moderate critical success, but did very well financially. After that, Radcliffe won much acclaim for his role as Allen Ginsberg in the Beat Generation biopic Kill Your Darlings.

Radcliffe can be seen in the British comedy series A Young Doctor’s Notebook where he starred as the younger version of Jon Hamm’s Mika; he also starred with Zoe Karan in the 2013 film What If (retitled from The F Word in the UK).

Radcliffe starred in the 2016 films Swiss Army Man and Now You See Me 2, later reprising his role in Now You See Me 3. Recently, he starred in the 2020 movie Escape from Pretoria and the 2022 horror film The Menu.

Daniel Radcliffe Interview

When Radcliffe played Wallace in What If, it was the first time he had taken a role in a comedy movie, something that somewhat flummoxed the young actor at first. In his interview with uInterview, he discussed the difficulties and the naturalism he needed to embrace to make the role his.

“On stage there’s a precision you can have about timing because it’s all in your hands,” Radcliffe told uInterview exclusively. “And on film, that’s all taken away. That’s in the hands of an editor and director. So, part of doing comedy for me was learning to just trust the director and not second guess myself and say whatever was coming into my head, and putting faith into the director that he would cut out all the unfunny bits and just leave me looking great,” Radcliffe said.

Radcliffe has been dating American actress Erin Darke since 2012. In March 2023, the couple announced that they are expecting their first child together.