Daniel Radcliffe began acting when he was 6 years old, playing a monkey in a school play. By the time he was 12, he was an international movie star, taking on the role of Harry Potter in a series of film adaptations of J.K. Rowling’s books. He has gone on to portray everything from a World War I soldier killed in battle to a talking corpse with digestive issues to a political prisoner. Just take a look at his impressive résumé.
“David Copperfield” (1999) • This two-part BBC adaptation of the Charles Dickens classic was Radcliffe’s TV debut… and the first time he worked with future “Harry Potter” costar Maggie Smith. He played “young David.”
“The Tailor of Panama” (2001) • Radcliffe’s first feature film — a spy thriller directed by John Boorman — where he played the son of Geoffrey Rush and Jamie Lee Curtis.
“Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone” (2001) and “Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets” (2002) • At age 11, Radcliffe was cast as the title character in the series of film based on J.K. Rowling’s books. It made this young lad an international household name.
“Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban” (2004) • Two years later, he returned to the role, this time with Harry discovering that an escaped prisoner and supporter of the dark wizard, Lord Voldemort, intends to kill him.
“Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire” (2005) • “Goblet” was the fourth in the “Potter” series”… and the first to receive a PG-13 rating for its for “sequences of fantasy violence and frightening images.”
“Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix” (2007) • Fans of the franchise will remember this as the film where Harry gets his first kiss.
“December Boys” (2007) • In this Australian film, Radcliffe played the eldest of four orphaned boys. To make sure his Australian accent sounded authentic, he practiced six months before filming began.
“My Boy Jack” (2007) • In the British biopic made for TV set during World War I, Radcliffe plays the only son of author Rudyard Kipling.
“Equus” (2007) • Radcliffe moved past — far past — his clean-cut teenager image by taking on his first adult role in a West London stage production of “Equus.” As a stable boy with an erotic obsession for horses, Radcliffe appeared nude on stage. Advanced ticket sales topped £1.7 million.
“Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” (2009) • Radcliffe was back at Hogwarts where he finds a book that reveals more about Lord Voldemort. It was Radcliffe’s least favorite performance in the franchise, telling The Guardian in 2014, “I’m just not very good in it. I hate it.”
“Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows” – Part 1 (2010), Part 2 (2011) • Ten years after first donning those famous round glasses and a phony z-shaped scar, Radcliffe appeared in his last two “Potter” films … at least for the time being.
“The Woman in Black” (2012) • This supernatural thriller set in 19th century England stars Radcliffe as a lawyer who encounters a vengeful ghost in a remote village.
“Kill Your Darlings” (2013) • Radcliffe plays American poet and philosopher Allen Ginsberg in this thriller.
“Horns” (2013) • This dark fantasy horror film had Radcliffe playing a man falsely accused of raping and murdering his girlfriend, and then using his paranormal talents to find the real killer. Oh, and he has horns.
“The F Word” (2013) • Radcliffe called this rom-com costarring Zoe Kazan his first ever contemporary film. Now that we think about it, he’s right.
“A Young Doctor’s Notebook & Other Stories” (2012-2013) • Jon Hamm costarred with Radcliffe in this dark British comedy series about, you guessed it, a young doctor in a small Russian town during its 1917 revolution.
“The Gamechangers” (2015) • This docudrama stars Radcliffe as Rockstar Games president Sam Hauser, who is embroiled in a legal feud with an American lawyer over the morality of the “Grand Theft Auto” video game series.
“Victor Frankenstein” (2015) • This fresh take on Mary Shelley’s classic 1818 novel is told from the perspective of Dr. Frankenstein’s assistant Igor, played by Radcliffe.
“Swiss Army Man” (2016) • Radcliffe plays a talkative corpse… who has a flatulence problem. We kid you not.
“Now You See Me 2” (2016) • In this ensemble heist film directed by John M. Chu, Radcliffe plays a nefarious tech boss, who wants a powerful chip that he plans to use to control all the world’s computers, and he decides to force the Four Horsemen team to steal it for him.
“Imperium” (2016) • Radcliffe plays an FBI agent who, wanting to prove himself to his superiors, goes undercover as a white nationalist.
“Jungle” (2017) • Based on the true story of Israeli adventurer Yossi Ghinsberg’s trek into the Amazon rainforest, “Jungle” is up there when it comes to heart-stopping adventure… and a scene which The AV Club called “one of the purest cases of gross-out body horror put on screens” of the year.
“Beast of Burden” (2018) • In this independent action-thriller directed by Jesper Ganslandt, Radcliffe plays a pilot smuggling drugs across borders.
“Guns Akimbo” (2019) • Radcliffe plays a computer programmer who uses newly-developed fight club skills to rescue his girlfriend from kidnappers in this action-comedy.
“Miracle Workers” (2019-2020) • Radcliffe returned to the small screen in this TBS limited series playing a low-level angel responsible for handling all of humanity’s prayers.
“Escape From Pretoria” (2020) • Once again, Radcliffe headlines a biopic, this time playing Tim Jenkin in the true-life thriller of two political prisoners during the apartheid days of South Africa.
