What These Harry Potter Stars Are Doing Today
It's been a long time since our favorite Harry Potter stars graduated from Hogwarts, and most of us have kept a watchful eye on our favorite three protagonists — Harry, Hermione, and Ron. We all know Emma Watson became a highly sought-after actress and feminist icon (she was appointed the UN Women Goodwill Ambassador in 2014). Few things were as delightfully British as Rupert Grint starring in Ed Sheeran's music video for "Lego House." And, of course, none of us can forget that bizarre movie where Daniel Radcliffe was a farting corpse. But what happened to everyone else in the cast?
An alarming number of Hogwarts alumni have taken up careers in theater. Surprisingly enough, Draco Malfoy managed to turn over a new leaf and become a loving friend to the kids he used to torture. The same, however, can't be said for his faithful sidekicks (one of which was jailed for carrying around a Molotov Cocktail). Then there's Neville Longbottom, for whom we have no words.
From the Weasley twins to Harry Potter's high school sweetheart, here's what everyone will be talking about at the Hogwarts high school reunion.
Neville Longbottom got hot
Puberty does wonders, doesn't it? In 2015, Matthew Lewis shocked the masses when he debuted a smoldering six pack on the May cover of Attitude Magazine. He looked so far removed from the timid, chubby character that made him famous that BuzzFeed coined the term "Neville Longbottoming" to mean when some nerdy kid gets really, really hot.
For Lewis, his transformation wasn't the result of a beauty spell. He hired a personal trainer who helped him cut out carbs, sugar, and alcohol, but his transformation began long before he left Hogwarts. Lewis started losing so much weight during the series that he had to wear a fat suit while filming the final chapters.
"As Neville grew throughout the books, so did I. My evolution as Matthew Lewis really coincided with Neville," he said during a 2017 panel (via People).
Neville may have achieved peak hotness (and peak bravery after destroying the horcrux), but he also got his fairytale ending. In May 2018, Lewis wed his longtime girlfriend, American Angela Jones, in a gorgeous Italian ceremony and announced the news on Instagram. He was met with praise from fellow Hogwarts alum Katie Leung (Cho Chang), who wrote, "Aw Big congrats and love Matt. Xxxx."
Draco Malfoy kept in touch with his Hogwarts enemies
Apparently, Hogwarts has high school reunions just like any other school. The same week that Kim Kardashian attended her 20-year high school reunion, some of Hogwarts' best and brightest had a little get-together (even though they really didn't get along during their studies).
April 2018 marked seven years since Draco Malfoy terrorized students in the halls of Hogwarts, but the snarky Slytherin was game for a reunion with Hermione Granger and Neville Longbottom, the Gryffindors he used to bully. Hey, it's never too late to change. In real life, Tom Felton, Matthew Lewis, and Emma Watson are super-tight despite their characters' differences.
Felton shared a snap of the reunion on Instagram with the caption, "School mates #hogwartsalumni." Emma Watson and Jason Issacs, who played Draco's dad, Lucius, used the comments section to discuss their gorgeous teeth. "It's true, our teeth do look excellent," Watson wrote. Way to beat British stereotypes, guys!
Nymphadora Tonks got her own sci-fi series — with Draco Malfoy
Nymphadora Tonks and Draco Malfoy have always been connected — they're first cousins despite the fact that neither of them ever acknowledge it in the series. As it turns out, the on-screen cousins, played by Natalia Tena and Tom Felton, are even more friendly off-screen. The two banded together to take on a sci-fi series for YouTube Red.
According to BBC, Origin will debut as a 10-episode series that follows a group of strangers who are stranded on a spacecraft. The passengers, who were headed for a distant planet, must work together to get out of their situation, but someone is hiding a major secret. Sounds juicy, right?
Since being sorted into Slytherin, Felton has crafted quite the sci-fi career. He starred alongside James Franco in Rise of the Planet of the Apes (and was inadvertently responsible for the ape uprising). Tena, on the other hand, went straight from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows to HBO's award-winning fantasy series Game of Thrones, where she played the recurring character Osha until 2016.
George Weasley developed a passion for theater
Oliver Phelps, the oldest of the Phelps twins, hasn't had many acting roles since appearing in the Harry Potter series as George Weasley. Besides regularly showing up to Harry Potter-related events like the grand opening of the Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Studios Hollywood, he nabbed the role of Mr. Carter alongside his twin brother James in the BBC One movie Danny and the Human Zoo. He's also set to star with James for a third time in the dramedy Own Worst Enemy. Sadly, the British indie has been stuck in post-production since 2016. Beyond that, Oliver has since revealed to the world that he's not a natural redhead (gasp!) and that he's found a passion for theater.
In early June 2018, Oliver was gearing up to make his stage debut as Detective Sergeant Totti in The Classic Thriller Theatre Company's production of The Case of the Frightened Lady. The Phelps twins had no acting experience prior to Harry Potter, so it's not surprising that Oliver was okay jumping into the world of theater cold.
"I know I need to prove that I can do it live in a theater, but I love that sink or swim challenge," he told Coventry Live. "And I'm sure I'll find out there's no better place to sink or swim than on the stage."
The Case of the Frightened Lady debuted on June 12 at the Belgrade Theatre Coventry.
Fred Weasley enjoys golfing more than playing Quidditch
Apparently, the only contact sport allowed at Hogwarts was Quidditch. But that didn't stop Oliver and James Phelps from developing a passion for golf that remained long after they graduated from wizarding school.
In an interview with Today's Golfer, the pair spoke about their various golfing excursions. While Oliver had a habit of hitting the local courses with castmates Rupert Grint and Tom Felton, James flew to Ibiza specifically for golf outings. He's also played while filming in Australia and fangirled over meeting golf legend Arnold Palmer at a course near Florida's Universal Studios.
"We've been lucky to play at some amazing courses all over the world — I've so many bag tags that it jingles like Father Christmas's sleigh," James admitted.
In addition to honing in on his golf skills, James' film career has fared better than his brother's. Notably, he appeared in the 2015 black comedy Patchwork and is set to star in the 2019 fantasy Cadia: The World Within.
Ginny Weasley went from magic to menopause
Upon the end of the Harry Potter series, we learned that Ginny Weasley became a journalist after graduating from Hogwarts and marrying Harry Potter. According to Pottermore (via Gizmodo), she covered the Quidditch World Cup for The Daily Prophet, where she was a senior correspondent. Much like her on-screen character, Bonnie Wright is also a writer. She stepped behind the scenes after Deathly Hallows and crafted a career writing and directing short films, music videos, and commercials. When her days at Hogwarts came to an end, Wright went to London College of Communication where she studied filmmaking. Her thesis, a short film about a young girl befriending an old man, starred David Thewlis, who played Remus Lupin in the Harry Potter series. Wright later launched her own production company in 2012.
Another of Wright's directorial projects ditched the magic and ramped up the menopause. Medusa's Ankles, a 2018 short film adapted from an A.S. Byatt short story, uses a hair salon as a setting to examine the female experience of aging. Wright cast fellow Harry Potter star Jason Issacs, who played Lucius Malfoy, as the charismatic hairdresser Lucian.
Dudley Dursley lost a whole lot of weight
Dudley Dursley was never Harry Potter's most popular character. He was kind of the worst, unless you're comparing him to Voldemort (though he did sort of redeem himself after Harry saved him from Dementors). Actor Harry Melling hasn't really had much work since his days terrorizing Harry Potter, and part of that is because he just can't shake the iconic role.
"I kind of want to let it go. It's done," he told The Stage. "I don't know if it will ever really be done. People will still go, 'Oh you're Dudley Dursley, the fat one.'"
Strangely enough. Melling isn't "fat" anymore. He pulled a total Neville Longbottom and shed so many pounds before the last Harry Potter film that he was almost recast. His weight loss journey began in 2007 after performing at the National Youth Theatre and ended with him in a fat suit during The Deathly Hallows. The weight loss allowed him to reinvent himself on the stage, and he attended the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts. He shifted his focus almost entirely to theater after primarily appearing in shorts and minor TV and film roles. This included a spot in the 2016 Robert Pattinson film The Lost City of Z.
Luna Lovegood became a vegan activist
Though Evanna Lynch was widely loved as the quirky Ravenclaw Luna Lovegood, she hasn't had any acting gigs in the years since the series ended. Her film credits pretty much dip off after 2015's My Name Is Emily and Danny and the Human Zoo – but that's totally okay. She's moved her efforts towards a worthier cause. Lynch is a vegan activist and uses her podcast The Chickpeeps to advocate for a more sustainable, cruelty-free lifestyle.
With zero acting gigs slated for 2018, Lynch is wildly busy saving the world. After partnering with animal rights organization Surge for the Official Animal Rights March in London, she plans to take her activism to the Reducetarian Summit. The three-day summit aims to help people reduce their meat consumption. She will serve as a keynote speaker alongside Beyond Meat CEO Ethan Brown and representatives from Quorn, Google, Greenpeace, and the Humane Society.
Gregory Goyle needs a silencing charm
Despite his rather minor role in the Harry Potter franchise, Josh Herdman came out of Hogwarts swinging — literally. Herdman, who's one of the more successful actors from the series, picked up a side hustle as an MMA fighter after earning a black belt in jiu jitsu. Since April 2016, he's fought in two different MMA matches. These days, he's preparing for the film Cagefighter, where he stars as an MMA fighter, and is drumming up some major controversy by getting a bit too aggressive with online trolls (not everyone out there is as nice as Dobby the house elf).
It's hard to expect too much from a Slytherin who spent his formative years bullying kids and taking orders from Draco Malfoy, but someone should have hit Josh Herdman with a silencing charm when he graced headlines in March 2018 for slamming a superfan who slid into his Instagram DMs. According to The Sun, the argument was spurred when a fan named Chris asked the actor, "Can I ask why you would f*** your chances being a successful actor by using drugs?! No wonder the work dried up!" Herdman responded by calling the user an "absolute r****" and "some kind of c***" before saying he felt sorry that Chris' daughter had to grow up with a "Dad like you." Apparently, Chris was so deeply upset that he threw away his Harry Potter box set.
Vincent Crabbe served jail time after rioting with a Molotov cocktail
Life imitates art, doesn't it? Vincent Crabbe ended up exactly how you'd expect a Hogwarts bully to end up. He went from following the orders of Draco Malfoy and teasing his fellow classmates to stealing champagne from Sainsbury's and tossing around Molotov Cocktails. Apparently, Jamie Waylett's legal troubles were the reason for his early exit from the Harry Potter films — and they gave a whole new meaning to Slytherin green (yes, that's a weed joke).
According to Us Weekly (via MTV), Waylett was originally arrested in 2009 after cops pulled him over and found eight bags of marijuana in his vehicle. They later raided his home to discover that he was growing ten cannabis plants worth about $2,900. Things only went downhill from there, and he was sentenced to two years in prison for his role in the 2011 London riots. He was allegedly caught swigging from a bottle of champagne that was looted from a local grocery store and carrying around a petrol bomb. His defense? It wasn't his. He said someone asked him to carry it. Is that really how you'd sell out Draco Malfoy? There's no loyalty in the Slytherin house.
Cho Chang is taking a stand against racism
Cho Chang was Katie Leung's first-ever role, and her kiss with Daniel Radcliffe triggered thousands of gasps from teen girls everywhere (why couldn't it have been us?). Surprisingly, after Deathly Hallows, Leung actually almost quit acting. She went back to school to study photography and was cast in the London production of Wild Swans during her final year. That's where she caught the theater bug. After the production, she attended drama school at the London Royal Conservatory and graduated in 2015.
Despite only landing a few TV roles, Leung has had a rich career in theater. The Scottish actress starred in the National Theatre's production of The World of Extreme Happiness and joined the Royal Shakespeare Company for Snow In Midsummer. This was an important play for Leung because it brought a Chinese classic to the West. Leung has been consistently outspoken on the "casual racism" she's experienced in the acting world because of her Asian heritage. In 2016, she told BBC that she had yet to play a non-Chinese role but hoped to at least diversify the type of Chinese women portrayed in the media.
"The challenge is being able to rid these stereotypes, so I'm not playing the submissive female who's a victim, but somebody who is determined and fearless," she said.
Another project of the former Harry Potter star's, a TV miniseries called Moominvalley, is slated for a 2019 release.