What is Emma Watson doing now? Harry Potter star competes in Oxford rowing team

Emma Watson, best known for bringing Hermione Granger to life on screen, returned to academia in 2023. The actress enrolled in a graduate program at Oxford University. Recently, Watson has found herself back in the public eye, but not on a film set. Instead, the Harry Potter actress has taken up a different role: student and athlete.

Late last month, Watson was spotted on the River Thames, competing in the university’s Summer Eights regatta. In photos published by the Daily Mail on May 31, she could be seen acting as the coxswain. Emma Watson steered her team and called out commands through a mic as her rowers, decked out in bold purple uniforms and face paint, powered down the water.

Though she has largely stepped back from the entertainment world, Watson did make an exception for the 2025 Cannes Film Festival. The actress traveled to France just weeks before the regatta, marking her first appearance at the prestigious event in over a decade.

Following her long run as Hermione Granger, Emma Watson later pursued a quieter path. She earned a literature degree from Brown University before continuing her studies at Oxford nearly a decade later.

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Emma Watson on reclaiming her voice after Hollywood burnout:

Emma Watson spoke openly in 2023 about her decision to pause her acting career and the deeper reasons behind it.

In a 2023 interview with British Vogue, Watson said she felt “so glad” to have taken a step back, sharing,

“I have this feeling of having my own voice and creative space and sovereignty in some way that I don’t think I did before — more autonomy.” shared Emma.

“I’m so glad that I allowed things to be messy for a minute and to really allow myself to not know [what’s next], because the knowing that I’ve come to, I wouldn’t trade that for anything.” she added

Earlier that year, in April 2023, Watson spoke to the Financial Times about the challenges of leading major studio films.

“I wasn’t very happy, if I’m being honest. I think I felt a bit caged,” she said.

She described her discomfort with promoting films she didn’t have creative input on.

“The thing I found really hard was that I had to go out and sell something that I really didn’t have very much control over,” she explained.

“To stand in front of a film and have every journalist be able to say, ‘How does this align with your viewpoint?’ It was very difficult to have to be the face and the spokesperson for things where I didn’t get to be involved in the process. I was held accountable in a way that I began to find really frustrating, because I didn’t have a voice, I didn’t have a say,” she added.

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Watson siblings launch luxury gin brand Renais:

In May 2023, Emma Watson entered the business world with a personal project. The actress partnered with her brother Alex and co-founded a high-end gin label. 'Renais' was rooted in both craftsmanship and sustainability.

Alex, who had already been working in the drinks sector, reflected on the timing of their collaboration for Renais.

“Emma's kind of at a place now where she is pursuing her creative endeavors more and we kind of put our heads together and said, ‘It'd be really nice to do this project,’” he shared.

Their venture puts sustainability front and center, with the brand utilizing recycled grape skins from the winemaking process.

“It plays very nicely to both of our sets of strengths,” Alex added.

Watson didn’t shy away from discussing the pressures of growing older in the public eye. Speaking with British Vogue in 2019, the actress opened up about the anxiety she experienced as she approached her thirties.

“If you have not built a home, if you do not have a husband, if you do not have a baby and you are turning 30, and you’re not in some incredibly secure, stable place in your career or you’re still figuring things out … there’s just this incredible amount of anxiety,” she shared.

Years later, in April 2023, Emma Watson marked her 33rd birthday with a reflective Instagram post. She shared that she had "stepped away from my life" and spent time doing "a lot of therapy".