Maggie Smith is a British character actress. Seven-time BAFTA Award winner (four awards for Best Leading Actress, one for Best Supporting Actress, two special awards), two-time Academy Award winner[5] (1970, 1979), four-time Emmy Award winner (2003, 2011, 2012, 2016). Member of the Order of the Companions of Honour, Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire. Margaret Natalie Smith was born in Ilford, Essex. Her father, Nathaniel Smith (1902-1991), was a professor at Oxford University, and her mother, Margaret Hutton (née Little; 1896-1977), worked as a secretary in Glasgow. She studied at Oxford, where she made her stage debut. Her first professional theatre role was Viola in Twelfth Night (1952). From 1959, she was in the company of the Old Vic theatre, specialising in Shakespearean repertoire. In film, Smith mainly played strict and character roles, such as Minerva McGonagall in the Harry Potter films.

She was nominated for the Academy Award six times and won it twice (1970 - The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, 1979 - California Suite). In 1989, by order of the Queen, through knighthood of the British Crown, she received the right to add the honorary title "Dame" to her name (the female equivalent of the noble title "Sir"). From her marriage to Sir Robert Stephens (one of the outstanding actors of his generation), Maggie Smith has two sons, Chris Larkin and Toby Stephens, both actors. Maggie Smith's close friend is Lady Judi Dench. They appeared together in Franco Zeffirelli's Tea with Mussolini in 1999, as well as in the films A Room with a View (1985), Ladies in Lavender (2004), The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (2012).