Clarke made her television debut in 2009 with a guest-starring role on medical soap opera “Doctors,” and the following year, she appeared in “Triassic Attack” on the Syfy network, was cast in “Game of Thrones,” and was named a UK Star of Tomorrow by “Screen International” magazine. Emilia gained international fame for her performance as Daenerys Targaryen, “Mother of Dragons,” on “Game of Thrones,” earning critical acclaim and several awards. The series, which is based on a fantasy book series by George R. R. Martin, ran for 8 seasons, and Clarke appeared in 62 episodes. During her early years on the popular HBO series, Emilia appeared in the short film “Shackled” (2012), the feature films “Spike Island” (2012) and “Dom Hemingway” (2013), and a 2013 Broadway production of “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” (playing Holly Golightly).
In 2013, Clarke landed the role of Sarah Connor in “Terminator Genisys,” which grossed $440.6 million at the box office when it was released in 2015. She followed the movie with several more hits: 2016’s “Me Before You” (which grossed $208.3 million), 2018’s “Solo: A Star Wars Story” ($393.2 million), and 2019’s “Last Christmas” ($121.6 million). Emilia also appeared in supernatural thriller “Voice from the Stone” (2017), short film “Leading Lady Parts” (2018), and crime thriller “Above Suspicion” (2019) and lent her voice to the TV shows “Futurama” (2013), “Robot Chicken” (2016), “Animals” (2017), and “Thunderbirds Are Go” (2017).
Clarke was offered the role of Anastasia Steele in “Fifty Shades of Grey” but turned it down. In 2020, Clarke was cast as Nina in a production of Anton Chekhov’s “The Seagull” at London’s Playhouse Theatre, but on March 16th, the production was suspended after less than a week of previews due to the Coronavirus pandemic.