While a lot of Harry Potter fans might feel almost unable to separate the actors who appear in the Harry Potter franchise from their magical counterparts, a lot of them have had some incredible roles elsewhere in Hollywood.
We’ve used IMDb to determine the best roles that the incredible (seriously, look at the talent on that list) cast of the films have taken on outside of The Wizarding World.
Daniel Radcliffe
The main character from the franchise’s best role according to IMDb is his cameo in Extras.
He appears in the Ricky Gervais sitcom all the way back in 2006, when still only a child himself, as a sex-obsessed teenager who is trying to pull anyone he possibly can on set.
Emma Watson
While Emma Watson might have started to achieve more recognition in her political career than her acting once since the Harry Potter franchise wrapped up, she has still appeared in a fair few heavy-hitters.
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Her highest-ranked role came right after the series finished when she was given the lead role in The Perks Of Being A Wallflower.
Rupert Grint
Despite quite literally being Ron Weasley, Rupert Grint’s acting career hasn’t really gone anywhere, with the actor instead carefully choosing roles based on how fun they seem.
As such, his appearance in a 2020 episode of Servant is currently his most high-rated role on IMDb.
Alan Rickman
For the children in Harry Potter, the franchise both started and made their career, while sort of typecasting them in the process. The likes of Alan Rickman, however, already had incredibly well-established acting careers.
As you might expect, it is the Bruce Willis-starring Die Hard that sits at the top of Rickman’s impressive filmography.
Robbie Coltrane
The comic relief of the franchise is Robbie Coltrane’s Hagrid. Long before JK Rowling picked up her pen, Coltrane was winning over audiences every week in Cracker.
The hard-hitting drama saw Coltrane play Fitz, a criminal psychologist, as he solves a variety of crimes while working for the Manchester Police. The episode ‘To Be A Somebody: Part 1’ gets an impressive 9.2 average.
Michael Gambon
Michael Gambon, AKA the second version of Album Dumbledore, has been acting for a long time. In that time, his filmography has expanded immensely, with Harry Potter 8 somehow actually topping the list.
However, right underneath is The King’s Speech, where Gambon embodies King George V.
Tom Felton
A few years after the curtain was drawn on his excellent portrayal of Draco Malfoy in the Harry Potter series, Tom Felton landed a role in season three of the 2014 show The Flash.
He plays Doctor Alchemy, a genius who possesses abilities such as telepathy and psychokinesis. The episode ‘I Know Who You Are’ rates 9.0 on IMDb.
Ralph Fiennes
Fiennes is another actor who was already sitting on an astonishing career long before the idea of Harry Potter was even a thought. One of his most impressive roles came in 1993, where he played evil SS officer Amon Göth, opposite Liam Neeson’s Oskar Schindler.
Add the direction of Spielberg into the mix and the film landed a variety of Golden Globes.
Maggie Smith
The career of Maggie Smith allows us to go all the way back to 1969 for her most impressive film role. It might be trumped in terms of IMDb rating by almost all of the Harry Potter films, but The Prime Of Miss Jean Brodie is still remembered as a classic.
Smith is almost unrecognizable as she plays a character thirty years younger than she was when Potter started.
Helena Bonham Carter
You’d think that, given its incredible reception and the way it has gone down in history as one of the greatest films of all time, that Fight Club would top Helena Bonham Carter’s list.
However, the incredibly well-received episode (‘Aberfan’) of the British Royal drama, The Crown, in which she plays Princess Margret.
Gary Oldman
Known for an impressive career full of stage acting and Shakespearian roles, the on-screen version of Sirius Black was always bound for success.
Considered one of the best films of all time and certainly, the best superhero film ever made, Gary Oldman’s career-defining appearance according to IMDB is The Dark Knight, in which he plays James Gordon.
Warwick Davis
Warwick Davis seems to like appearing in as many famous film franchises as he possibly can: Harry Potter and Star Wars both see him regularly return as a variety of characters.
As such, Return Of The Jedi, his first role and the first time we saw Wicket the Ewok on-screen gains a solid 8.3 on IMDb.
Julie Walters
The final Harry Potter film might be her highest-ranked film, but, in a result that might be a bit of a difference what you might expect from Walters, Paddington 2 is what sits at the top of her IMDb list.
Interesting fact: Imelda Staunton (who plays Professor Umbridge in Harry Potter) is also in the film.
Domhnall Gleeson
One of the greatest actors of our time plays Bill Weasley, while his father Brendan plays Mad-Eye Moody.
Both of them have played a number of very exciting roles outside of the Wizarding World, but Domhanall’s best-rated IMDb appearances come in his episode of ‘Black Mirror’ in which he plays a dead guy who is brought back to ‘life’ by his girlfriend who misses him. It’s pretty weird but really good.
Emma Thompson
Weirdly, it’s hard to tell that Emma Thompson is actually the one giving life the crazy future-teller (who has only ever told the future twice), seeing as she is decked out head to toe in a particularly garish costume every time she is on screen.
In The Name Of The Father gained Thompson an Academy Award nomination for the Best Actress In A Supporting Role for her role in the film.