Emma Watson at 19 has become the decade’s highest grossing actress.

The former Harry Potter star who has started college in the US went to work on the movies at the age of 10. Since then, the character of Hermione has made her more money than any other woman in Hollywood.

An animation film she starred in, The Tale of Despereaux, was reported to have taken $5.4

billion worldwide, lifting Watson movies into the echelons of those by Cameron Diaz and Julia Roberts. Each Watson film earns an average £554,880,000.

Watson, a straight-A student who atttends Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, has earned £10 million since her debut as Hermione in 2001.

Watson auditioned for the first Harry Potter movie in 1999. She recalled: “I had no idea of the scale of the film series. If I had I would have been completely overwhelmed.”

Keira Knightley is the second-highest grossing actress, following the Pirates of the Caribbean movies and 12 other films she starred in over the past decade.