Daniel Jacob Radcliffe is an English actor and producer. He is known for playing the titular protagonist in the Harry Potter film series, based on the novels by J.K. Rowling. Take a look below for 33 more fun and interesting facts about Daniel Radcliffe.

1. Radcliffe was born in Queen Charlotte’s and Chelsea Hospital, London, England.

2. He is the only child of Alan George Radcliffe and his wife, Marcia Jeannine Gresham.

3. His mother is Jewish and was born in South Africa and raised in Westcliff-on-Sea, Essex.

4. His father was raised in Banbridge, County Down, Northern Ireland, in a “very working-class” Protestant family.

5. Radcliffe’s maternal ancestors were Jewish immigrants from Poland and Russia.

6. In 2019 Radcliffe explored both sides of his family history in series 16 of BBC’s Who Do You Think You Are? Radcliffe’s parents had both acted as children.

7. His father is a literary agent. His mother is a casting agent and was involved in several films for the BBC, including The Inspector Lynley Mysteries and Walk Away and I Stumble.

8. Radcliffe first expressed a desire to act at the age of five, and in December 1999, aged 10, he made his acting debut in BBC One’s televised two-part adaptation of the Charles Dickens novel David Copperfield, portraying the title character as a young boy.

9. He was educated at three independent schools for boys: Redcliffe School, a day school in Chelsea’s Redcliffe Square, Sussex House School, a day school in Chelsea’s Cadogan Square, and the City of London School, a day school on the North Bank of the River Thames in London’s financial district (known as the City of London).

10. Attending school became difficult for Radcliffe after the release of the first Harry Potter film, with some fellow pupils becoming hostile, though he says it was people just trying to “have a crack at the kid that plays Harry Potter” rather than jealousy.

11. As his acting career began to consume his schedule, Radcliffe continued his education through on-set tutors.

12. He admitted he was not very good at school, considering it useless and finding the work “really difficult”.

13. He achieved A grades in the three AS-level exams that he took in 2006, but decided to take a break from education and did not go to college or university.

14. Part of his reasoning was that he already knew he wanted to act and write, and that it would be difficult to have a normal college experience.

15. In 2008, Radcliffe revealed that he has a mild form of the neurological disorder developmental coordination disorder (dyspraxia). The motor skill disorder sometimes prevents him from doing simple activities, such as writing or tying his own shoelaces. “I was having a hard time at school, in terms of being crap at everything, with no discernible talent”, Radcliffe commented.

16. In August 2010, he stopped drinking alcohol after finding himself becoming too reliant on it.

17. In November 2007, Radcliffe published several poems under the pen name Jacob Gershon – a combination of his middle name and the Jewish version of his mother’s maiden name Gresham – in Rubbish, an underground fashion magazine.

18. He has a close friendship with his Harry Potter co-stars Tom Felton and Emma Watson, and is close to his family, whom he credits for keeping him grounded.

19. Sources disagree about Radcliffe’s personal wealth; he was reported to have earned £1 million for the first Harry Potter film and around £15 million for the sixth.

20. Radcliffe appeared on the Sunday Times Rich List in 2006, which estimated his personal fortune to be £14 million, making him one of the richest young people in the UK.

21. Radcliffe was considered to be the richest teenager in England later that year. 

22. In February 2010, he was named the sixth highest paid Hollywood male star and placed at number five on Forbes’s December list of Hollywood’s highest-grossing actors with a film revenue of US$780 million, mainly due to Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows being released that year.

23. Radcliffe maintains a home in the West Village of Lower Manhattan in New York City. He splits his time between there and London.

24. As of July 2018, Radcliffe has been dating American Erin Darke, whom he met on the set of Kill Your Darlings, since 2013.

25. There were rumors and stories of a possible engagement in mid-2014, but Darke’s father, Ian Darke, denied there were any such plans in December 2014.

26. In a 2012 interview, Radcliffe stated: “There was never [religious] faith in the house. I think of myself as being Jewish and Irish, despite the fact that I’m English.”

27. In a 2019 interview Radcliffe described himself as “agnostic leaning toward atheism”.

28. Radcliffe is a supporter of the Labour Party. Until 2012, Radcliffe had publicly supported the Liberal Democrats, and before the 2010 general election Radcliffe endorsed Nick Clegg, the Lib Dem leader. 

29. He is a supporter of a British republic.

30. On 13 April 2006, his portrait, drawn by Stuart Pearson Wright, was unveiled as part of a new exhibition opening at the Royal National Theatre; it was then moved to the National Portrait Gallery.

31. Speaking out against homophobia, Radcliffe began filming public service announcements in 2009 for The Trevor Project, promoting awareness of gay teen suicide prevention.

32. He designed the Cu-Bed for Habitat’s VIP Kids range (a cube made of eight smaller ones which can be made into a bed, chaise-longue or chair) with all the royalties from the sale of the bed going directly to his favorite charity, Demelza House Children’s Hospice in Sittingbourne, Kent.

33. He has donated money to Get Connected UK, a London-based free confidential national helpline for troubled youth.