7 actors who used Harry Potter to launch career including Bridgerton and Suits stars
With a brand new TV adaptation of Harry Potter on the way, the Wizarding World is once again casting its spell over fans - and, as if that wasn't enough, the original eight films have just returned to cinemas.
While rattling their through the eight big-name blockbusters, however, some eagle-eyed fans might pick up on a few background faces they hadn't noticed during previous viewings, only to realise those minor Hogwarts roles belonged to actors who would later become stars in their own right.
That's right, several leading actors, famous for the likes of Bridgerton, Stranger Things, Killing Eve and even Dancing With The Stars, enjoyed some of their earliest on-screen appearances within the fantastical franchise.
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From uncredited extras and blink-and-you'll-miss-it cameos to young witches, wizards and Hogwarts students, these stars were quietly getting their start in one of the biggest film franchises of all time, years before finding fame in some of television and Hollywood's biggest productions.
Here's a look back at the familiar faces you might not have realised were hiding in plain sight throughout the Harry Potter films.
Regé-Jean Page
Before he was the hunky Duke of Hastings, Regé-Jean Page was 'Weasley Wedding Guest'.
That's right, the Bridgerton actor - one of the two leading love interests from the first season of the period romance, alongside co-star Phoebe Dyvenor - took a role as an uncredited extra in the seventh Harry Potter movie while still finding his feet in showbiz.
He can be seen in the background of Bill Weasley and Fleur Delacour's nuptials in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 1, which was released to cinemas in 2010.
Around the same time Page made guest appearances in British television classics Casualty, Fresh Meat and Waterloo Road.
His Bridgerton gig came in 2019, however, after he impressed executive producer Shonda Rhimes with his supporting role in her Shondaland-produced legal drama For the People two years earlier.
For his role as Simon Basset (more lovingly referred to as 'The Duke'), Page bagged himself a Primetime Emmy nomination, as well as an NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actor in a Drama Series.
In the years since, the 38-year-old has appeared in Netflix's The Gray Man, the fantasy film Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, Steven Soderbergh's Focus Features thriller Black Bag and the rom-com You, Me & Tuscany.
Michelle Fairley
A year before she appeared as Lady Catelyn Stark in the HBO fantasy hit, Game Of Thrones, Michelle Fairley landed also a one-line role in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 1.
In it, she played Mrs Granger, the mother to Harry Potter's know-it-all sidekick, Hermione Granger.
As we say, Fairley only had one line in the enchanting production, telling her daughter, 'Hermione, tea's ready, darling', to which actress Emma Watson replies with her iconic line, 'Coming, mum!'.
Moments later, Hermione casts a spell over both her parents, forcing them to forget about her existence while she goes off with Harry and Ron to find Voldemort's horcruxes.
In the years prior, Fairley had only taken on a number of small roles, including in The Bill, Holby City and Casualty, as well as in a handful of episodes of Inspector Morse.
Her role as the Stark family matriarch in the first three seasons of Game Of Thrones alongside on-screen husband, however, would prove to be the Northern Irish actress' big break, after which she was cast in a number of more mainstream shows.
This included as Dr Ava Hessington in Suits, Margot Al-Harazi in 24: Live Another Day, as Margaret Langston in Resurrection, Meredith Hatfield in The Feed, Marian Wllace in Gangs of London, and Princess Augusta in Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story.
Alfred Enoch
Long before he played a law student tied up in a terrifying murder mystery, Alfred Enoch was also Hogwarts student.
The British actor is best known to US audiences as Wes Gibbins in How to Get Away with Murder, the legal thriller - again, produced by Shonda Rhimes - starring Viola Davis.
But years before he stepped foot in Middleton University, Enoch had already spent much of his childhood at another fictional facility.
Enoch was just 12 when he made his Harry Potter debut as Dean Thomas in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, which hit cinemas in 2001.
His character was one of Harry's Gryffindor classmates and became a regular presence throughout the franchise, eventually joining Dumbledore's Army and taking part in the Battle of Hogwarts.
Enoch continued playing Dean across the films, with the exception of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, before making his final appearance in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 2 in 2011.
Just a few years later, Enoch swapped Hogwarts robes for a suit and tie when he landed his breakout US television role in How to Get Away with Murder.
He played Wes, one of a group of ambitious law students studying under Davis' formidable professor Annalise Keating, and quickly became a key figure in the show's first three seasons.
The series ran for six seasons in total, and Enoch went on to appear in a string of projects following his Harry Potter days, including the BBC drama Troy: Fall of a City and the Apple TV+ sci-fi series Foundation.
So, while Dean Thomas may have been one of the many faces in the halls of Hogwarts, the actor behind him would eventually land a starring role in one of TV's biggest legal dramas.
Jamie Campbell Bower
That's right - prior to being dragged to the Upside Down, where he assumed the role as alien supervillain Vecna, Stranger Things star Jamie Campbell Bower appeared in one of the Harry Potter movies.
Like Page and Fairley, the British actor didn't have any proper lines in the seventh film, but he did receive considerably more screen time than them.
Campbell Bower played a young Gellert Grindelwald in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 1.
While the character takes on a much bigger role in the Fantastic Beasts spin-off film series, Grindelwald serves as a crucial historical and narrative bridge in the Harry Potter franchise, connecting Albus Dumbledore's mysterious past, the origin of the Deathly Hallows, and Lord Voldemort's quest for power.
Interestingly, Campbell Bower is the only actor in the entire Wizarding World to appear in both the Harry Potter and the Fantastic Beasts film series'.
Before landing his role in the former, however, the 37-year-old star had played several supporting characters in hits like Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street and The Twilight Saga.
And afterwards, he starred as Jace Wayland in The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones, and took on several West End gigs.
It wouldn't be until 2022, however, that Campbell Bower would be cast in the role he's arguably best known for - Henry Creel, otherwise known as Vecna.
Despite often appearing unrecognisable - often covered in eight hours worth of make-up and prosthetics - the actor's performance garnered critical claim, making him a firm favourite amongst fans.
Julianne Hough
You might have missed dancer Julianne Hough's very first brush with the spotlight, because it happened when she was just 13.
The television personality appeared as an uncredited Hogwarts schoolgirl in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, released in cinemas in 2001.
But Hough's memories of her time on the set weren't limited to wandering around Hogwarts. She also developed a rather adorable crush on the film's young star, Daniel Radcliffe.
"I gave him a love note and a Beanie Baby for Valentine's Day," she previously recalled to PEOPLE. "I didn't personally give it to him because I was just an extra, but I gave it to his assistant or PA that was working with him."
There was a family connection to the Wizarding World, too, as Hough's older brother, fellow professional dancer Derek Hough, also appeared as a student in the film.
Hough's career would take a very different direction in the years that followed.
In 2007, she joined Dancing with the Stars as a professional dancer, winning the Mirrorball Trophy in her debut season with her Olympic speed skater partner Apolo Anton Ohno.
She returned to the winner's circle the following year, this time dancing with racing driver Hélio Castroneves, before branching out into acting and music with roles in films including Footloose, Rock of Ages and Safe Haven.
Her connection to Dancing with the Stars has lasted well beyond her time on the dance floor. Hough later became a judge on the show before returning as co-host in 2023.
Hero Fiennes Tiffin
His face may be instantly recognisable to fans of the After film series, but Hero Fiennes Tiffin's acting career began with a much smaller role in the Harry Potter film series.
In 2009, he appeared in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince as a young Tom Riddle, the orphan who would grow up to become Lord Voldemort, ironically played by Fiennes Tiffin's real life uncle, Ralph Fiennes.
The Brit was just 11 when the film was released, his performance as the unsettling young Tom marked one of his earliest acting credits, and gave him a rather significant connection to the Harry Potter franchise.
He wouldn't become a major teen heartthrob until several years later, when he landed the role of Hardin Scott in the After film series.
Based on Anna Todd's hugely popular novels, the movies follow the complicated relationship between innocent college student Tessa Young and rebellious bad boy Hardin.
The first After movie arrived in 2019 and quickly turned Fiennes Tiffin into a breakout star, reprising the role in After We Collided, After We Fell, After Ever Happy and After Everything, with the final instalment released in 2023.
Away from the gushy romance-drama, however, Fiennes Tiffin has continued to build his career with roles in projects including The Woman King and The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare, as well as modelling work.
Henry Lloyd-Hughes
Henry Lloyd-Hughes had a blink-and-you'll-miss-it moment in the Harry Potter universe long before audiences came to know him from some very different British TV favourites.
The actor appeared in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone as Roger Davies, a Ravenclaw student at Hogwarts.
His character is perhaps best remembered for asking Fleur Delacour to the Yule Ball in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, although Lloyd-Hughes' appearance in the franchise was relatively brief.
His Harry Potter role came early in his acting career, with Lloyd-Hughes going on to establish himself as a familiar face on British television.
He became particularly well known for playing Mark Donovan in The Inbetweeners, appearing in the hit Channel 4 comedy as the arrogant sixth-form bully who catches Will McKenzie's eye during the show's first series.
Lloyd-Hughes later took on a very different kind of role in Killing Eve, starring as Aaron Peel in the BBC America thriller's second season. As the sinister son of a powerful tech billionaire, he found himself opposite Jodie Comer, Sandra Oh and Fiona Shaw in one of the show's most memorable storylines.
His credits have continued to span comedy and drama, with appearances in shows including The English, Industry and The Irregulars, as well as films such as Anna Karenina.
Topics: Harry Potter, TV And Film, Entertainment
Rhianna Benson