by Nur Hussein, contributing writer

Today we celebrate the birthday of Emilia Clarke!

The British actress was born May 1, 1987, in London, and she grew up in Berkshire. Her early roles include a BBC soap opera called Doctors, and a low-budget SyFy TV movie called Triassic Attack where dinosaur fossils are brought to life and terrorize a small town (sounds like a great film). However she is most famous for her role as Daenerys Targaryen, Mother of Dragons on the hit HBO show Game of Thrones. Her character is called “Khaleesi”, which means “Queen” in the language of the Dothraki, a fictional race of people in the story. Her character is so popular it is reported some parents have named their kids “Khaleesi”, a testament to how awesome Emilia Clarke is in the role. She’s a brunette in real life but wears a blonde wig for her role as Daenerys, a wig she wishes she could go out partying in (the production people won’t let her).

Besides Game of Thrones, Emilia Clarke will play Sarah Connor in a future Terminator movie. Outside of genre roles, in 2013 she took the stage in Broadway in a production of Breakfast at Tiffany’s. She’s also highly talented musically as she has a wonderful singing voice and can play multiple instruments.

Happy birthday, Emilia Clarke, or as they say in Dothraki, “Asshekhqoyi vezhvena, zhey Khaleesi”!

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Nur Hussein

Nur Hussein

Nur is a tinkerer of programmable things, an apprentice in an ancient order of technomages. He enjoys fantasy, sci-fi, comic books, and Lego in his spare time. His favourite authors are Asimov and Tolkien. He also loves Celtic and American folk music. You can follow him on twitter: @nurhussein