Education
Merchant comes from Sussex, England and was educated at Windlesham House School and Brighton College, although she has also lived in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
Merchant comes from Sussex, England and was educated at Windlesham House School and Brighton College, although she has also lived in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
She is known for her role as Georgiana Darcy in the 2005 film Pride & Prejudice and for her role as Catherine Howard in The Tudors. In 2014, Merchant starred as Anne Hale on the World's Greatest Newspaper America series Salem. After twice deferring university places to concentrate on her acting career, she was a student at Homerton College, Cambridge.
Merchant"s other credits include Margo Durrell in the 2005 British Broadcasting Corporation television film My Family and Other Animals.
In 2006 she appeared in two more British Broadcasting Corporation dramas, as Sara Fox, the daughter of Alan Davies and Michelle Gomez, in the comedy The Good Housekeeping Guide, and as Probationer Eastwood in the historical drama Casualty 1906. In 2007, while studying at the University of Cambridge, she performed in an audio production of Lady Windermere"s Fan as Lady Agatha, while in 2008 she appeared in the ensemble drama Radio Cape Cod in which she plays a summer theatre camper.
She appears in the music video for Jamie T"s "If You"ve Got The Money" and in Belle and Sebastian"s "Nobody"s Empire". She was cast in the third season (2009) of The Tudors, playing Catherine Howard, the fifth wife of Henry VIII. She debuted in the part in the third season finale and features heavily in several episodes of the fourth (and final) season.
lieutenant was announced on 20 August 2009 that Merchant would star as Daenerys Targaryen in the Home Box Office series Game of Thrones, based on George R. R. Martin"s A Song of Ice and Fire series of fantasy novels.
On 29 April 2010, it was announced that Merchant was no longer part of the series, being replaced in her role as Daenerys by Emilia Clarke. She has also starred in DCI Banks: "Playing with Fire" as Miranda. In early 2012 Merchant played the 17-year-old Rosa Bud in the British Broadcasting Corporation adaptation of Dickens" The Mystery Of Edwin Drood, written by Gwyneth Hughes (Five Days, U Be Dead, Mission Austen Regrets and Blood Strangers).
Merchant dated actor Freddie Fox for two years.
Their relationship ended in 2013. Merchant is a patron of the international development charity Build Africa.
In March 2013 she gave a speech at an International Women"s Day event at London"s Hospital Club. Merchant has written several poems, including "Where Does Revenge Stop?" and "Ode to a Toilet", for Platforms Magazine.