The "Harry Potter" kids are all grown up

NEW YORK — When the "Harry Potter" film series is completed, its three young stars — Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint — will have inhabited J.K. Rowling's universe for half their lives.

Radcliffe, who is now 19, was 11 when he was cast as the boy wizard for the series' 2001 debut. Watson, now 19, was 10 when she auditioned for the whip-smart Hermione Granger. Grint, the eldest of the trio, is 20.

The series' sixth installment, "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince," arrives in theaters late tonight.

Early reviews of the movie, the second one directed by David Yates, have been positive; both Variety and The Associated Press suggested it was the best "Potter" film yet. (Seattle Times movie critic Moira Macdonald's review is online today at www.seattletimes.com/movies and will be printed this Friday in MovieTimes.) The movies have become progressively more complex, darker and realistic — even amid the fantasy world of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

As the films have matured, so has the cast. At the moment, the careers of all three seem poised to branch out in new directions.

Daniel Radcliffe, "Harry Potter"

The many lauded Brit actors of the "Potter" films have influenced Radcliffe — perhaps none more than Gary Oldman, who played Sirius Black in several of the films, most notably the third, 2004's "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban." Interestingly, Radcliffe pegs that film as the moment he realized he loved acting.

"Something happened at the age of 14," he says. "I started taking it more seriously, which meant I started having more fun."

He has begun moving away from Harry Potter, including a hilarious cameo in Ricky Gervais' TV series "Extras," and a well-reviewed performance in a revival of Peter Shaffer's "Equus," which ran in London in 2007 and on Broadway in 2008.

Emma Watson,

"Hermione Granger"

Watson has acted in a few other films (a voice-over in 2008's "The Tale of Despereaux" and the 2007 BBC film "Ballet Shoes"), but she has spent most of her spare time throughout "Potter" — and this is very Hermione-like — studying. This fall, she'll attend Brown University, says producer David Heyman. (Watson isn't discussing her plans publicly.)

"I would have exploded if I hadn't had school to ground me and focus me," Watson says.

She expects to continue acting, but says college felt like the obvious decision.

She plans to study literature and art, but she has also shown interest in fashion. She signed to a modeling agency about two years ago.

Rupert Grint, "Ron Weasley"

The bemused Grint — whom "Azkaban" director Alfonso Cuarón once said was the one most likely to become a star — remains clearly grounded, even if he's used his earnings to purchase a hovercraft. That playfulness is perhaps an essential quality to Grint, who was never inclined to view acting as a job.

"I don't think I ever really made the connection of it being a career," he says. "It was just something that was fun to do. In the early ones, I don't think I took the acting too seriously. I just read the lines and got on with it. Over the years, you start to take it more seriously with different directors coming in."

Grint starred in 2007's quirky coming-of-age film "Driving Lessons" with Laura Linney and Julie Walters. And he stars in two films not yet released: "Cherrybomb," a boozy teen comedy set in Belfast, Ireland; and "Wild Target," a film about a retiring hit man that stars Bill Nighy and Emily Blunt.