Evanna Lynch (born 16 August 1991) is an Irish actress from Termonfeckin, County Louth, Ireland. She lives with her father Donal, mother Marguerite, elder sisters Mairead and Emily, and younger brother Patrick.
It was revealed on 2 February 2006 that the then fourteen-year-old had been cast as Luna Lovegood in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix after her father flew her to London for the open audition for the role, beating nearly 15,000 girls in the auditions. She began actual filming at the end of February at Leavesden Studios in England.
Evanna finally had the chance to meet Rowling at the Leavesden Studios lot during the early stages of the fifth film's production. After a long chat, Rowling had one thing to say about Lynch portraying Luna: "perfect". However, as Evanna is naturally a brunette, her hair had to be bleached blonde for the role of Luna.
Lynch is a huge Harry Potter fan and, according to her family, is obsessed with the series. As a younger child, Evanna would continually write to the author of the books, J. K. Rowling, and in one such letter the youngster commented how much she would love to act in a Harry Potter film but doubted this would happen as she lived in "this sleepy little place called Termonfeckin, where nothing ever happened". To Evanna's surprise, Rowling replied, saying "Don't be too hard on Termonfeckin; it does have a brilliant name! And I come from a very sleepy place".
In 2003, aged eleven, Evanna was disappointed that she would miss the release of the fifth book in the series, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix as she had been hospitalised. However, the hospital released her for the morning of the launch and a local bookstore arranged for her to receive a copy signed by author Rowling. On the day, Evanna was dressed in a Harry Potter t-shirt and had scrawled "I love Harry Potter" down her arms. She had also painted her fingernails blue with Harry Potter written on every second nail and the Golden Snitch on every other one, as well as sporting painted-on black Harry Potter glasses. Lynch's love for the novels even saw her choosing to name her cat Luna who has had several kittens, one of them named Dumbledore. Another cat she had, named Crookshanks after character Hermione Granger's cat, died in early 2006.
Lynch is an avid visitor to the Harry Potter fan site MuggleNet.
Evanna also called in to the popular Harry Potter-themed podcast, PotterCast, to talk about the title of the seventh Harry Potter book (Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows).
As of September 2006, she is in the third year at Our Lady's College, Greenhills, an all girls' Catholic school located in Drogheda, Ireland. During her primary school years, she attended Cartown National School. Evanna's bedroom is orange and has turquoise quotations from the books. She was extremely excited about meeting JK Rowling as she put it that meeting the one person who created it all was really fun. She is a die-hard Harry Potter fan as she believes the books are really a relaxing way for her and she has always been mesmerized by Harry Potter. [10]
