Harry Melling

Harry Edward Melling is an English actor who first came to international attention playing Dudley Dursley in the Harry Potter film series. He has since earned prominence for his performances in feature films such as The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, The Pale Blue Eye, and Pillion, transitioning from prominent child acting roles to critically recognized work in film, television, and theatre.

Melling was born on 17 March 1989 in London, England. He comes from a background connected to the performing arts, as his maternal grandfather was actor Patrick Troughton. Pursuing formal education in acting, Melling studied at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art.

Cast at ten years old in 1999, Melling portrayed Harry Potter's spoiled cousin, Dudley Dursley, appearing in five of the franchise's films between 2001 and 2010. His final appearance in the series was in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1. During his early career, he also performed in theatrical productions of The Provoked Wife, King John, Antigone, and Plenty. By 2009, Melling had lost a substantial amount of weight, which nearly led to his Harry Potter role being recast for Deathly Hallows – Part 1, though he ultimately retained the part by wearing a fatsuit.

Alongside his film work, Melling expanded his career on stage and television. In 2009, he appeared in a revival of Mother Courage and Her Children at the Royal National Theatre. On television, he played a young warlock in an episode of the BBC series Merlin and portrayed Robert Brown in the BBC series Just William. In 2014, Melling made his debut as a playwright at the HighTide Festival with his one-man show titled Peddling.

Melling achieved a major career breakthrough in 2018 when he starred alongside Liam Neeson as a limbless performer in the Coen brothers' Western film The Ballad of Buster Scruggs. He later credited this performance as a catalyst for subsequent project opportunities. In 2020, he played an evangelical preacher in the Netflix thriller The Devil All The Time and portrayed chess player Harry Beltik in the Netflix miniseries The Queen's Gambit, learning chess for the role. In 2021, he collaborated with director Joel Coen again in The Tragedy of Macbeth.

In 2022, Melling played his first leading role in a feature film, portraying a young Edgar Allan Poe opposite Christian Bale in the crime drama The Pale Blue Eye, directed by Scott Cooper. In 2025, he starred alongside Alexander Skarsgård in the Element Pictures film Pillion.