Since getting her big break in the late 2000s, Emily Blunt has lit up our screens in an array of different movies and has earned her place as a true gem of modern Hollywood. As the 'Mary Poppins Returns' star turns 40, take a look back at the life and career so far of the woman who didn't even want to be an actress in the first place but ended up becoming one of the highest-paid stars in the world, banking a reported US$4 million in 2022 alone.

Emily Blunt was born on 23 February 1983 in London as the second of four children to teacher Joanna and barrister Oliver. Growing up, Emily was shy because of a speech impediment and performing was something she never wanted to do. She said: "I really didn’t want to be an actress. I had a deliberate resistance to it because I couldn’t imagine doing a job where you had to speak all the time. I thought I wanted to be a linguist, maybe a translator for the UN."

Emily's stutter which meant she struggled to get her words out as a child, but when she was 12 years old a teacher suggested she speak in a "funny voice" and Emily found that by putting on an accent she could "free herself" of her speech impediment and could talk fluently. She said: "When I was 12, my class teacher was this really cool guy called Mr. McHale. He was this enormous man with a massive mustache. He asked me if I wanted to do the class play, and I said no. And he said, “'But I think you can do it. I’ve heard you doing silly voices and mimicking people. So if you did it in a silly voice, would you consider doing it? Why don’t you do it in an accent?' And that was a very liberating thing for me as a kid. Suddenly, I had a fluency. The removal of yourself from yourself, in some ways, was freeing. I agreed to it, and I did speak completely fluently. "

Emily studied performing arts at school and at the age of 16 was discovered and signed by an agent but even though she enjoyed moderate success in plays and received praise for her role in the 2004 drama 'My Summer of Love', it would be a 2006 comedy that rocketed Emily to super stardom. In 'The Devil Wears Prada', Blunt played Emily Charlton, the ambitious senior assistant to demanding Runway magazine editor-in-chief Miranda Priestly, a role that earned Meryl Street an Oscar nomination. Emily has a tricky relationship with happy-go-lucky newcomer Andy Sachs (Anne Hathaway) in the film and was surprised to learn she even got the part at all after auditioning in sweatpants. Blunt said: "I was rushing for the airport, and I remember just being kind of flustered. So I read it, but I was wearing sweatpants, and I did not look the part at all!"

In 2009, Emily took on the role of the formidable Queen Victoria - who ruled over Britain from 1837 until 1901 - in 'The Young Victoria'. She later reflected that she tried to "create a real person" in the role because even a queen has a "human side".

By 2014, Emily had starred in yet more comedy dramas such as 'Salmon Fishing in the Yemen' and 'Your Sister's Sister' but switched things up again entirely with her role as Sergeant Rita Vrataski in the sci-fi movie 'Edge of Tomorrow' alongside Hollywood A-lister Tom Cruise. To get into shape for the part, she trained for two hours a day, six days a week. She said: "It was brutal at first and then became addictive!"

That same year, Emily ventured into the world of song and dance as she took on the role of The Baker's Wife in the Disney film adaptation of Broadway hit 'Into the Woods' - which is inspired by the Brothers Grimm fairy tales. The movie is mostly sung through and Emily later noted how she had to do the "craziest" things to her voice in preparation. She said: "I had a few more than a few voice lessons. I did everything from lying on the ground singing the songs, then walking around. The craziest vocal exercises, they were so embarrassing. They made me go 'Goo goo ga ga' in a scale!"

In November 2008, Emily met director and former 'Office' star John Krasinski on a night out. They dated for two years before getting engaged in August 2009. The tied the knot in Como, Italy, in July 2010. Reflecting on the couple's romance, Emily said: "When I feel the support that I have from him, I feel invincible. There's someone behind you on your good days and someone in front of you on your bad days!"

Emily and John welcomed daughter Hazel into the world in 2014, and then had their second daughter Violet in 2016. On being a mother, she said: "I realised that becoming a mother gives you so much more strength than you thought you had. You learn that you’re actually more capable than ever!"

Hot on the heels of becoming a mother for the second time, Emily began to prep for her role as the titular nanny in Disney sequel 'Mary Poppins Returns', but admitted she could "never outdo" the work of Julie Andrews, who won an Oscar for her part in the original magical movie in 1964. She said: "I have not watched the original since I saw it as a child, cause I ... No one is going to outdo Julie Andrews. "I just think this is going to be my version of her!"

Emily has spent her whole career switching up roles and now that has hit her milestone 40th birthday, it looks like we could see something completely different from her once again. In 2015, she said: "I’ve got another eight years of hopefully being relatively attractive before I have to be a witch!"