Evanna Lynch

Evanna Patricia Lynch was born on 16 August 1991 to Marguerite and Donal Lynch and was raised in Termonfeckin, County Louth, on the east coast of Ireland. She has two older sisters and a younger brother. Her maternal uncle is Declan Kiberd, a scholar of Irish literature who is a professor at the University of Notre Dame. Lynch was raised a Catholic.

Lynch read the Harry Potter series for the first time at age eight and became a fan, reading and writing fan fiction about the series and sending letters to the author, J. K. Rowling. She was educated at Cartown National School in Termonfeckin until June 2004 and then moved to Our Lady's College in Drogheda, where her father was the deputy principal. In 2008, she studied speculative fiction and drama at the Centre for the Talented Youth of Ireland, a summer school for gifted teens, in Glasnevin. While on the Harry Potter film set, Lynch was tutored for at least three hours a day. In September 2010, she attended the Institute of Education to repeat her Leaving Certificate.

Lynch developed an eating disorder at age eleven. She was hospitalised several times for anorexia, and stated that the Harry Potter novels were the only thing that could distract from her condition. During this period, she often wrote to Rowling, stating that "her books and her kindness really made me want to live again." Rowling wrote then- 11-year-old Lynch "incredible, wise letters" back. During the release of the fifth book Order of the Phoenix in June 2003, Lynch was hospitalised and her family consulted with the book's publisher and the hospital; she was subsequently allowed to leave for an hour and collect a signed copy of the book.