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28th Oct 2020

Harry Potter star Harry Melling says fans don’t recognise him after weight loss

Cassie Stokes

The actor is unrecognisable after losing weight since his days in Hogwarts.

Harry Melling, also known as Dudley Dursley from the Harry Potter movies, has grown up.

Would you believe it if we told you he’s so unrecognisable that you may not have even have realised he’s in one of Netflix’s brand new series, The Queen’s Gambit?

Everyone is talking about The Queen’s Gambit (it’s great, watch it,) and yet few have realised that former Dudley plays Harry Beltik in the series.

Melling, who has appeared in multiple shows since his stint as Dudley, started to lose weight before he finished filming the Harry Potter movies.

For the last film, he even had to wear a fat suit. The star told PEOPLE, “I think it was an unconscious thing when it started to happen.

“I went to drama school when I was 18 and that’s kind of where the weight shifted, not for any sort of major need on my side, but it’s just something that just happened.”

“I’ve done a lot since drama school, went to do lots of theatres,” he went on. “I think one of the blessings of that sort of stage in my life was the fact that I didn’t get recognised.

“I had this history of being part of the films, but also I felt like I had the opportunity to sort of cause a new start, which I think is useful.”

Aside from his work in the Harry Potter movies, Melling also starred in a few Netflix series that were released over the last year

These include The Old Guard, The Devil All the Time, as well as The Queen’s Gambit.

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