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Chris Rankin, from Norwich, who has starred in several Harry Potter films is to give up his career as an actor after realising he was not enjoying it anymore.

The 24-year-old, who played Percy Weasley in four of the Potter movies, worked with a host of top names including Robbie Coltrane, Alan Rickman and Dawn French.

Chris told Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Radio Norfolk: "I love acting but I've discovered that doing it as a job means that I'm not enjoying it as much as I used to."

Love for acting

Chris' love for acting began at the age of 11 while at Dereham Northgate High School after being cast as a dead body in the school's musical Bugsy Malone.

Over the next 10 years, Chris continued to work with Northgate High School as well as the Operatic Society Youth Theatre Company in Dereham.

Chris (centre) with Harry Potter co-stars

His big break came in August 2000 when he landed the role of Percy Weasley, the swotty big brother to Ron Weasley, in the record-breaking Harry Potter movie series. The casting marked the beginning of his professional acting career.

Magic runs out

But after eight years of playing fantasy with Harry Potter, the magic has finally run out for Chris.

"I went for the West End audition for the musical Wicked back in March", he said.

"Usually when you go for TV and film auditions people are nice to you, they tell you thank you very much and say they'll get back to you in the next few days.

"In the West End auditions, they just say 'next', and I thought, I don't enjoy this any more."

Instead, Chris will be turning his hand to life the other side of the camera as he heads to university.

He said: "I've always loved producing and fancied a go at directing so in September I'm off to LincolnΜύto study media production for three years."

After completing his studies perhaps Chris will follow in the footsteps some other famous actor-turned-directors like Ron Howard, George Clooney and Ben Affleck.