Harry Potter and the £23m fortune

The world's most famous wizard, Daniel Radcliffe, has conjured up a personal fortune of £23million - to become Britain's richest teenager.

Sixteen-year- old Radcliffe has overtaken Charlotte Church in the wealth stakes after signing a contract worth £8million to make the fifth Harry Potter film.

Financial records filed last week show that the Oxfordshire schoolboy has already earned £10million from the first three Harry Potter films in which he plays the eponymous hero.

Companies House, which charts the financial activity of all limited businesses, records the prodigious profits made by Gilmore Jacobs, the firm set up in 2000 by Radcliffe's parents to manage his assets.

The £10million, however, does not include Radcliffe's earnings from the latest film, Harry Potter and the Goblet Of Fire, which opened in the UK last week.

This means that the next set of accounts, due to be filed next spring, are likely to show a further £5million capital. This, together with the £8million deal for the fifth instalment of the franchise, Harry Potter and the Order of the

Phoenix, out in 2007, ensures that Radcliffe comfortably tops Britain's young rich list.He is now out-earning Charlotte Church, who is worth an estimated £10million.

This time last year Radcliffe was declared Britain's second wealthiest teenager, behind the Voice of an Angel singer in the Sunday Times Rich List.

While Radcliffe's parents, Alan, a literary agent, and Marcia, a casting director, each have £1,000 of shares in their son's company, they will receive only that original stake back should the firm fold. The rest of the money will go to Radcliffe.

His co-stars, Emma Watson, 15, who plays Hermione Granger, and

Rupert Grint, 17, who plays Harry's best friend, Ron Weasley, have also seen their earnings swell in recent months. Talking about the effect of wealth on the young actors, British director Mike Newell, the man behind the latest instalment, said: ' They all know exactly what they're worth but they have not become impossible.'