Newcomer Owen Cooper captivated audiences with his breakout role in Netflix’s crime drama Adolescence, released this March, and now he’s nominated for his first acting award—a big one, too.
The up-and-coming British actor earned an Emmy Award nomination for his gripping performance as Adolescence’s Jamie Miller, a teenage boy arrested for the murder of his female classmate. At 15, Cooper is the youngest ever nominee in the Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Limited Series category. If he wins, he’ll make more history as the youngest male Emmy-winning actor.
“It’s crazy. I don’t even know how to put that into words, really,” Cooper said of his historic nomination to The Los Angeles Times on Tuesday.
Despite being honored by this achievement, and the show’s overall 13 nods, the rising star doesn’t feel any pressure to take home a trophy at the end of the ceremony in September. “I don’t care if I win. I’ll just get there, eat nice food, meet a lot of people,” Coooper said. “I’m not bothered by the result at the end of the day.”
Here’s what you should know about Owen Cooper ahead of this fall’s award show.
Adolescence is Cooper’s first acting gig
Adolescence isn’t just Cooper’s first onscreen credit—it’s his first ever professional acting gig. The teenager, having only taken weekly acting classes, had no prior acting experience before he was cast in the series. “I was just doing it for a hobby and didn’t expect much from it,” he told Variety in March. “And then when Adolescence came, I obviously took it a lot more seriously.”
He originally wanted to play professional soccer
Despite his raw talent, Cooper wasn’t focused on becoming an actor. “It wasn’t really in my DNA,” he told i-D magazine. Born and raised in Warrington, an English city between Liverpool and Manchester, Cooper grew up wanting to play professional soccer. While he no longer sees a future as a footballer, he still roots for Liverpool FC and his favorite player, Trent Alexander-Arnold.
Tom Holland inspired him to take up acting
Cooper took an interest in acting after watching Tom Holland in the 2012 film The Impossible a few years ago. The fellow Brit’s compelling performance made Cooper want to follow in the actor’s footsteps. From there, Cooper joined a local drama club and was later signed to a talent agency. While he’s now inspired by a range of movies, there is one role of Holland’s that he wants to take on. “I want to play Spider-Man,” he said in his i-D magazine interview.
His co-star Stephen Graham helped him get into character
New to acting and one-shot takes, Cooper needed a little help getting into character on the set of Adolescence. His co-star Stephen Graham, who plays his father, Eddie Miller, on the show, jumped to the rescue.
“There was a time in episode one, when it was just us two, with no camera, in the police cell, and he scruffed me up and said ‘You’re never going to see your mum again. You’re never going to see your dad again’ and was going on and on,” Cooper told Variety. “Before then, I’d been frustrated because I hadn’t been getting emotional. But after that point, I was emotional in every take.”
Cooper already has his next role lined up
You can see Cooper next in Emerald Fennell’s upcoming adaptation of Wuthering Heights. In his film debut, the actor will portray a young Heathcliff, as Saltburn star Jacob Elordi tackles an older version of the enduring character. Cooper can’t yet reveal much about the movie, which is currently in production, but he did tell i-D: “It’s fun. I like it.”
Catherine Caruso joined the Biography.com staff in August 2024, having previously worked as a freelance journalist for several years. She is a graduate of Syracuse University, where she studied English literature. When she’s not working on a new story, you can find her reading, hitting the gym, or watching too much TV.
