The Emmy Award nominations are out for 2024 – and they’re certainly making waves. For one, Apple TV+ show Severance has accrued a whopping 27 nods for various categories including outstanding drama series and best actor (and actress).
For another, Owen Cooper has made history as the youngest ever actor (he’s 15) to be nominated for the role of outstanding supporting actor in a limited series. If he wins, he might well make history as the youngest-ever man to win an Emmy.
All this, of course, is off the back of his Netflix series Adolescence, in which Cooper plays Jamie, a 13-year-old who is arrested at the start of the series on suspicion of murder.
The role catapulted him to international fame, as the series became a huge overnight sensation – but who is Cooper himself? We unpack.
Born in Cheshire
Cooper himself was born in Warrington, in the UK country of Cheshire. It wasn’t an acting family: his mother works as a carer and his father works in IT. He also has two older brothers – one aged 20 and one 30 (his mum, Noreen, has since said of his success, “it's such a shock, but we're getting on with it”).
Initially, he wanted to be a footballer, and was a member of the Warrington Rylands under 15 squad. However, he eventually segued into acting – which he credits to seeing Tom Holland’s performance in the film The Impossible. He ended up taking weekly acting lessons with the drama school The Acting Mob (which was created by Coronation Street actor Tina O’Brien and her partner Esther Morgan.
Adolescence
His big break came when Stephen Graham (who helped create and adapt Adolescence) came to cast for the character of Jamie: the 13-year-old who, we discover, murders his classmate.
Graham and the team were looking for somebody who hadn’t had a lot of acting experience; they came to The Acting Mob and asked for tapes of the school’s best northern actors. Cooper was put forward – the teachers said he “just had something” – and was eventually selected from a pool of 500 others.
That involved submitting two self-tapes with a very specific brief. “In the first one, you had to pretend to go into a headmaster’s office and act like you’ve not done anything at all––but you actually haven’t, you’re innocent,” Cooper told i-D magazine. “And then in the second one you had to act like you haven’t done anything wrong––but you really had.”
From there, director Philip Barantini met Cooper in Manchester, and then there was a chemistry read with Graham. “The first two or three auditions were scary,” he said. ”After that, it was fine.”
After Adolescence
The role has earned Cooper massive acclaim. In addition to the plaudits, he’s become internationally famous; on the Jimmy Fallon Show, Cooper revealed that Leonardo Di Caprio had even been in touch to offer his congratulations.
“Stephen Graham sent me a video yesterday and it's Leonardo DiCaprio sat next to him and he was saying ‘Hey Owen, I'm such a big fan of Adolescence,’ he explained. “And I was like ‘What!’”
He already has new projects under his belt. In May 2025, he featured in Sam Fender’s music video for his song Little Bit Closer, and has a role in the BBC Three series Film Club.
He’s also set to appear as a young Heathcliff (with Jacob Elordi playing the older version) in Emerald Fennell’s adaptation of Wuthering Heights.
Speaking to Deadline, it seems as though the ribbing about Adolescence has made it onto the set of the film, too.
"They were all saying how big the show’s gone, and they were sick of seeing me on TV and stuff,” Cooper told Deadline. “That’s what Jacob said. Margot [Robbie] said that she was dying to watch it.”
He’s also being home-tutored on set, with the intention of going back to school afterwards. But it sounds like Cooper has supportive friends. “They’re all posting it on their stories and stuff,” he told i-D after Adolescence premiered. “I didn’t think they would, to be honest, I thought they’d take the mick. But yeah… they’ve been really, really good about it.”
