Stephen Graham is having a hell of a Sunday for someone who “is just a mixed-race kid from a block of flats in a place called Kirkby,” in his own words.
Graham won best actor in a limited series and best writing at the 2025 Emmy Awards for his brilliant work in Adolescence, which also won for best limited series.
Graham, who co-created the series, starred as the dad in the show, who by the end of the series is emotionally wrecked. Graham co-created the miniseries. As if hitting your marks and lines in all those long one-shots was not enough to juggle.
“This sort of thing doesn’t normally happen to a kid like me,” Graham said in his acceptance speech for best actor. “I’m just a mixed-race kid from a block of flats in a place called Kirkby. So, for me to be here today in front of my peers and to be acknowledged by you is the utmost humbling thing I could ever imagine in my life, and it shows you that any dream is possible.”
His kid won too. Supporting actor in a limited series went to Owen Cooper, the adolescent in Adolescence — his first-ever acting role. Cooper is the youngest-ever actor to win the category.
Graham had stiff competition in the acting category. Cooper Koch played Erik Menendez in Netflix’s Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story. (Nicholas Alexander Chavez played his big brother Lyle.) Jake Gyllenhaal was the generally presumed guilty in legal thriller Presumed Innocent (Apple TV+). Colin Farrell was unrecognizable in HBO’s The Penguin, which serves as a bridge between DC’s The Batman films, and Brian Tyree Henry plays a former drug dealer playing a DEA agent in Apple TV+ miniseries Dope Thief.
Last year, Richard Gadd won best actor in a limited series (and for writing) on viral Netflix hit Baby Reindeer, which ultimately won the best limited series trophy as well. Baby Reindeer had a very Adolescence-like viewership trajectory, just a year earlier.
The 2025 Creative Arts Emmys took place last weekend; you can find the winners from Saturday here and from Sunday here.