Owen Cooper is an Emmy winner — a historic one at that. The 15-year-old actor, who starred in the Netflix series Adolescence as a young boy who is arrested for a horrific crime, became the youngest ever male winner across all acting categories when he took home the award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie.
Cooper was a complete unknown when he was cast in Adolescence — the streaming show was his first acting gig ever. In an interview with Variety back in March, when the show first premiered, he said, “I only really wanted to start acting a couple of years ago. It’s not been long. I grew up wanting to be a footballer. I don’t know what it was that made me want to do it, but I just wanted to do it. Then I went to lessons and enjoyed it and eventually got a self-tape request. Everything came from that, really.”
Now, the question many have for Cooper is … what’s next?
He’ll team up with another Emmy nominee
Cooper is next slated to appear in Film Club, an upcoming BBC series that was cowritten by White Lotus Emmy nominee Aimee Lou Wood, who will also star in the show. The romantic comedy series follows a woman, played by Wood, who hosts a “film club” in her garage with her best friend Noa (Nabhaan Rizwan) — whom she is secretly in love with and who is potentially taking a job that will separate them. Cooper plays Wood’s neighbor, Dominic.
In a March interview with Vogue, he called Wood “probably one of the funniest people I’ve ever met.”
Cooper in Adolescence. (Netflix/Courtesy of Everett Collection)
He’s starring in Wuthering Heights
Cooper’s first big screen role is a major one: He’ll appear as a young Heathcliff in Promising Young Woman and Saltburn director Emerald Fennell’s Wuthering Heights adaptation. He told Variety that the role came after Stephen Graham, his costar on Adolescence, recommended him to his agent, who watched the first episode of Adolescence and pushed him for the Wuthering Heights role.
Of his costars Jacob Elordi, who plays the older version of Cooper’s character, and Margot Robbie, who portrays Catherine Earnshaw, Cooper told Variety, “Jacob’s lovely. He’s always chatting to everyone. And same as Margot. Margot is lovely as well.”
Cooper has hinted at what he wants to do next
Could an action movie be in Cooper’s future? He told Vogue in March that he would “love” to “do stunts” for an upcoming role. “Probably not like Tom Cruise,” Cooper said. “I’m scared enough going on roller-coasters, let alone hanging off the side of a plane. But jumping off the side of a cliff into the water? I could probably do that.”
He also expressed admiration for the work of Leonardo DiCaprio, Al Pacino and Robert De Niro. And in an April interview with the Hollywood Reporter, he called Jake Gyllenhaal his favorite actor of all time.