Owen Cooper

Cooper was born in Warrington, England.^[2][3][4] His mother is a carer and his father works in IT.^[5] He has two brothers.^[6] A former member of the Warrington Rylands U15 squad, he originally wanted to be a footballer before taking weekly acting lessons with The Drama Mob, a drama school co-created by Coronation Street actress Tina O'Brien and Esther Morgan, in Manchester.^[7][8] He stated that he had been inspired to pursue acting after seeing Tom Holland's performance in The Impossible (2012), and that his family was supportive yet "not pushy" during his early interest in drama and acting.^[3][9]

In March 2025, Cooper made his screen debut as Jamie Miller, a 13-year-old accused of murder, in the Netflix miniseries Adolescence.^[10][11] Series co-creator Stephen Graham had sought to cast an unknown actor from northern England for the role.^[7][12] The production team for Adolescence approached Cooper's drama school and asked to view tapes of their strongest northern actors; teachers at the school later stated that they believed that Cooper "just had something" and that the series' production team revisited the school on numerous occasions until he was eventually offered the role.^[9] He had been selected from a pool of over 500 auditions.^[13][14] He filmed the series from July to October 2024.^[15][16]

The role earned him widespread critical acclaim, with the Evening Standard writing that "his is a performance that may be the best debut ever seen by a child actor".^[17][18][19] He subsequently won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie at the 77th Primetime Emmy Awards, making him the youngest male actor to win an Emmy and the youngest actor to ever be nominated in the category.^[20][21][22] At the 83rd Golden Globe Awards, he also became the youngest actor to win the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor on Television.^[23][24][25] He also won the Gotham TV Award for Outstanding Supporting Performance in a Limited Series, a Critics' Choice Television Award for Best Supporting Actor in a Movie/Miniseries, and was named a Screen International Star of Tomorrow.^[26][27][28]

In May 2025, he was featured in the music video for "Little Bit Closer" by English musician Sam Fender.^[29] Later that year, he played Callum in the BBC Three series Film Club.^[13] He played young Heathcliff in Emerald Fennell's Wuthering Heights, which was released on 13 February 2026.^[30] The following month, he was announced to be playing in Soccer Aid 2026.^[31][32]

As of April 2025, Cooper resides in Orford, Cheshire, a suburb of Warrington.^[33] He is a fan of Liverpool F.C., and delivered the match ball at a Super League rugby match between Warrington Wolves and Hull F.C. on 12 April 2025.^[34][35]