Owen Cooper has revealed that once he is done with his GCSEs he’ll be ‘gone’ from school to pursue a career in acting.
The teenager from Warrington, Cheshire shot to fame following his acclaimed performance in 2025 Netflix smash hit Adolescence.
His performance, playing murder suspect Jamie Miller opposite Stephen Graham, earned him critical praise and he became the youngest male ever to win a primetime Emmy Award for best supporting actor in a limited series.
And now Owen, 16, is ready to pursue his passion full time.
Speaking on the BBC’s Graham Norton Show, the rising star said: ‘I’ve still got my GCSEs to do. I’ve only got about six months left and then I am gone – and then hopefully I am going to be an actor.’
During his appearance on the New Year’s Eve episode of the chat show, alongside Carey Mulligan, Laura Dern, Will Arnett and Tom Hiddleston, Owen gushed about his and his family’s experience of the Emmys ceremony in Los Angeles.
Owen Cooper has revealed that once he is done with his GCSEs he’ll be ‘gone’ from school to pursue a career in acting
The teenager from Warrington, Cheshire shot to fame following his acclaimed performance in 2025 Netflix smash hit Adolescence
‘It was crazy and all a bit of a blur. The amount of people I met there was insane. It really was the best day of my life,’ he said.
But Owen hasn’t been surprised by the success of Adolescence, which was co-created by Graham, insisting: ‘Straight away I thought it was going to be more than a TV show – I read the script and then heard the word ‘Netflix’.
‘I was nervous about what the reaction to it would be, but a week after it went out everything blew up. It has been a good year.’
Owen could be set to make history once again at the 2026 Golden Globes, just months after becoming the youngest-ever male Emmy winner.
As his incredible award show streak continues, the schoolboy received a nod for Best Supporting Actor at the Globes when nominations were announced earlier this month, and if he wins he will again be the youngest ever recipient.
Owen was named alongside co-stars Stephen Graham, Erin Doherty and Ashley Walters with the smash hit Netflix show landing a whopping five nominations in total ahead of January’s star-studded LA ceremony.
If Owen wins, beating the likes of co-star Ashley and White Lotus‘ Jason Issac and Walton Goggings, he will replace Chris Colfer who is currently the youngest ever Best Supporting Actor in a Series for his role as Kurt in Glee which he won in 2009 aged 20.
Other young stars who have won at the Golden Globes include Tatum O’Neal who was just ten when she bagged Best Actress in a Supporting Role in 1973’s Paper Moon.
Speaking on the BBC’s Graham Norton Show, Owen said: ‘I’ve still got my GCSEs to do. I’ve got about six months left and then I am gone – and then hopefully I am going to be an actor’; pictured Owen, Carey Mulligan, Tim Key, Laura Dern, host Graham Norton, Will Arnett, Tom Hiddleston and Alison Limerick during filming
Adding of his Emmys win Owen said: ‘It was crazy and all a bit of a blur. The amount of people I met there was insane. It really was the best day of my life’
Meanwhile Rocky Schroeder was nine when he took home the now defunct award for Best New Star for The Champ in 1980.
Since Adolescence Owen has returned to the small screen in the new BBC show Film Club which stars The White Lotus actress Aimee Lou Wood.
The full interview will air on The Graham Norton Show on New Year’s Eve at 10.30pm on BBC One and BBC iPlayer.
