There is a moment in most careers when the industry decides it has seen enough to make a verdict. For Owen Cooper, that moment arrived when he was 13 years old, cast without a single professional acting credit in a Netflix drama about a boy accused of murder.
On Sunday night at the Royal Festival Hall in London, the BAFTA TV Award for Best Supporting Actor completed what is now one of the most extraordinary awards sweeps in television history. He is a hoary 16 years old.
Owen Cooper Wins BAFTA TV Award For Best Supporting Actor
Cooper claimed the BAFTA TV Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance as Jamie Miller in Adolescence, the Netflix four-part limited series co-created by Jack Thorne and Stephen Graham.
The win completed a full sweep of every major television award available for a single performance.
Cooper had already taken home the Primetime Emmy, the Golden Globe, the SAG (or Actor) Award, and the Critics’ Choice Award, becoming the youngest actor to claim all four American television prizes for a single performance. Victories at the Gotham Awards, the Independent Spirit Awards, and the Royal Television Society Awards filled in the rest. Sunday night was simply the last box to tick.
Cooper arrived on stage to collect the award from Lucy Punch and immediately acknowledged the weight of the trophy. “Wow, it’s heavy, that, to be fair,” he said. He then noted the particular oddness of the moment (remarks aired live on BBC One), “A year ago this time last year I was presenting an award and now I’m collecting one, so this is a bit mad.”
He thanked BAFTA and described the Adolescence team as family before closing with a tribute to the band from his hometown of Warrington. “In the words of John Lennon, you won’t get anything unless you have the vision to imagine it,” he told the audience.
“So in my eyes, I think you only need three things to succeed: one, you need an obsession; two, you need a dream; and three, you need The Beatles.”
Who Is Owen Cooper?
Cooper grew up in Warrington wanting to be a footballer, not an actor. His interest shifted after watching fellow child-actor-turned-megastar Tom Holland in The Impossible, and he began taking weekly classes at The Drama Mob, a Manchester drama school. He had no screen credits when he was cast in Adolescence at 13, selected from a pool of over 500 auditions.
In the show, Cooper plays Jamie Miller, a 13-year-old arrested on suspicion of murdering a female classmate.
His standout episode pits him alone against Erin Doherty’s clinical psychologist Briony Ariston for an hour, shot in one uninterrupted take with no cuts and nowhere to hide, a format that would test most seasoned actors, let alone a 15-year-old on his first professional job.
Owen Cooper’s Record-Breaking Role In Adolescence Explained
Adolescence premiered on Netflix in March last year, and became the platform’s second most-watched English-language series, crossing 141 million views within its first three months. Beyond the viewing figures, the show sparked a sustained national conversation in the United Kingdom about online safety, radicalisation, and incel culture, prompting co-writer Jack Thorne to meet Prime Minister Keir Starmer at Downing Street to discuss its themes.
The show’s awards haul on Sunday did not end with Cooper. His co-star Christine Tremarco, who played his on-screen mother Manda Miller, won Best Supporting Actress — defeating fellow nominee Erin Doherty in what some outlets described as something of an upset given Doherty’s critical recognition for the same episode that made Cooper a star.
“I feel so privileged to be standing up here holding this BAFTA,” Tremarco said on stage, while co-star Stephen Graham wiped away tears. The series collected multiple trophies across the evening, having already secured two honours at the BAFTA TV Craft Awards earlier in the year.
Owen Cooper And The Question Of What Comes Next
Cooper’s trajectory raises a question that the television industry has not had to seriously consider before: what does a career look like when it begins here? Industry experts have noted that his rise reflects a larger shift in television, where streaming platforms are increasingly launching young global talent into mainstream recognition faster than traditional film studios ever did. He is 16 years old, in possession of every significant award the medium can offer for a debut performance, and with no ceiling yet visible.
As GB News noted in its coverage of Sunday’s ceremony, a BAFTA win at 16 is the kind of thing that usually marks the peak of a career. For Owen Cooper, it appears to be the beginning of one.
