The up-and-coming actor stars in Stephen Graham and Jack Thorne’s new Netflix drama.

Netflix

Adolescence on Netflix has not only blown fans away with its powerful and haunting subject matter – examining hard subjects such as misogyny, masculinity and youth knife crime – but also its staggering performance from young Owen Cooper, who appears as 13-year-old Jamie Miller.

Quite remarkably, the four-part Netflix series marks Cooper’s first role in anything, ever.

Adolescence is filmed in one take – a technique that Stephen Graham and director Philip Barantini used in their previous film Boiling Point – which makes debut Cooper’s performance all the more remarkable.

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“He just absolutely blew me away,” Barantini previously told Variety. “Actors train for years and years and still can’t really master what Owen has mastered, which is basically just being in the moment and listening and being truthful.

“l’ve obviously worked with a lot of actors in my time as an actor and as a director and a lot of actors can’t do what he can do. He doesn’t even realise it! He’s so blasé.

“Every day, we’d do the tape, which would take an hour, and everyone at the monitors would be crying their eyes out. And we had a psychologist there to make sure that Owen was OK. But she couldn’t find him. She’d be like, where’s Owen? And he’d be off playing swing ball. I’d ask, mate, are you OK? And he’d be like, yeah, hang on, I’m winning here!”

Read on for everything you need know about Owen Cooper.

Who is Owen Cooper?

Owen Cooper as Jamie Miller in Adolescence. Stephen Graham.
Cooper is an up-and-coming actor who stars in Netflix drama Adolescence. He plays Jamie Miller, a 13-year-old boy who is arrested for murdering a girl from his school.

His father Eddie is played by Stephen Graham and Christine Tremarco plays his mum Manda.

How old is Owen Cooper in Adolescence?

Cooper is 15 years old, but he filmed the series when he was just 14.

What has Owen Cooper previously been in?

Owen Cooper and Stephen Graham as Jamie and Eddie Miller in Adolescence. Ben Blackall/Netflix
Adolescence is not only Cooper’s first ever on-screen role, it is also his first acting job, which many will find hard to believe given the performance he delivers.

“I only really wanted to start acting a couple of years ago,” he told Variety. “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.

“And then I went to lessons and enjoyed it. And then I got into a little agency thing, and then I got a self-tape request for Adolescence. And everything came from that, really.”

Next, the breakout star is set to star in Emerald Fennell’s Wuthering Heights, the upcoming film adaptation of Emily Brontë’s novel of the same name, and will play a young Heathcliff alongside Jacob Elordi’s older version of the character.

Speaking to Variety around the release of Adolescence, Cooper said he still had “another couple of weeks left” of shooting on the movie. He said: “It’s been going really well. I’ve really enjoyed it.”

He added: “Obviously it not one-shot anymore! So I’m getting used to that. But it’s been amazing. Emerald’s lovely.”

What has Owen Cooper said about starring in Adolescence?

Owen Cooper as Jamie Miller. Netflix
Speaking to Variety about what it was like watching himself in the show, Cooper said it was “weird” but “also amazing”.

“Everyone’s been saying such nice things [about my performance],” he added. “I don’t know what it is, but I don’t really watch it like I’m watching a normal show. I just watch it because I’m in it. So I don’t know. But everyone who has spoken to me has said it’s amazing. So yeah, I’ve heard positive things.”

He also spoke about what it was like working with Graham.

“Obviously, Stephen was always checking in on me, but there was a time in episode 1, when it was just us two, with no camera, in the police cell, and he scruffed me up and said, ‘You’re never going to see your mum again, you’re never going to see your dad again.’ And was going on and on,” said Cooper.

Erin Doherty as Briony Ariston and Owen Cooper as Jamie Miller. Ben Blackall/Netflix
“Before then I’d been frustrated because I hadn’t been getting emotional. But after that point I was emotional in every take. So that helped me a lot. He was amazing to work with.”

Cooper’s co-stars have also lauded the actor’s talents, with Erin Doherty, who plays child psychologist Briony, recently opening up to Variety about working with the youngster.

She said it was “genuinely scary” to see Cooper’s character Jamie go from innocence to blazing anger during their scene together.

She added: “It’s every actor’s dream to get to a place where you forget yourself and you are in this strange reality that you’ve created.

“It sounds bizarre, but you genuinely do believe it in the moment. If the person opposite you is doing their job and you’re doing yours.”

Doherty went on to say she’s “so proud” of Cooper for his performance in the widely-praised series.

Adolescence star and co-creator Stephen Graham also recently described the discovery of the young actor as the show’s “biggest achievement”, which is certainly saying something.

“We always want to try and create opportunities for people who may not normally have those opportunities,” he told The Independent.

Stephen Graham as Eddie Miller and Owen Cooper as Jamie Miller. Netflix
“From the very beginning it was a conscious decision [by the team] that we wanted someone who didn’t have much experience. Like we did find little Tommo [This is England star Thomas Turgoose] all those years ago.

“We wanted someone who didn’t have a lot of experience, but we knew that what we were doing and what we were trying to ask this young person to do was cosmic in many ways.”

He continued: “It’s a huge undertaking, but we cast Owen, who had no experience, he’d done a couple of little theatre workshops, and he was just starting to do little bits in school.”

Is Owen Cooper on Instagram?

Yes, the actor can be found at the handle @owencooper.

He has just under 10,000 followers at the time of writing, but that number is undoubtedly set to grow.