A 15-year-old on the edge of Emmy history
Only four teenagers have ever won acting Emmys. On September 14, 2025, Owen Cooper could join that short list. The 15-year-old British newcomer is nominated for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie for Netflix’s four-part thriller ‘Adolescence,’ where he plays Jamie Miller, a 13-year-old schoolboy under investigation for murder. If his name is called, he’ll be the youngest male acting winner in Emmy history, breaking Scott Jacoby’s 52-year-old record set at age 16 in 1973. He’s already the youngest nominee ever in his category.
Cooper’s run-up to the Emmys has been a charge. Four days before the ceremony, he won Best Drama Performance at the National Television Awards on September 10. Earlier in the season, he took the Gotham TV Award for Outstanding Supporting Performance in a Limited Series. While awards momentum doesn’t guarantee an Emmy, it does tell you one thing: voters across very different bodies are noticing the same thing—an assured, unnervy debut from a first-time actor.
‘Adolescence’ became a surprise ratings hit and a cultural talking point in the UK and beyond. The Evening Standard called Cooper’s turn “a performance that may be the best debut ever seen by a child actor.” The show drops you straight into the shock of a small community, then keeps you off-balance as it tests what you think you know about guilt, peer pressure, and how adults project onto kids. Cooper’s Jamie is the quiet center of it all—watchful, defensive, and impossible to pin down. That’s a tough balance for any performer, let alone a teenager stepping in front of the camera for the first time.
His path to the role was just as intense. Producers saw more than 500 young actors before picking Cooper, who had no screen credits. Casting wanted someone who could look fragile in one scene and unreadable in the next. The result is a performance built on long silences, clipped answers, and flashes of anger that feel earned rather than staged.
Winning at this age would put Cooper in rare company. The youngest acting Emmy winner remains Roxana Zal, who was 14 when she won in 1984. The bar is high: several famous prodigies have come close without winning. Keshia Knight Pulliam was just six when she earned a landmark nomination for The Cosby Show. Fred Savage was 13 for The Wonder Years. Millie Bobby Brown was 13 for Stranger Things. More recently, Ahsante Blackk was 17 when he scored a nod for When They See Us. The message is clear—teen nominations aren’t unheard of, but actual wins are scarce.
‘Adolescence’ itself carried off Best New Drama at the NTAs, beating ‘Mobland’ and ‘Rivals.’ Cooper couldn’t attend that ceremony; he was working in the United States as Emmy week preparations began. For Netflix, the show’s impact checked every box: big audience, heavy chatter, and a new face instantly etched into viewers’ minds. It helps that the series is only four episodes—brief enough to avoid filler, taut enough to stick the landing.
The road from breakout to what’s next
Cooper’s rapid rise hasn’t slowed since the series dropped. He’s filming BBC Three’s ‘Film Club,’ a youth-skewing drama set around a community cinema, and he’s been cast as young Heathcliff in Emerald Fennell’s ‘Wuthering Heights,’ slated for 2026. In May 2025, he also popped up in Sam Fender’s music video for ‘Little Bit Closer,’ a small but telling sign that directors think he can carry emotion without dialogue.
If the Television Academy calls his name on September 14, Cooper won’t just break a record; he’ll change the shape of how casting directors look at teens for complex adult material. If he doesn’t, he still leaves awards season as one of the most talked-about debuts in years—an actor who turned a first job into a national conversation.
Either way, Emmy night will say something about what TV values right now. Do voters reward the polished craft of veterans, or the lightning-in-a-bottle shock of a newcomer who feels painfully real? Cooper’s nomination ensures that question will hang over the room until the envelope opens.