How old is Owen Cooper in Adolescence? Actor’s age and notable projects, explored

Adolescence on Netflix is undoubtedly one of the streamer's most popular shows of the year. Adolescence is a four-part mini-series created by Stephen Graham and Jack Thorne. At the center of Adolescence is the character of Jamie Miller, played by the young and upcoming fifteen-year-old actor, Owen Cooper, who has already left an indelible mark on the audience with his electrifying performance.

What's really interesting is that Owen Cooper hadn't had a film gig before his debut as Eddie Miller on Adolescence. He was effectively discovered by creator Stephen Graham, who also stars in the series as Jamie's devastated father Eddie Miller. The show chronicles the trials and tribulations in the aftermath of Jamie's murder of a female classmate.

Here's everything that we know about Owen Cooper.

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Adolescence star Owen Cooper has a shining career ahead of him

For someone like Owen Cooper, being a stark newcomer didn't impede him from delivering a commendable performance on the Netflix show. The showrunners took great care to ensure that the realistic tone and momentum of the narrative was preserved and therefore the use of the long single-takes came into being.

Despite never having acted in front of the camera in the past, Owen was able to coordinate marvelously and the results are now for everyone to see. Owen is set to appear next as a young Heathcliff on the Wuthering Heights adaptation by Emerald Fennell.

Owen recently spoke in an interview with Variety magazine where he highlighted his journey as an actor:

"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."

When asked about the feeling of watching himself on his debut show, Owen remarked:

"Everyone’s been saying such nice things (about my performance). 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."

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Stephen Graham speaks about casting Owen Cooper

Stephen Graham recently spoke at length with The Independent, clarifying the reason behind casting a newcomer such as Owen for his show:

"We always want to try and create opportunities for people who may not normally have those opportunities. 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 (Thomas Turgoose) all those years ago."

He further added:

"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. 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."

Adolescence is exclusively available on Netflix.