Adolescence star Owen Cooper last week became one of the youngest ever nominees for a Prime Time Emmy Award, at 15 years old, for Adolescence.
The Warrington prodigy, who attends Manchester drama school The Acting Mob received a nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Limited Series or Anthology Series or Movie for portraying 13-year-old Jamie Miller in the hit Netflix series about a troubled teen, making him the youngest nominee in the history of the category – if Cooper wins at the 2025 Emmys in September, he would be the youngest male winner of any acting Emmy ever.
So which other wunderkinds could Cooper join in the ranks of the frightfully fresh-faced Emmy acting winners? First of all, it’s worth noting that as is often the case, but in a delightful irony given the themes of Cooper’s smash hit show, the girls are already dramatically outperforming the boys here.
Roxana Zal was only 14 years old when she won a Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Limited Series or Special for Something About Amelia in 1984. Zal remains, to this day, the youngest Emmy winner ever, and will remain so for at least another year even if Cooper wins this year. She portrayed Amelia Bennett in the 1984 made-for-TV movie, starring alongside Glenn Close and Ted Danson.
Kristy McNichol, meanwhile, had just celebrated her 15th birthday when she took home a Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Continuing Performance by a Supporting Actress in a Drama Series in 1977’s Family. McNichol played Buddy Lawrence in the TV series, which also earned her a second Emmy in 1979.
Moving onto the current youngest male winner, Scott Jacoby was 16 when he won a Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama for That Certain Summer in 1973 – that film was notable for being widely regarded as the first title to portray queer people positively on network TV, as well as the first gay-themed title to win an Emmy. If your memory doesn’t stretch that far back, you may also remember Jacoby as Dorothy’s free-spirited son in eighties sitcom The Golden Girls.
Switching to the youngest winners in lead roles category, Cooper can look to a fellow Brit for inspiration, albeit one born in Argentina to British/Irish parents. Anthony Murphy was 17 years old when he earned a Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Single Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in the BBC’s adaptation of Tom Brown’s Schooldays in 1973.
Like many child actors before and since, Murphy didn’t stay in the game. Following his Emmy win he went to Oxford to study Philosophy, Psychology and Physiology, then moved to Ireland where he worked as a potter and photographer for a few years before returning to uni to study law and pursue a career in corporate law in England, and later Paris. Never one to stay still for long, Murphy now lives in the South of France where he is a full-time artist and exhibits regularly in London and Dublin.
The lead actor category winners are generally somewhat older than the crop of Cooper’s peers among the teenage supporting actor winners, and Murphy is something of an outlier in a category where the winners are historically generally well into their twenties, if not significantly older.
There are still a couple of stars among the youngest former winners that merit a mention however. Firstly, Michael J Fox, because who doesn’t love Michael J Fox? The Back to the Future star was 25 years old when he won Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series for Family Ties in 1986.
Secondly, and offering further local inspiration for Cooper, Scouse actress Jodie Comer (above) was 26 years old when she landed the Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series for Killing Eve in 2019, herself becoming the youngest ever winner in her category up to that point.
Comer portrayed the assassin Villanelle in the BBC thriller which also earned her several other awards, including a BAFTA.
