15-year-old Owen Cooper becomes youngest male actor to win Emmy, breaks decades-old record

LOS ANGELES: The Emmy Awards made history this year as 15-year-old Owen Cooper became the youngest male actor ever to win an Acting Award.

The teenager, who stars in the Netflix drama ‘Adolescence’, won the Emmy for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Limited or Anthology Series or TV Movie.

The audience gave Cooper a huge round of applause as he took the stage to thank the cast, crew and his parents.

“Honestly, when I started these drama classes a couple of years ago, I didn’t expect to be in the United States, never mind here, but I think tonight proves that if you listen, focus, and step out of your comfort zone, you can achieve anything in life. I was nothing three years ago, and I’m here now. Who cares if you get embarrassed? Anything is possible,” Cooper said.

With his win, Cooper broke Michael A. Goorjian’s record, who was 23 when he became the youngest winner in the category in 1994. According to Deadline, the actor has also surpassed Scott Jacoby’s record as the youngest male actor to ever win an Emmy in any acting category. Jacoby was 16 when he won in 1973 for ‘The Certain Summer’.

Cooper’s victory is remarkable given the competition. He prevailed over Oscar-winner Javier Bardem (Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story), Bill Camp, and Peter Sarsgaard (Presumed Innocent), as well as Rob Delaney (Dying for Sex), along with his own Adolescence co-star, Ashley Walters.

What makes his journey even more extraordinary is that Cooper had never acted before auditioning for Adolescence. In the four-episode series follows series, he plays 13-year-old Jamie Miller, a schoolboy arrested on suspicion of murder. The series is not a whodunit but instead asks the question “Why?” — why did Jamie’s life take such a turn? The series also stars Stephen Graham as Jamie’s father, Christine Tremarco as his mother, and Amelie Pease as his sister.

Within its first three months, Adolescence drew more than 141 million views on Netflix, making it the platform’s second-biggest hit after Wednesday, reported Deadline. (ANI)