Adolescence star Owen Cooper makes Emmy Awards history as youngest ever male winner

Adolescence dominated the 2025 Primetime Emmy Awards as Owen Cooper made history with his big win.

The 15-year-old star was just 14 years old when he filmed the Netflix megahit, and he has become the youngest ever male winner in Emmys history.

He took home the supporting actor in a limited or anthology series prize on Sunday night in a competitive category featuring Adolescence co-star Ashley Walters, Javier Bardem from Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story, Presumed Innocent’s Bill Camp and Peter Sarsgaad, and Dying for Sex’s Rob Delaney.

He said on stage at Los Angeles’ Peacock Theater during Sunday’s ceremony: ‘Honestly, when I started these drama classes a couple years back, I didn’t expect to be even in the United States, never mind here.

‘But I think tonight proves that if you listen and you focus and you step out your comfort zone, you can achieve anything in life.’

He added: ‘I was nothing about three years ago, and I’m here now.’

Roxana Zal was the youngest ever Emmy winner, being 14 when she won in 1984 for Something About Amelia, while Kirsty McNichol won twice in the 1970s for her role in Family when she was 15 and 17.

Scott Jacoby of That Certain Summer and Anthony Murphy of Tom Brown’s School Days, are the only other teenagers to have won Primetime Emmy, being 16 and 17 respectively when they won in 1973.

Later in the evening, Owen’s co-star Erin Doherty won supporting actress in a limited or anthology series, and joked she’d be ‘banging on about Adolescence and Owen Cooper for the rest of my life’.

‘But you know, there’s worse things,’ she quipped.

Their castmate Stephen Graham, 52, picked up his second Emmy of the night when he scooped best actor in a limited or anthology series or movie.

The emotional star – who had also taken outstanding writing for a limited or anthology series or movie with Jack Thorne for the show – described the recognition as ‘humbling’.

He said: ‘This kind of thing doesn’t normally happen to a kid like me. I’m just a mixed race kid from a block of flats in a place called Kirkby so for me to be here today in front of my peers is the utmost humbling thing I can ever imagine in my life and it shows you that any dream is possible.’

Elsewhere, Seth Rogen’s show The Studio made history of its own with 13 wins, breaking the all-time record for most Emmys for a comedy series, which was set in 2023 by The Bear with 10.

Seth tied for the record of most individual Emmy wins in one night, putting him on par with Moira Demos (2016), Amy Sherman-Palladino (2018) and Dan Levy (2020).

He scooped the lead comedy actor prize and another for co-directing an episode titled The Oner with Evan Goldberg.

The show also saw Seth, Evan, Frida Perez, Peter Huyck and Alex Gregory win best writing for a comedy series for The Studio’s pilot episode, and the top award, outstanding comedy series, adding to the nine wins the programme had notched up at last weekend’s Creative Arts Ceremony.

Tramell Tillman also made history as the first black winner of the best supporting actor in a drama series award, and his Severance co-star Britt Lower won best actress in a drama series.

Nate Bargatze hosted this year’s ceremony, which also saw a notable win for The Late Show with Stephen Colbert in the best talk series category.

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