15-year-old Adolescence star Owen Cooper beats heavyweights Javier Bardem, Peter Sarsgaard in historic Emmys win

All of 15, British actor Owen Cooper is now an Emmy Award winner. The young star, who broke out with his masterful performance in Netflix’s Adolescence last year, has won the award for Best Supporting Actor in a Limited or Anthology Series at the 2025 Emmys. His win makes him the youngest actor to win television’s most prestigious prize.

Owen Cooper scripts history

Owen was nominated alongside some acting heavyweights in the category, including Javier Bardem and Peter Sarsgaard. But the teenager managed to best them all. Bardem was nominated for Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story, while Sarsgaard earned his nod for Presumed Innocent. Other nominees in the category included Rob Delaney (Dying for Sex) and Owen’s Adolescence co-star Ashley Walters.

Adolescence, a four-episode show that streamed on Netflix, won acclaim for its performances and technical finesse. Each of the four episodes was filmed as a single take, with one even involving multiple location changes and dozens of extras. The show’s take on incel culture and violence by young children was praised worldwide. It was Owen Cooper’s first acting performance. Speaking to the press after the win, the young actor seemed at a loss for words, saying, “I really don’t know what to say.”

About the 2025 Emmys

The 77th Primetime Emmy Awards were held at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles this Sunday. In an unusual show order, host Nate Bargatze delivered his opening monologue only after the first award was handed out.

The show opened with a sketch in which Saturday Night Live stars Mikey Day, Bowen Yang, and James Austin Johnson joined Bargatze, who played television inventor Philo T. Farnsworth, who opined on what the future of TV would be like.

Adolescence has swept the Limited Series category at the awards. Elsewhere, The Studio has dominated, breaking the record for most wins by a comedy in a single season.