Adolescence star Owen Cooper has been hailed as an "absolute natural" by his drama teachers as the actor became the youngest male to win outstanding support actor at the recent Emmy awards.
Cooper, aged 15 landed the accolade for his portrayal of 13 year old school boy James Miller, who was arrested for the murder of female class mate Katie Leonard in the Netflix hit, which took home six awards on the night.
Prior to this, Cooper had been attending acting classes which were organised by Drama MOB in Disbury, Manchester for two years, which was set up by Coronation Street star Tina O'Brien aka Sarah Platt, alongside former primary school teacher Esther Morgan in 2013.
Speaking about this, Cooper's drama teacher Helen Thorpe said: "It was clear he was an absolute natural. He had such an energy about him and a willingness to join in".
Calling the teenager "funny", Morgan remarked: "Funny, popular with his classmates and really good at improvising". She also said that Cooper's ability for "getting up there and giving it a go… and keep it going even if it goes wrong" helped him to get the part which has catapulted him from being an unknown quantity to being one of the most talked about actors in the UK.
Morgan also added: "Owen has got massive talent and had massive talent when he came to us, but I think we were able to work with him, improve those skills, and we can see that in his performance".
She also revealed that she had stayed up all night to watch the Emmys and had not been to sleep, also said: "To see his mum and dad in the audience, to see how proud they are. They are such a lovely family. That's so grounded. They're so down to earth. He's a Northern boy. He's local to us. He's trained with us. To see him collect an Emmy was just incredible".
Helen Thorpe also called Cooper's performance "unbelievable", while also praising the chemistry between him and his on screen dad Stephen Graham, who also took home the award for lead actor. She said she "was just so touching and as a parent drives home that this could be anybody".
On Cooper's future, Ms Morgan said "I think he will go on to do great things. I have no doubt," but first "he'll be going back to school to do his GCSEs".
"I think he might pop in [to the drama school] at some point… He's a very grounded, local lad. We hope to see him again".
Following its release, Adolescence sparked a major debate on misogyny and teenagers' behaviour online. It was confirmed back in March that the series would be shown in secondary schools across the UK. More on this here.
