‘Our biggest achievement’: Owen Cooper’s former drama school celebrates Emmy win

The co-director of Adolescence star Owen Cooper’s former drama school has been celebrating his Emmy Award win, describing him as “our biggest achievement”.

Cooper, 15, became the youngest male actor to win an Emmy for his performance in the Netflix drama, beating the previous record held by Scott Jacoby, who won an Emmy for That Certain Summer in 1973 aged 16, and the teachers at his former drama school stayed up late to watch his triumph.

Esther Morgan, co-director of The Drama MOB in Didsbury, Manchester, which Cooper attended for two years prior to his Adolescence breakthrough, told the PA news agency: “In 12 years this is our biggest achievement, and we’re just so, so proud.

“We started our classes 12 years ago and we just wanted to give kids from the north a chance to perform, we wanted to give them the skills, we wanted to give them opportunities in the industry, and that’s always been our passion, really, providing that to those kids.

“To see him, a local northern boy, on the stage at the Emmys, it’s just mind-blowing.”

Morgan, who works alongside the school’s owner Tina O’Brien, known for playing Sarah Platt in ITV’s Coronation Street, said she “had a feeling it might go his way” ahead of the awards ceremony, but said despite having raw talent, the group could have never predicted his success when he was starting out.

She added: “I knew he was fantastic, I mean, as soon as he came in, I remember watching him in class, and then when he came to join our agency, I remember thinking, ‘wow, he’s really, really natural, he’s really great’.

“He’s a really great kid as well, he’s a really lovely, lovely boy, I don’t think in a million years I imagined that he would be where he is now, I don’t think any of us did, but I knew there was something really, really special about him, absolutely.

“When this opportunity came up for Adolescence, I knew the first time he taped and then they came back for him, and they kept coming back for him and back for him, I knew they really liked him, and I just had this gut feeling that he could do this.

“I’m just so so proud of him and for his mum and his dad, and his family, it’s just so, so lovely.”

Cooper attended weekly classes at the school, with Morgan saying he had previously faced rejection when sending in tapes for other roles, praising his perseverance.

She said: “We teach the young people that sign up with us, that in this industry, there is always going to be rejection.

“It can be a little bit brutal, but if you really, really want to succeed, it is just a case of persevering, keep trying, keep working on your skills.

“So, in between doing all those tapes, he was coming to class every week, he performed in theatre shows with us, he was working on all those skills that you see during the filming of Adolescence.

“We do try and give them that resilience and just try and teach them that if that is your passion, if that’s what you want to do, you have to keep on going.

“All those opportunities beforehand, even though he didn’t get the jobs, he was seen by some great casting directors, built his experience and his confidence, and that was the job for him.”

The Netflix show features This Is England star and co-creator Stephen Graham as Eddie Miller, the father of 13-year-old Jamie, played by Cooper, who sees armed police burst into his home to arrest his son.

Eddie is then chosen as Jamie’s appropriate adult, accompanying him at the police interview and learning the extent of what his son is accused of doing.

The programme examines so-called incel (involuntary celibate) culture, which has led to misogyny online and bullying using social media.