The screen industry may thrive on familiar stars, but it’s always exciting to discover new faces destined for greatness. Rory Doherty shines a spotlight on six emerging UK actors.
Festival season means new films, Autumn means new TV premieres; basically, it’s all kicking off with newness on our screens. Lots of buzz has been made about emerging directors and showrunners, but we thought we should check in on British talent in front of the camera, people who have very recently made a splash, and take a look at the exciting projects they’ve lined up that makes them one(s) to watch.
Mia Mckenna-Bruce
Netflix is a great place to have a breakout performance; any film can be easily accessed, favourite scenes can be skipped to or replayed, and the platform lends so easily to a meme culture. Mia McKenna-Bruce is likely glad of this, as after she spent her teens on British TV screens (including in The Tracy Beaker Expanded Universe), she’s moving up in the leagues thanks to Netflix’s Persuasion, where her self-aware performance as Dakota Johnson’s sister was singled out as a highlight. She’s currently in an ensemble for a slightly different literary adaptation with Peacock’s Vampire Academy, and will be seen in an affecting cancer drama Kindling before too long.
Harris Dickinson
After a breakout indie role as a disaffected queer teen in Beach Rats, the disappointing The King’s Man threatened to thwart Harris Dickinson’s obvious talent—thankfully, he’s boasting one of the most impressive years for a British up-and-coming star. By 2022, he had already worked with exciting directors as Danny Boyle, Joanna Hogg, and Xavier Dolan, and made a splash with his perfectly played lead turn as a narcissistic model in the Palme d’Or-winning Triangle of Sadness. But before that releases soon, audiences will have seen him in Where the Crawdads Sing and See How They Run. Expect more of him in Charlotte Regan’s Scrapper and Retreat, the enticing new series from The OA creators.
Michael Ward
Top Boy, the blistering drama about drug dealing on an East London council estate, made enough of an impact when it first ran on Channel 4 in the UK, but it found its largest audience in its third and subsequent fourth seasons on Netflix, executive produced by Drake. It’s at this point of the series that Michael Ward joined the ensemble as Jamie, which he followed up by appearing as the romantic lead in Steve McQueen’s entrancing Small Axe film Lover’s Rock. This year, he’ll lead Empire of Light, a love letter to cinema and a brutal look at British racism, starring Olivia Colman and directed by another modern British legend, Sam Mendes.
Amir El-Masry
So the story goes, the British-Egyptian Amir El-Masry moved to London, had a chance encounter with Omar Sharif, and thus sparked his acting journey. After appearing in a slew of British and international espionage and crime films, he announced his leading-man status with the terrific dramedy Limbo about asylum seekers living a purgatory-like existence on a Scottish island. Since then, he’s popped up in exciting new projects, like the financial drama Industry and Netflix’s dating tech series The One. His next role is bound to draw a lot of eyes—he’s just been cast in season 5 of the smash hit The Crown, where he’ll be seen as the younger version of Mohamed Al-Fayed.
Emma D’arcy
From Frost and Pegg to Fire and Blood, one of English actor Emma D’Arcy’s only other television credits is Truth Seekers, a much smaller comedy show from Simon Pegg and Nick Frost that’s dwarfed in comparison to the monstrous might of House of the Dragon, where D’Arcy plays the older version of Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen. With only half a season in the role, it’s clear D’Arcy intends to sink their teeth into the complicated part, something made easier thanks to an extensive theatrical background, starring in plays penned by Martin McDonagh and Arthur Miller. After this, we’ll see them in Mother Russia, a journalist drama set in Putin’s Russia, from the director of Broadchurch and Vigil.
Bella Ramsey
Bella Ramsey went from a slight role in the biggest show on the planet (the diminutive Llyana Mormont in Game of Thrones) to the lead in the next biggest show on the planet, the HBO adaptation of the blockbuster video game The Last of Us. Millions of gamers have spent dozens of hours with Ellie, the young character Ramsey will play, but with such an impressive filmography after only a few years of acting, there’s no doubt she’ll effortlessly meet fan expectations. She’s been seen recently in tonally distinct British literary adaptations, His Dark Materials and The Worst Witch, and has paved the way for her huge lead role next year with a couple ye olde times projects in 2022, the Lena Dunham pic Catherine Called Birdy and Starz’s Becoming Elizabeth.
