AP Breakthrough Entertainer: Owen Cooper goes from 'Adolescence' to new 'Heights'

WEST HOLLYWOOD, Calif. (AP) — Owen Cooper hasn’t had thoughts of EGOT. He’s hardly had time to develop that kind of ambition in his short time as an actor. But, presented with the idea, he’s intrigued. And amused.

“Is that the Emmy, the Grammy, the Oscar and the Tony?” he asks, with a laugh. “I’ve got E, so I want it.”

Cooper does, in fact, have “E.” He won an Emmy Award this year, at 15, for his astonishing-for-any-age performance as a 13-year-old suspected of a killing in Netflix's “Adolescence.” It was his first screen appearance, and his first performance that wasn’t for parents.

Still just 16, he's now been named one of The Associated Press’ Breakthrough Entertainers of 2025.

Speaking to the AP while sitting on a balcony at a West Hollywood hotel, Cooper concedes he has no idea how he’d ever win a Grammy, though he loves music (Oasis, Stone Roses). And a Tony feels daunting, though the one-take episodes of “Adolescence” required the work of a play.

“Even an Oscar,” he says. “I don’t know how I’ll win an Oscar.”

But, more broadly, Cooper knows what he does want to do.

“When I first started doing drama lessons, like I was just, I just didn’t want to do it,” he says. “I didn’t want to look like an idiot in front of all these people. Now, I’m like, ‘I want to be one of those actors that are just fearless.’”

Cooper becomes Oscar-eligible in 2026, when he makes his film debut in director Emerald Fennell's buzzy adaptation of “Wuthering Heights,” starring Margot Robbie. Cooper plays the younger version of Jacob Elordi's Heathcliff. He doesn't share scenes with the leading stars, but they interacted plenty.

“I’d always be going on set and they’d always just be coming off so I’d speak to Jacob loads,” he says. “I would always be next to Margot in the makeup chair so I speak to them quite a lot and they're really nice people.”

By the time the movie's shoot was done, Cooper was a star in his own right. “Adolescence” and all its acclaim arrived during filming of the Emily Brontë adaptation.

After the ordinary, modern environs of “Adolescence” and the other series he’s shot, “Film Club” — which premiered in October on BBC Three in the United Kingdom and is not yet available to watch in the U.S. — he was stunned by the setting, and the outfits, of “Wuthering Heights.”

“The attention to detail in that film was just insane,” he says. “Obviously I’ve not been in it a long time but it just blew my mind, like the set and just everything about it is just mad.”

He’ll remain in the distant past for his next film, director Tom Ford's “Cry to Heaven,” set in 18th century Italy and starring Nicholas Hoult, Aaron Taylor-Johnson and, in her acting debut, Adele.

Cooper's clearly a prodigy, but he's no lab-grown child star or nepo baby. He's the youngest of three brothers from a non-industry family, raised in Northern England's Warrington, between Manchester and Liverpool. His accent has notes of both cities, but he's a devoted Liverpool supporter; soccer was the center of all his childhood ambitions — and most of his waking hours.

“I grew up near, like, a park so I would be on there since 8 in the morning to midnight just playing football,” he says. “It was just everything. I didn’t care about anything else.”

Acting became a secondary hobby when he began classes at 12 at Manchester's Drama MOB. But he loved it, and the school drew something special out of him that led to his landing “Adolescence” over hundreds of other candidates.

Stephen Graham, the series co-creator who won his own Emmy for playing Cooper’s father, has called him “the talent of a generation” and “the next Robert De Niro.”

On that note, Cooper says he wants to work with “gods of the game” like Martin Scorsese, Quentin Tarantino and David Fincher. But he doesn't want heavy drama to define him.

“I want to do horror, I want to do, like, a superhero, I want to do sci-fi,” he says. “I just want to do everything.”

For more on AP’s 2025 class of Breakthrough Entertainers, visit https://apnews.com/hub/ap-breakthrough-entertainers.

Actor Owen Cooper poses for a portrait on Saturday, Nov. 8, 2025, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

Actor Owen Cooper poses for a portrait on Saturday, Nov. 8, 2025, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

Actor Owen Cooper poses for a portrait on Saturday, Nov. 8, 2025, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

Actor Owen Cooper poses for a portrait on Saturday, Nov. 8, 2025, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

Actor Owen Cooper poses for a portrait on Saturday, Nov. 8, 2025, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

OSLO, Norway (AP) — Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado appeared in public for the first time in 11 months early Thursday morning, when she waved to supporters from a hotel balcony in Norway’s capital hours after her daughter accepted the Nobel Peace Prize on her behalf.

Machado and her supporters then sang Venezuela's national anthem before she left the hotel to shake their hands. People erupted in cheers and began chanting, “Freedom! Freedom!” and “Thank you! Thank you!”

Machado, dressed in jeans and a puffer jacket, spent several minutes outside the hotel, where she was joined by members of her family and several of her closest aides. She hugged many in the crowd amid chants of “President! President!”

“I want you all back in Venezuela,” Machado said as people lifted their cellphones to take pictures.

Machado had been in hiding since Jan. 9, when she was briefly detained after joining supporters in a protest in Caracas, Venezuela’s capital. She had been expected to attend the award ceremony Wednesday in Oslo, where heads of state and her family were among those waiting to see her.

Machado said in an audio recording of a phone call published on the Nobel website that she wouldn’t be able to arrive in time for the ceremony but that many people had “risked their lives” for her to arrive in Oslo.

Her daughter, Ana Corina Sosa, accepted the prize in her place.

“She wants to live in a free Venezuela, and she will never give up on that purpose,” Sosa said. “That is why we all know, and I know, that she will be back in Venezuela very soon.”

Jørgen Watne Frydnes, chair of the Norwegian Nobel committee, told the award ceremony that “María Corina Machado has done everything in her power to be able to attend the ceremony here today — a journey in a situation of extreme danger.”

“Although she will not be able to reach this ceremony and today's events, we are profoundly happy to confirm that she is safe, and that she will be with us here in Oslo,” he said to applause.

Machado said in an audio recording of a phone call published on the Nobel website that she would not be able to arrive in time for the ceremony but that many people had “risked their lives” for her to arrive in Oslo.

“I am very grateful to them, and this is a measure of what this recognition means to the Venezuelan people,” she said, before indicating that she was about to board a plane.

Machado said that "since this is a prize for all Venezuelans, I believe that it will be received by them. And as soon as I arrive, I will be able to embrace all my family and my children that I’ve have not seen for two years and so many Venezuelans, Norwegians that I know that share our struggle and our fight.”

Prominent Latin American figures attended Wednesday in a signal of solidarity with Machado, including Argentine President Javier Milei, Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa, Panamanian President José Raúl Mulino and Paraguayan President Santiago Peña.

The 58-year-old Machado’s win for her struggle to achieve a democratic transition in her South American nation was announced on Oct. 10. Watne Frydnes said that “Venezuela has evolved into a brutal authoritarian state,” and he described Machado as “one of the most extraordinary examples of civilian courage in recent Latin American history.”

Machado won an opposition primary election and intended to challenge President Nicolás Maduro in last year’s presidential election, but the government barred her from running for office. Retired diplomat Edmundo González took her place.

The lead-up to the election on July 28, 2024, saw widespread repression, including disqualifications, arrests and human rights violations. That increased after the country’s National Electoral Council, which is stacked with Maduro loyalists, declared the incumbent the winner.

González, who sought asylum in Spain last year after a Venezuelan court issued a warrant for his arrest, attended Wednesday’s ceremony.

U.N. human rights officials and many independent rights groups have expressed concerns about the situation in Venezuela, and called for Maduro to be held accountable for the crackdown on dissent.

“More than anything, what we Venezuelans can offer the world is the lesson forged through this long and difficult journey — that to have democracy, we must be willing to fight for freedom,” Sosa said as she delivered the lecture written for the occasion by her mother.

The speech didn't refer to the current tensions between Washington and Caracas, as U.S. President Donald Trump continues a military operation in the Caribbean that has killed Venezuelans in international waters and threatens to strike Venezuela. Machado has consistently endorsed Trump’s strategy toward Venezuela.

Among many “heroes of this journey” honored in the lecture, Sosa mentioned “the leaders around the world who joined us and defended our cause,” but didn't elaborate.

Watne Frydnes said of authoritarian leaders like Maduro that “your power is not permanent. Your violence will not prevail over people who rise and resist."

"Mr. Maduro, accept the election result and step down,” he said.

Five past Nobel Peace Prize laureates were detained or imprisoned at the time of the award, according to the prize's official website, most recently Iranian activist Narges Mohammadi in 2023 and Belarusian human rights advocate Ales Bialiatski in 2022.

The others were Liu Xiaobo of China in 2010, Aung San Suu Kyi of Myanmar in 1991 and Carl von Ossietzky of Germany in 1935.

Gustavo Tovar-Arroyo, a Venezuelan human rights activist who was forced to flee into exile in 2012, said that Machado's supporters “did the best for her to be here as she deserves. But we knew the risk.”

He added that they are “disappointed that she cannot be in the ceremony, but this is part of what we do when we fight against a dictatorship, a tyranny or a criminal regime. So we are used to it."

Garcia Cano reported from Caracas, Venezuela. Associated Press writers Geir Moulson in Berlin, and Jamey Keaten in Geneva, contributed to this report.

People wait to see Nobel Peace Prize laureate Maria Corina Machado outside the Grand Hotel, in Oslo, Norway, early Thursday, Dec. 11, 2025. (Jonas Been Henriksen/NTB Scanpix via AP)

Nobel Peace Prize laureate Maria Corina Machado waves at the Grand Hotel in Oslo, Norway, early Thursday, Dec. 11, 2025. (Lise Åserud/NTB Scanpix via AP)

The daughter of the Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Ana Corina Sosa, accepts the award on behalf of her mother, Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, during the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony at Oslo City Hall, Norway, Wednesday Dec. 10, 2025. (Ole Berg-Rusten/NTB Scanpix, Pool via AP)

The daughter of the Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Ana Corina Sosa, accepts the award on behalf of her mother, Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, during the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony at Oslo City Hall, Norway, Wednesday Dec. 10, 2025. (Stian Lysberg Solum/NTB Scanpix via AP)

Argentine's President Javier Milei arrives at Oslo City Hall before the award ceremony of the Nobel Peace Prize, in Oslo, Norway, Wednesday Dec. 10, 2025. (Ole Berg-Rusten/NTB Scanpix via AP)

The daughter of the Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Ana Corina Sosa, who will accept the award on behalf of her mother, Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, arrives for the Nobel Peace Prize award ceremony, in Oslo, Norway, Wednesday Dec. 10, 2025. (Ole Berg-Rusten/NTB Scanpix, Pool via AP)

A picture of Nobel Peace Prize laureate Maria Corina Machado during the Nobel Peace Prize award ceremony at Oslo City Hall, in Oslo, Norway, Wednesday Dec. 10, 2025. (Ole Berg-Rusten/NTB Scanpix, Pool via AP)

Ana Corina Sosa, center, daughter of Nobel peace prize laureate Maria Machados, arrives at the Grand Hotel in Oslo on Monday, Dec. 8, 2025. (Lise Aserud/NTB via AP)

FILE - Opposition leader Maria Corina Machado greets supporters during a protest against Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro the day before his inauguration for a third term in Caracas, Venezuela, Thursday, Jan. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix, file)

From left: Colombia's former vice president Marta Lucía Ramírez, Pedro Urruchurtu Noselli and Magalli Meda, who are collaborators with the Nobel Prize winner, Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado, are seen at the Grand Hotel in Oslo, Tuesday Dec. 9, 2025. (Cornelius Poppe/NTB Scanpix via AP)

FILE - Opposition leader Maria Corina Machado displays vote tally sheets during a protest against the reelection of President Nicolas Maduro one month after the disputed presidential vote which she says the opposition won by a landslide, in Caracas, Venezuela, Wednesday, Aug. 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos, file)