Josh O’Connor

Josh O’Connor is an acclaimed British actor best known for his portrayal of Prince Charles in The Crown (2019-2020), as well as several feature films, beginning with a bit part as a zombie in The Eschatology: Book of the Dead (2012) and in a starring role in The Magnificent Eleven (2013), the Jeremy Wooding-directed modern-day London East End version of The Magnificent Seven (1960), co-starring Robert Vaughn, Sean Pertwee, Joseph Millson, and Irvine Welsh, and released by Eureka Entertainment. O’Connor starred in co-writer/director Joanna Coates’s romantic drama, Hide and Seek (2014), with Hannah Arterton, Rea Mole, and Daniel Metz, which won the Edinburgh Film Festival’s Michael Powell Award.

O’Connor was cast by director Lone Scherfig in the drama, The Riot Club (2014), with Sam Claflin, Max Irons, Douglas Booth, and Tom Hollander, and based on screenwriter Laura Wade’s 2010 play, Posh, which was released by Universal Pictures International (earning a $3.5 million global gross) after its Toronto film festival premiere. O’Connor then co-starred in director/co-writer Jeppe Rønde’s English-language Danish drama, Bridgend (2015), co-starring Hannah Murray, Steven Waddington, and Adrian Rawlins, which premiered at the Rotterdam Film Festival.

Josh O’Connor was picked by director Kenneth Branagh for a supporting role in Disney’s highly successful live-action version of Cinderella (2015), written by Chris Weitz, and starring Cate Blanchett, Lily James, Richard Madden, Stellan Skarsgård, Holliday Grainger, Derek Jacobi, and Helena Bonham Carter, and grossing $542 million worldwide. O’Connor was cast by another major British filmmaker, Stephen Frears, for the John Hodge-written Lance Armstrong biopic, The Program (2015), with Ben Foster, Chris O’Dowd, Guillaume Canet, Jesse Plemons, and Dustin Hoffman, which received a release by StudioCanal (for a $3.3 million return) after a Toronto film festival premiere.

O’Connor went from a small supporting role in another movie under Stephen Frears’ direction, Florence Foster Jenkins (2016), starring Meryl Streep and Hugh Grant, to a starring role in writer-director Francis Lee’s acclaimed drama for BFI, God’s Own Country (2017), co-starring Alec Secareanu, Gemma Jones, and Ian Hart, and which received a release by Picturehouse Entertainment after a Sundance film festival premiere, where it scored the best director award in the world cinema competition. O’Connor starred opposite Laia Costa in director/writer Harry Wooliff’s British-Swedish co-production, Only You (2018), which earned several awards (including two British Independent Film awards) and was released by Curzon Artificial Eye.

Josh O’Connor co-starred with Annette Bening and Bill Nighy in writer-director William Nicholson’s British-backed film adaptation, Hope Gap (2019), of his own 1999 play, The Retreat from Moscow, with Alysha Hart and Nicholas Burns, which was distributed via Curzon Artificial Eye after a Toronto film festival premiere. O’Connor took on the role of Reverend Mr. Elton in the Autumn de Wilde-directed version of Jane Austin’s Emma. (2020), starring Anya Taylor-Joy, Johnny Flynn, Callum Turner, Mia Goth, Miranda Hart, and Nighy, and which grossed $27.4 million for distributors Focus Features and Universal Pictures.

O’Connor co-starred opposite Odessa Young, Olivia Colman, Colin Firth, Sope Dirisu, and Glenda Jackson in screenwriter Alice Birch’s screen adaptation of Graham Swift’s novel, Mothering Sunday (2021), directed by Eva Husson and grossing $2 million for distributor Lionsgate after premiering at the Cannes film festival. O’Connor, after co-starring with Letitia Wright in writer-director Frank Berry’s immigrant drama, Aisha (2022), starred in Italian filmmaker Alice Rohrwacher’s fascinating tale, La Chimera (2023), with Alba Rohrwacher, Isabella Rossellini, and Carol Duarte, and scoring 13 David di Donatello award nominations as well as nearly $2 million in worldwide grosses (with Neon releasing in the U.S.) after premiering to rave reviews at the Cannes film festival.

Josh O’Connor then took on the role of British photographer Antony Penrose in the eight-years-in-the-making biopic, Lee (2023), starring Kate Winslet, Marion Cotillard, Andrea Riseborough, Andy Samberg, Noemie Merlant, and  Alexander Skarsgård under Ellen Kuras’s direction, and which premiered at the Toronto film festival before a 2024 theatrical release via Sky Cinema and StudioCanal. O’Connor co-wrote the story (with Mike Gilbert) and joined the cast of the Julia Jackman-directed U.K. musical, Bonus Track (2023), with Joe Anders, Samuel Small, Jack Davenport, and Alison Sudol, which premiered at the BFI London Film Festival.

O’Connor joined director-producer Luca Guadagnino for the Justin Kuritzkes-written tennis drama backed by MGM and Pascal Pictures, Challengers (2024), starring Zendaya and Mike Faist, and released via Amazon MGM Studios. O’Connor was paired with Paul Mescal as WWI-era sound recorders who fall in love with each other in the Oliver Hermanus-directed romance for Film4, The History of Sound (date to be announced), and released by Embankment Films.