Paul Mescal

Paul Mescal (birthname: Paul Colm Michael Mescal) is one of the fastest-rising actors in Anglo-Saxon cinema, garnering great acclaim (including a Best Actor Oscar nomination for only his third big-screen appearance) for nearly all of his big-screen performances since his striking debut in director/writer Maggie Gyllenhaal’s excellent adaptation of Elena Ferrante’s 2006 novel, The Lost Daughter (2021), starring Olivia Colman, Dakota Johnson, Jessie Buckley, Dagmara Dominczyk, Peter Sarsgaard and Ed Harris, premiering at the Venice Film Festival (in which Gyllenhaal won the screenplay prize), and released theatrically and on streaming by Netflix.

Mescal co-starred with Emily Watson and Aisling Franciosi in the Saela Davis and Anna Rose Holmer-directed UK/Irish drama, God’s Creatures (2022), written by Shane Crowley (based on a story by Crowley and producer Fodhla Cronin O’Reilly), and which premiered in the Cannes Film Festival’s Directors Fortnight competition and released by A24.

Mescal’s breakthrough (and his first Best Actor Oscar nomination) was as the father on holiday in writer/director Charlotte Wells’s highly acclaimed debut, Aftersun (2022), co-starring Frankie Corio, which premiered in the Cannes Film Festival and grossed $10 million via release by A24 (U.S.) and Mubi (U.K.). Mescal joined famed choreographer Benjamin Millepied in his feature directorial debut, a “re-imagining” of Bizet’s opera, Carmen (2022), with Mescal co-starring with Melissa Barrera in the title role and Rossy de Palma, launching at the Toronto Film Festival and released by Sony Pictures Classics (in the U.S.) and Pathe Distribution (France, Europe).

Paul Mescal won further acclaim in a striking performance opposite co-star Andrew Scott in director/writer Andrew Haigh’s drama, All of Us Strangers (2023), adapted from Taichi Yamada’s 1987 novel and Nobuhiko Obayashi’s film version of the Yamada novel titled The Discarnates (1988), and featuring cast members Jamie Bell and Claire Foy, and which premiered at the Telluride Film Festival and grossing a solid $20 million for distributor Searchlight Pictures. Mescal co-starred with Saoirse Ronan and Aaron Pierre in co-writer/director Garth Davis’ sci-fi psychological drama, Foe (2023), based on co-screenwriter Iain Reid’s 2018 novel and released theatrically by Amazon MGM Studios after premiering at the New York Film Festival.

Mescal led the cast of director/producer Ridley Scott’s first and long-in-development sequel, Gladiators II (2024), in which Mescal played the role of the son of Russell Crowe’s Maximus from Gladiator (2000) with Denzel Washington, Pedro Pascal, Joseph Quinn, Lior Raz, Derek Jacobi, and Connie Nielsen, and which was released by Paramount Pictures. Mescal joined co-star Josh O’Connor and director/co-writer Oliver Hermanus for the early 20th-century romance, The History of Sound (2025), based on the short story by Ben Shattuck (who co-wrote the script) and produced by Film4 and End Cue.

Paul Mescal portrayed William Shakespeare with Jessie Buckey’s Agnes Shakespeare in co-writer/director Chloe Zhao’s feature version of co-screenwriter/novelist Maggie O’Farrell’s 2020 novel, Hamnet (date to be announced), with Joe Alwyn and Emily Watson, and which was co-produced in part by Amblin Partners and released by Focus Features (in the U.S.) and Universal Pictures (ex-U.S.).

Mescal took over the starring role opposite Ben Platt and Beanie Feldstein in filmmaker Richard Linklater’s unusual film version of Stephen Sondheim’s and George Furth’s 1981 musical, Merrily We Roll Along (date to be announced), which Linklater has been filming over several years in the mode he filmed his 2014 Boyhood and financed by producer Jason Blum’s Blumhouse Productions.