Stephen Graham took home the BAFTA Television Award for leading actor on Sunday night for his performance as Eddie Miller – the beleaguered plumber and father who serves as his 13-year-old son’s “appropriate adult” through a police arrest that will shatter everything his family has built – in “Adolescence.”
The win is Graham’s first BAFTA Television Award in eight nominations, all in the acting categories, a fact Graham noted when collecting his award. “I’ve been nominated eight times and it’s the first time I’ve won,” he told the audience, before adding: “Nice one BAFTA, this is lovely.”
He also had a message for any children who might be watching, saying “No matter where you’re from, anything is possible.”
Graham’s was the fourth award of the night after “Adolescence” saw wins for his co-stars Owen Cooper, who played Graham’s son, in the best supporting actor category and Christine Tremarco, who played his wife, for best supporting actress. The four-part Netflix series also won for limited drama.
Graham co-created, co-wrote and executive produced “Adolescence” alongside playwright Jack Thorne, and produced the series through his own Matriarch Productions banner, which he co-founded in 2020 with his wife Hannah Walters. The series, directed by Philip Barantini in four unbroken continuous takes, follows Jamie Miller (Cooper), a 13-year-old arrested for the murder of a classmate, and the family and institutions left scrambling in the aftermath.
The series premiered on Netflix on March 13, 2025. Graham won the Primetime Emmy Award for outstanding lead actor in a limited series at the 77th Emmy Awards – one of nine Emmys won by the show, which he also won for writing alongside Thorne – and won the Golden Globe Award for best actor in a limited series at the 2026 ceremony. He also won the Critics’ Choice Award for best actor in a limited series.
Graham beat out Colin Firth in “Lockerbie: A Search For Truth,” Ellis Howard in “What It Feels Like For A Girl,” James Nelson-Joyce in “This City Is Ours,” Matt Smith in “The Death of Bunny Munro” and Taron Egerton in “Smoke.”
The actor was accorded the OBE for services to drama in the 2023 New Year Honors.
