{"id":453530,"date":"2026-03-02T11:56:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-02T11:56:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/453530\/"},"modified":"2026-03-02T11:56:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-02T11:56:10","slug":"inside-the-drama-school-that-talent-spotted-adolescences-owen-cooper","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/453530\/","title":{"rendered":"Inside the drama school that talent spotted Adolescence\u2019s Owen Cooper"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s a chilly evening in a community centre in Gatley, a quiet suburb of Stockport. But underneath the glow of the hall\u2019s overhead strip lights, a group of teenagers are also preparing for a moon landing. Or in the royal court of an imperious queen. Trekking in the Arctic. Screaming at a Taylor Swift concert. <\/p>\n

All entirely imaginary scenarios, of course. Especially the one where I have to briefly stand in for Taylor Swift. But the performers are so full of energy and conviction that it\u2019s hard not to be transported along with them. \u201cAs soon as we step through the doors, put our phones down, I feel like time just stops here, do you know what I mean?\u201d one of the girls tells me. \u201cIt\u2019s like a break from reality.\u201d <\/p>\n

This weeknight session is just one of the classes run by the Drama MOB<\/a>, the Manchester drama school and talent agency founded by Esther Morgan and longtime Coronation Street actor Tina O\u2019Brien. They\u2019ve been in business since 2013, but over the past year, the whirlwind ascent of one of their star pupils has brought their work into the spotlight, too. <\/p>\n

When Netflix\u2019s Adolescence <\/p>\n

The show marked Cooper\u2019s first ever professional role; as the Adolescence cultural juggernaut gathered pace, breathless headlines seemed to suggest that Cooper had simply been plucked from nowhere for his television debut. But this wasn\u2019t the full story. In the two years leading up to his casting, he\u2019d attended lessons with Drama MOB \u2013 the same class that I\u2019m visiting, in fact. Morgan describes him as a \u201cvery focused\u201d pupil who \u201cwas up for a laugh as well\u201d, while O\u2019Brien notes that he \u201chad his parents\u2019 support behind him, which is obviously massive\u201d for a young actor. <\/p>\n

Back in January, the now 16-year-old became the youngest ever winner of the Best Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role on Television award at the Golden Globes, beating nominees with decades more experience. In his acceptance speech<\/a>, Cooper spoke of how he \u201ctook a risk\u201d on the classes, unsure if his interest in acting would ever amount to much. \u201cI was the only boy there, it was embarrassing,\u201d he said. \u201cBut I got through it.\u201d <\/p>\n

On Sunday night, he broke another industry record, becoming the youngest ever individual winner at acting union SAG-AFTRA\u2019s Actor Awards after being crowned Best Actor in a Television Movie or Limited Series. \u201cWe didn\u2019t think we\u2019d end up with a Golden Globe Award or an Emmy winner<\/a>,\u201d Morgan says. \u201cWe were laughing because he won the National Television Award first [in September] and it was the first time anybody\u2019s ever won one of those [from the classes], and we were really pleased then.\u201d <\/p>\n

\"Cooper<\/p>\n

open image in gallery<\/p>\n

Cooper as Jamie Miller, on the set of \u2018Adolescence\u2019. In the two years leading up to his casting, he\u2019d attended lessons with Drama MOB (Netflix)<\/p>\n

Morgan and O\u2019Brien have been friends for more than three decades, since meeting at the age of 11. \u201cWe started high school together,\u201d O\u2019Brien explains. When her daughter Scarlett was about three or four, she started looking around for local drama groups, but \u201creally struggled to find anywhere that was good enough quality\u201d, as Morgan puts it. So they decided, she says, \u201clet\u2019s just set up our own\u201d.<\/p>\n

Given their joint experience, it made sense. O\u2019Brien has played Sarah Louise Platt \u2013 daughter of Corrie icon Gail \u2013 since 1999; Morgan had previously taught drama to primary school pupils. They held their first class in January 2013 down the road in Didsbury, another leafy Manchester suburb, and \u201cwe had seven children come along\u201d, Morgan says. These days, they run 29 classes across the region, and have just under 600 children attending each week. <\/p>\n

Their casting agency, which Morgan oversees, launched in 2015, \u201cbecause we were getting lots of requests from people wanting really good northern kids, because they were struggling to find them. Obviously, we have them coming to class\u201d. They now have about 300 performers on the books, with ages ranging from newborns to grown-ups. <\/p>\n

We didn\u2019t think we\u2019d end up with a Golden Globe Award or an Emmy winner<\/p>\n

Esther Morgan<\/p>\n

Over the years, they\u2019ve built up their reputation with casting directors, who are \u201cnow coming to us directly for different jobs\u201d. Pupils have \u201cdone feature films, we\u2019ve got a number of regulars on the soaps\u201d, Morgan says, and in 2018, one of their students played a young Elton John in the John Lewis Christmas advert. <\/p>\n

For the teens in Gatley, the session eases in with everyone sharing a bit of news in a circle, from mock exam results to working up the courage to join a new club at school to excitement about the Champions League. Then it\u2019s onto warm-up games and improv exercises, designed to get them thinking about how to use their physicality and be creative with the space on stage. Some of them have been coming along for years, and have their sights set on professional work; some are just here for the fun of it, or for the confidence boost it provides. <\/p>\n

Accessibility has always been important to Morgan and O\u2019Brien. Acting is an increasingly elitist profession, and the \u201cclass ceiling\u201d can force talented young performers to give up early on. \u201cIn each of our classes, we\u2019ve got a number of places that are free,\u201d Morgan explains. \u201cWe\u2019ve both said it was something really important to us \u2013 we don\u2019t want there to be a barrier.\u201d <\/p>\n

\"Drama<\/p>\n

open image in gallery<\/p>\n

Drama MOB founders Tina O\u2019Brien and Esther Morgan (Drama MOB)<\/p>\n

O\u2019Brien agrees. \u201cAs a child myself, I know that I was very fortunate to be able to go to drama classes, but we didn\u2019t have any money,\u201d she says. \u201cI remember my mum and dad saying, \u2018Well, you can choose between going to drama or gymnastics.\u2019\u201d She was \u201cso fortunate\u201d that she did choose the former \u2013 she\u2019d go on to start working as an actor in her teens \u2013 \u201cbut for some children there\u2019s not even the possibility of that\u201d. Through their funded places, \u201cwe\u2019re trying to really target those kids that really want to do it, but maybe they wouldn\u2019t [otherwise] be able to\u201d, Morgan adds. <\/p>\n

And although they work with plenty of great casting directors in the North, the industry can still feel very London-centric \u2013 which can add another layer of expense for parents. \u201cWe would still like to see more things being cast here,\u201d Morgan says. \u201cOften, recalls are still happening in London, so you\u2019ve got to factor in train fares for a child and an adult, maybe a hotel.\u201d<\/p>\n

Call it the Owen Cooper effect if you will, but since Adolescence aired, they\u2019ve noticed a leap in the number of boys signing up for classes. As Cooper put it in his Golden Globes speech, there is still a lingering preconception that drama is somehow \u201cembarrassing\u201d or not something for boys. <\/p>\n

\"Cooper<\/p>\n

open image in gallery<\/p>\n

Cooper with his Golden Globe trophy (Getty)<\/p>\n

But in Gatley, in the session for 12- and 13-year-olds, the gender split is almost 50\/50; it skews more female in the adjacent session, for older teens, though the boys still make up a good third or so of the numbers. \u201cIt does leave you feeling positive afterwards, and like you can take on anything else, I guess,\u201d one of them tells me.<\/p>\n

The classes, Morgan says, are \u201csomewhere they can express themselves and feel safe to do so with other boys. We\u2019ve seen a bigger uptake since Owen \u2013 other boys going, \u2018Oh actually, it\u2019s alright to do drama.\u2019\u201d Sometimes, she adds, \u201csport might not be their thing, so they\u2019re looking for something where they feel like they fit and they can meet other like-minded kids\u201d. O\u2019Brien is hopeful that they will see more of them keep acting for longer, rather than dropping out when they start high school. \u201cYou find when they\u2019re younger, they\u2019re not embarrassed or bothered. But they get to a certain age, and they\u2019re like, \u2018Ugh,\u2019\u201d she says. <\/p>\n

She\u2019s seen plenty of discussions online and in the media focusing on how boys are being brought up, asking, \u201cAre we setting up young men to be all \u2018I am a provider, I am strong, I don\u2019t feel\u2019?\u201d But in the classes, the emphasis is on getting attuned to the emotions. \u201cHere, it\u2019s all about expressing \u2013 how does your character feel? How would you say that? And I think that\u2019s really healthy. We\u2019re both parents of boys, and I think for us personally, we would say that to be able to have those conversations and skills is incredible.\u201d <\/p>\n

Going forward, there are \u201cother northern areas that we\u2019d like to tap into\u201d to launch more classes, Morgan says, but \u201crather than just opening up all over the place, we want to make sure that it\u2019s [still] good quality\u201d. The goal is to keep \u201cpushing our northern talent\u201d, finding the Owen Coopers of the future \u2013 and making sure they have fun too. \u201cI remember, years ago, we used to take all the classes, and whatever mood you were in, by the end of the evening you were just so happy because they were so happy,\u201d O\u2019Brien says. \u201cIt\u2019s such a lovely thing to be part of.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s a chilly evening in a community centre in Gatley, a quiet suburb of Stockport. But underneath the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":453531,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[6491,96,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-453530","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/453530","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=453530"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/453530\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/453531"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=453530"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=453530"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=453530"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}