His latest show has managed to set viewing records in the UK, caught the attention of the prime minister, and been the catalyst for a difficult conversation about modern masculinity – all in the space of a couple of weeks.
But Stephen Graham isn’t an overnight success story.
The blanket coverage being bestowed upon Adolescence, Netflix’s four-part drama series about a young boy who murders a female classmate, is the culmination of more than two decades of work for the Liverpudlian actor who despite forging a Hollywood career has always come back to working-class British stories.
Graham’s acting career started in his parents’ front room in Kirkby, on the outskirts of Liverpool, where he did impressions of Idi Amin, the former dictator of Uganda, and Margaret Thatcher. He was spotted by a local actor, Andrew Schofield – who was Johnny Rotten in Alex Cox’s 1986 film Sid and Nancy – while playing Jim Hawkins in a school production of Treasure Island.
Graham joined Liverpool’s Everyman youth theatre, an institution that has helped develop the acting chops of everyone from Pete Postlethw...
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