Meet the next generation of British actors \u2013 Winter 2025<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Gallery \/ 9 images<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n This story is taken from the winter 2025 issue of Dazed. Order a copy of the magazine here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Charlotte will make her film debut in Emerald Fennell\u2019s adaptation of Wuthering Heights, playing young Catherine Earnshaw, alongside Margot Robbie, Jacob Elordi and Owen Cooper. She got her break playing Lavender in Matilda the Musical on the West End in 2023.<\/p>\n \u201cActing is a different world. It\u2019s incredible. I love all the characters and auditions that come up. I love being able to play different characters who have [dissimilar] thought processes. I find the contrast between all the roles really exciting. I love horror stories, drama and action. It all links to my favourite show being Stranger Things. I\u2019m just so intrigued by all the gore. I also love Millie Bobby Brown<\/a>. I think it\u2019s amazing that she shaved her head at such a young age. I look up to her so much. I\u2019ve always gone to the theatre. The first musical I watched was The Lion King. I also saw Matilda, which was one of my first theatre roles. But my first film was Wuthering Heights. It was such an amazing atmosphere with the cast on the moors in Yorkshire, a once-in-a-lifetime kind of thing. Emerald made the workplace atmosphere so relaxing and funny. I had so much fun with Owen [Cooper]<\/a> and Vy [Nguyen], on and off set, and obviously Margot and Jacob are such incredible people. I loved the entire cast.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Bilal is a north London-born actor and playwright of Palestinian and Pakistani descent. He starred in the lauded one-man play For a Palestinian in 2022, and shone as a sweet-natured drag queen in Amrou Al-Kadhi\u2019s Layla, his feature-film debut. Fresh from a turn in Apple TV\u2019s hit spy thriller Slow Horses, he will star in Half Man, a new drama from Baby Reindeer creator Richard Gadd, next year.<\/p>\n \u201cWatching people be present with each other tells you everything you need to know about being a human. I am always striving to do that as much as I can. When you\u2019re an actor, your toolkit is your human beingness. It allows you to engender a level of empathy you can\u2019t get in any other art. In the time we are living in, it\u2019s even more important to [nurture] that. Since the Greeks, we have gone to the theatre for a specific reason: to feel catharsis; to remember that we all have beating hearts capable of feeling all sorts of emotions. As soon as you shut yourself off from that, you\u2019re not being a human. You\u2019re something else. It\u2019s hard to pick a favourite project of mine, but in 2022 I wrote a play called For a Palestinian<\/a>, which was about the life of Palestinian poet and translator Wael Zuaiter. We worked with incredible organisations to deliver the show, and it unlocked a lot of things for me.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Francesca is an actor from Kent. She is best known for her performances in Apple TV\u2019s The Buccaneers and Amazon Prime\u2019s The Girlfriend, alongside Robin Wright and Olivia Cooke. Next year she will star in The War Between the Land and the Sea, a BBC series created by It\u2019s a Sin writer Russell T Davies.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve always loved performing be that in school plays or imagining worlds with friends \u2013 and I have always had my nose in a fantasy book. My favourite is The Hobbit. There is so much about that world that I like. It really moves me seeing ordinary people do extraordinary things. Like Frodo \u2013 he\u2019s so unassuming, but he does this extraordinary thing. He is courageous, and it touches me deeply. I love stories that have a touch of the fantastical; being part of a world that isn\u2019t quite like our own is always fun. I\u2019m so drawn to stories that explore courage in all its quiet and loud forms. I think fear and anxiety are a universal part of being human. So nothing inspires me more than witnessing someone feeling the fear and doing it anyway. Those are the stories I\u2019m drawn to most. Acting is a job that encourages expression and creativity, and it is rooted in empathy. To be able to reach people through stories is someaningful to me.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Ellis is an actor from Liverpool who followed up roles in Red Rose and HBO\u2019s Catherine \u201cI think actors have a place in culture that is profound and powerful. Every time history has gone pear-shaped, actors are some of the first people who are put in prison, detained and silenced. [American playwright] Lorraine Hansberry said that creating a play should be a dangerous thing. It should say something about society. Actors, theatre-makers and artists can shape public opinion and provoke. Look at what John Boyega did with Black Lives Matter, using his fame to move culture. It doesn\u2019t have to happen with every play. Not everything is important; sometimes it\u2019s just a camp time, sometimes it\u2019s an escape. But sometimes you are incredibly lucky and can push society to be more kind, open and nuanced. I think What It Feels Like for a Girl <\/a>does that. There\u2019s nothing better than that when you\u2019re an actor. That\u2019s why it\u2019s an important, meaningful pursuit. I think acting can sometimes bridge into deep activism. It doesn\u2019t have to, but I do think that the pursuit of making art is the pursuit of empathy, and it\u2019s no bad thing if people are more empathetic.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Aidan is a British-Chinese actor from London. He is best known for his roles in the Hulu series Red Eye and Harlots, and Netflix\u2019s Emmy-nominated sci-fi drama 3 Body Problem.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen you\u2019re on a production \u2013 be it for theatre, film or TV \u2013 you\u2019re in it, you\u2019re locked in, you\u2019re all family. It can be tender and supportive but it\u2019s also messy and visceral, and there can be clashes. It\u2019s so intimate and intense \u2013 and then it ends. It\u2019s hard. I think I\u2019m probably not as good a friend as I was before acting, because I need to disappear for a bit to recover after those intense bursts. Because of its brevity, the time you do have together [on set] is so valuable. You get used to falling in and out of love a lot. You might have been filming and rehearsing for a week, and you already love each other so much and know each other so well. It\u2019s a joy to fall in love, and then it\u2019s so heartbreaking to fall out of love. It\u2019s kind of the tragedy of it, but it\u2019s also a blessing. I felt artistic nourishment from a play I did earlier this year called Scenes From a Repatriation<\/a>. It was a great company of people, and that\u2019s the thing about theatre \u2013 whether you have a good or a bad night, everyone feels it together. You feel like you\u2019re going into war with these people.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n London-born Alex starred with Ellis Howard in What It Feels Like for a Girl, adapted from the memoir of transgender journalist, presenter and campaigner Paris Lees, and played Jetta in Lena Dunham\u2019s romantic comedy series Too Much.<\/p>\n \u201cI took a huge step back from commercial theatre during Covid, and thought about what I really wanted for myself, being transfeminine and non-binary \u2013 all these things that aren\u2019t [that visible] in commercial musical theatre. I spent so long playing the role of a young guy or the gay guy, and I was just like, \u2018This isn\u2019t who I am.\u2019 But if you look at the landscape of commercial musical theatre in the West End, what roles are there for me? I have such a deep attachment to working on screen it was the first thing I ever did, and it\u2019s such a joy. So I thought, \u2018OK, I\u2019m going to focus on where we are being a bit more celebrated.\u2019 Don\u2019t get me wrong, they\u2019re no utopia of trans celebration, but film and television are definitely more forward-thinking industries in some ways. More stories are being told. There\u2019s more scope for people like me. My biggest thing in life, across the board, is going where people celebrate you. That\u2019s why What It Feels Like for a Girl felt like such a transcendent, once-in-a-lifetime job. I\u2019ve never worked on something that was by the dolls and for the dolls.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Bukky is an actor from Hackney, east London. At 15, she was discovered at school by director Sarah Gavron, who cast her in the titular role of her coming-of-age film Rocks. She is set to star in the film adaptation of Afrofantasy novel, Children of Blood and Bone, directed by Gina Prince-Bythewood.<\/p>\n \u201cI really want to tell stories that talk about beauty, discomfort and coming of age. I\u2019m trying my hardest to ensure I am in the intellectual place to tell these stories in the best way. I\u2019m trying to get these subject matters from girls and boys I identify with and tell them in artistic, commercial ways. I want visibility for stories like this, not just to reach the right people, but to be part of the library, part of the experience, part of the filmography. I\u2019m not trying to be a figurehead for anything. As I move through life, I\u2019ve realised I only care about working on my projects and ideas, spending time with my friends, building my life and doing it righteously. I\u2019m really excited about some of the stuff I\u2019m writing and making. I want to be as bold as D\u2019Angelo<\/a>; I want to do my Voodoo and then come back with my Vanguard \u2013 and nothing will stop me from doing that. Acting widens my empathy. There\u2019s a film that I\u2019m doing next year called Jumoke, which deals with issues around prostitution. It really changed my views on sex work and desperation.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Born in Newcastle upon Tyne, Alfie made his big-screen breakthrough this year, when he starred alongside Jodie Comer and Aaron Taylor-Johnson in Danny Boyle\u2019s post-apocalyptic horror film 28 Years Later. He will reprise his role as Spike in the sequel, 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, in January.<\/p>\n \u201cI first fell in love with acting through seeing my dad act and from watching movies. I would watch stuff and be like, \u2018I want to be an action hero. I want to be like them.\u2019 The earliest film I remember watching was Superman with Christopher Reeve. Then, we had this game for the Xbox 360 Kinect, where it would put your face on an actor\u2019s body. I would dress up as Superman, pretending to hold up a falling building\u2026I like exploring different themes in film. I like bringing stories to life, but the main thing is the character has got to be right. It has to be a well-written character, someone with personality. I don\u2019t want to play a boring person. 28 Years Later<\/a> was the first big thing I got, so I was really excited. There\u2019s a bit in the movie where my character, Spike, and Jamie [Taylor-Johnson] run across this tidal causeway. We were in the studio and it was in this big pool, and I kept falling over\u2026 I just love my job. If you were to ask any teenager if they would like to be in a movie, I\u2019m sure they\u2019d be like, \u2018Of course!\u2019 I just love doing it.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/a><\/div>\n
![\"Meet](\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/1570\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1430\/3\/1433245.jpg\")
<\/span><\/span>Charlotte wears all clothes Miu Miu, tights her own, leather ballerinas Jimmy Choo<\/span><\/span>Photography Carina Kehlet Schou, styling Feranmi Eso<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/a><\/div>\n
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<\/span><\/span>Bilal wears cotton T-shirt Carhartt WIP, shirt stylist\u2019s own, wool shorts Loewe, cotton socks Pantherella, patent leather loafers Russell & Bromley<\/span><\/span>Photography Carina Kehlet Schou, styling Feranmi Eso<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/a><\/div>\n
![\"Meet](\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/1570\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1430\/3\/1433252.jpg\")
<\/span><\/span>Francesca wears fil coup\u00e9 dress Ferrari, shoes her own<\/span><\/span>Photography Carina Kehlet Schou, styling Feranmi Eso<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/a><\/div>\n
![\"Meet](\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/1570\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1430\/3\/1433254.jpg\")
<\/span><\/span>Ellis wears all clothes Louis Vuitton, Tiffany HardWear gold necklace Tiffany & Co., leather loafers Jimmy Choo<\/span><\/span>Photography Carina Kehlet Schou, styling Feranmi Eso<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n
the Great with a breakout performance in BBC Three\u2019s What It Feels Like for a Girl. He currently has an autobiographical show in development for Netflix.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/div>\n
![\"Meet](\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/1571\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1430\/3\/1433247.jpg\")
<\/span><\/span>Aidan wears leather jacket and trousers Tom Ford, cashmere jumper Polo Ralph Lauren, earrings his own, eyelet leather shoes Jimmy Choo<\/span><\/span>Photography Carina Kehlet Schou, styling Feranmi Eso<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/a><\/div>\n
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<\/span><\/span>Alex wears viscose knitted dress with fringe and flower embroidery and patent leather mule
\nFerragamo, Tiffany Knot gold and diamond earrings Tiffany & Co.<\/span><\/span>Photography Carina Kehlet Schou, styling Feranmi Eso<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/a><\/div>\n
![\"Meet](\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/1570\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1430\/3\/1433246.jpg\")
<\/span><\/span>Bukky wears wool coat and nylon tights Vivienne Westwood, earrings her own, silk and leather heels Russell & Bromley<\/span><\/span>Photography Carina Kehlet Schou, styling Feranmi Eso<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/a><\/div>\n
![\"Meet](\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/1571\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1430\/3\/1433253.jpg\")
<\/span><\/span>Alfie wears cotton shirt Vivienne Westwood, denim jeans Polo Raph Lauren, jewellery stylist\u2019s own, eyelet leather shoes Jimmy Choo<\/span><\/span>Photography Carina Kehlet Schou, styling Feranmi Eso<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n
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