As Owen Cooper clutched his Golden Globe award for his ground-breaking role in Netflix sensation Adolescence – in a room full of Hollywood’s finest – it was a particularly proud moment for his mother, Noreen.
After all, the full-time carer could have barely imagined that those long hours spent ferrying her youngest son to and from his evening drama classes in the leafy Manchester suburb of Didsbury, 5,000 miles from Los Angeles, would lead to such widespread acclaim.
And it was only right, given her support and sacrifice, that 16-year-old Owen paid tribute to his family in his acceptance speech last Sunday night.
Collecting the award in front of his heroes, Leonardo Di Caprio and Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson, at Los Angeles’ Beverly Hilton hotel, Owen told the audience: ‘What an incredible journey me and my family have been through, we are for ever grateful.
‘What started off as something I thought I might be okay at, I took a risk and went to drama classes. I was the only boy there, it was embarrassing.
‘But I got through it and I’m still very much an apprentice, still learning every day from the people in front of me who inspired me. I wouldn’t be here without you guys. It’s mad, what is going on?’
But one woman who played an instrumental role in getting Owen on to that Hollywood platform – and who believed in his potential from the start – found herself left out in the cold while praise was heaped elsewhere.
Back in Manchester, far from the ceremonial glitz, Tina O’Brien – Owen’s former teacher and the founder of that all-important drama school – did not get a mention.
Tina, of course, is better known for her long-running role as Sarah Platt in Coronation Street. But 13 years ago, she set up Drama Mob with her friend Esther Morgan at the lack of suitable acting classes for her daughter.
The school aimed to champion Northern talent, holding weekend and after-school classes in a former Didsbury parsonage.
And four years ago, a scruffy-looking 12-year-old arrived, staring uncomfortably at the polished wooden floors. Still in his school uniform, his shirt untucked, Owen had looked as if he would rather be anywhere else. But what a difference those few years with Tina made.
In their weekly classes, Tina saw something in Owen and encouraged him to take part in theatre productions before recruiting him for their talent agency and getting him listed on industry casting platform Spotlight – a directory of talent casting directors browse.
He submitted taped auditions for several high-profile projects after he drew interest. Then, one day, they were approached by casting director Shaheen Baig about a project called Adolescence.
The team were looking far and wide for the perfect boy to play its central character, 13-year-old Jamie Miller, and Tina and Esther submitted Owen’s profile. The rest is history.
As a source familiar with Tina told The Mail on Sunday: ‘Tina was absolutely key in Owen’s success, but she was forgotten last week. It was pretty rotten to have left her out like that.
‘While Tina is humble and so proud of her young starlets, she did start him on his road to stardom and she is just so thrilled for him. But someone could have given her a bit of a big-up after the Globes.’
The lack of recognition for Drama Mob in Owen’s success has become a point of contention for its teaching staff.
When the show came out last year, some reviews suggested he had no training before his debut, which ‘frustrated us a bit’, Esther said at the time.
She added: ‘We invest a lot of time in our young people, including Owen. We really got to know him and his parents and supported them through the process.
‘The fact that the show was done in one shot and Owen was able to do this is due to his training and us working with him. It shows the benefit of good-quality training.’
Last week, following his Golden Globes success, Esther was a guest on ITV’s Lorraine and said: ‘I knew he was good enough back then.
‘He was one of the only boys but since he’s done Adolescence, we’ve had a number of Northern boys come and join our school. They’ve seen what Owen’s done.
‘We’ve got a 50 per cent male teaching team, which is quite unusual, so I think when they walk through the door they see the teachers and they see the other boys. It’s good because it can be quite embarrassing as a 12-year-old.’
But Tina has yet to speak about her former pupil’s success. And there are others who have also fared extremely well.
Carter Murphy, 11, has secured roles in the theatre show Wicked and played a young Robbie Williams in his fantasy biopic Better Man.
Tina also trained Freddie Henderson, who played Elton John in the 2018 John Lewis Christmas advert. Other youngsters have bagged roles in Coronation Street and Hollyoaks.
Few people realise Owen was also a contemporary of Tina’s own daughter Scarlett, who she shares with her ex-partner and Corrie co-star Adam Thomas.
She made her acting debut in the BBC’s Waterloo Road in 2023 and has signed a major record deal, aged just 17, with Big Family Music.
‘Owen and Scarlett are quite different but they came up together,’ adds my source. ‘It’s funny to think that while he’s on the other side of the Atlantic, Scarlett is at home making TikTok videos with her dad.’
The school’s social media page has paid tribute to Owen and celebrated his success which, along with the Golden Globe, has included a Critics Choice Award and an Emmy for his Adolescence role, describing it as ‘so deserved’.
Other awards are pending. And while he still has his GCSEs to get through in the summer, he has perhaps less reason to worry about his future than his peers.
The young star will hit the big screen next month with the much-anticipated release of Wuthering Heights, the adaptation of Emily Bronte’s classic novel starring Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi, which features Owen as a young Heathcliffe. It will likely be enough to cement his stardom for life.
But Tina, it seems, might end up as an unsung footnote to his career.
