Learn about Joe Locke's stage and screen work ahead of 'Clarkston'

The Heartstopper and Agatha All Along star is making his West End debut in Samuel D. Hunter's play.

Marianka Swain7 August, 2025, 14:00

Joe Locke is hoping to win hearts in London’s theatreland this autumn as he makes his West End debut in Samuel D. Hunter’s play Clarkston. Locke is best known to viewers from two popular streaming hits: the lovely queer teen romance Heartstopper on Netflix, and the supernatural Marvel spin-off Agatha All Along on Disney+.

Locke stars alongside Ruaridh Mollica and Sophie Melville in this keenly anticipated production at the Trafalgar Theatre. Hunter’s play, about two friends who meet working in a warehouse in rural America, is described as a modern frontier story.

It’s an exciting next chapter for the 21-year-old Locke, who got his start with the National Theatre’s youth theatre festival Connections, and has gone on to perform on Broadway and now in the West End. Get to know this rising star ahead of his return to the London stage.

Book Clarkston tickets on LondonTheatre.co.uk.

Heartstopper (2022-24)

Locke became beloved by millions when he took on the role of Charlie Spring in the Netflix adaptation of Alice Oseman’s adored webcomic and graphic novel. In Heartstopper, sensitive gay teenager Charlie falls in love with his classmate Nick, who is a popular rugby player, and who eventually comes out as bisexual.

Heartstopper tenderly explores coming-of-age stories and issues, including sexuality, gender identity, friendship, love, and family relationships. Spring won particular praise for his affecting performance as Charlie, whose life is transformed by his adorable romance with Nick, but who has been bullied and struggles with an eating disorder.

The series will wrap up with a TV movie, Heartstopper Forever, in 2026.

Heartstopper - LT - 1200

The Trials (2022)

Locke made his stage debut in Dawn King’s environmental thriller at the Donmar Warehouse. The dystopian play, set in the near future when the climate has collapsed, saw young people putting adults on trial for causing the crisis. The morality of this brutal justice was juxtaposed with the ethical responsibility of a society that contributed to the climate catastrophe.

The youthful company featured an intense Locke as the bitter, angry Noah, who labelled the defendants “dinosaurs”, and who had been traumatised by watching his parents drown. His Heartstopper castmate William Gao (who plays Tao) was also in the company.

Sweeney Todd (2024)

Last year, Locke took on his first Broadway role in Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler’s musical about a vengeful, murderous barber stalking his enemies in Victorian London. This lavish revival at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre starred Josh Groban and Annaleigh Ashford, and later Aaron Tveit and Sutton Foster.

Locke joined the show in 2024, succeeding Gaten Matarazzo (Stranger Things) as Tobias Ragg, assistant to another barber, the fraudulent Adolfo Pirelli, and later to Mrs Lovett in her pie shop. But it all goes horribly wrong when he discovers a grisly secret: that Todd’s victims are becoming filling for Mrs Lovett’s pies.

Sweeney Todd - LT - 1200

Agatha All Along (2024)

Kathryn Hahn’s breakout witch character Agatha Harkness got her own Disney+ series after her fabulous turn in WandaVision. Hahn was joined by an impressive cast, including theatre veterans like Patti LuPone alongside Audrey Plaza and Debra Jo Rupp. The Marvel series saw Agatha escape the spell cast in WandaVision and form a new coven of witches.

Key to her plan was Locke’s character, initially known simply as “Teen” because of a hex placed on him that prevented others from finding out his name. His actual identity was part of the show’s big climactic reveal, giving Locke some juicy dramatic material to play, as well as enjoying the series’ signature snarky humour and flamboyant styling.

Clarkston (2025)

This autumn sees the UK premiere of a work by Samuel D. Hunter, whose play The Whale won a Drama Desk Award and was turned into an Oscar-winning film starring Brendan Fraser. Clarkston is about a young man named Jake who travels west and befriends Chris, his fellow shelf-stacking employee in a Costco warehouse.

The pair are in the small Washington town of Clarkston, named for the explorer William Clark (of Lewis and Clark fame). Jake and Chris are also seeking meaning and new frontiers in their lives. Ruaridh Mollica (TV series The Franchise and Vision Quest) co-stars, as does Sophie Melville (Best Actress winner at the Evening Standard Theatre Awards for Iphigenia in Splott).

Locke has said of playing Jake: “I really enjoy characters that have something to them, a bit of bite, a bit of a grey area.” He added: “Everyone is flawed in some ways. And I’ve been lucky enough in my career so far to play a few flawed characters, and Jake is no different to that. And that’s the fun bit, the meaty bit, getting to know these characters – they’re good and they’re bad.”

Jack Serio directs Clarkston, which explores everything from friendship, sexuality and acceptance to love, addiction, the American West, and big dreams.