Learn more about Josh O'Connor's career ahead of 'Golden Boy'

The star of The Crown and Challengers takes on the lead role in a revival of Clifford Odets's Depression-era classic Golden Boy at the Almeida Theatre in autumn 2026.

Equally adept at leading man and character roles (often combining both), Josh O’Connor was born in Southampton in 1990 and raised in Cheltenham. At the age of seven, he played the Scarecrow in a school production of The Wizard of Oz and was involved in school shows and community theatre throughout his childhood and adolescence. He went on to train at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School.

O’Connor’s early career included small roles in films like The Riot Club, Cinderella, and Florence Foster Jenkins (starring Meryl Streep), as well as television appearances in Doctor Who, Peaky Blinders, and Ripper Street. He established himself on TV as older brother and novelist Lawrence Durrell in ITV’s The Durrells (2016-19), based on Gerald Durrell’s memoir My Family and Other Animals, and he also played Marius in the BBC’s adaptation of Les Misérables, led by Dominic West as Jean Valjean.

His first lead film role was in God’s Own Country (2017), in which he played a closeted sheep farmer who forms a relationship with a Romanian migrant worker. O’Connor was was nominated for a BAFTA Rising Star Award for his performance.

O’Connor’s most recognisable role to date is probably that of Prince Charles in the third and fourth series of The Crown (2019-20), opposite Olivia Colman as Queen Elizabeth II and Emma Corrin as Diana, Princess of Wales. He was nominated for two BAFTAs and a Golden Globe for his gawkily sympathetic performance as the conflicted Prince of Wales.

Subsequent film roles include obsequious vicar Mr Elton in Emma starring Anya Taylor-Joy; Paul Sheringham in Mothering Sunday; archaeologist/grave robber Arthur in La chimera; and Patrick Zweig in the steamy tennis romance Challengers, co-starring with Zendaya and Mike Faist. He will appear in an upcoming science fiction film directed by Steven Spielberg that’s due for release next year.

In autumn 2026, O’Connor returns to the stage to star in a revival of Clifford Odets’s play Golden Boy at the Almeida Theatre. Read on to learn more about his theatre roles to date.

Check back for Golden Boy tickets on LondonTheatre.co.uk.

Farragut North (2013)

O’Connor made his professional theatre debut in the London premiere of American writer Beau Willimon’s political play directed by Guy Unsworth. Max Irons and Rachel Tucker (currently in The Great Gatsby) played the lead roles. The play was adapted into the film The Ides of March, directed by and starring George Clooney, with Ryan Gosling.

Versailles (2014)

Peter Gill wrote and directed this historical play about the Treaty of Versailles, to commemorate the centenary of the outbreak of World War I. O’Connor played returning soldier Hugh. The cast also included Gwilym Lee, Tom Hughes, Simon Williams, and grandes dames Francesca Annis and Barbara Flynn.

The Shoemaker’s Holiday and Oppenheimer (2015)

In 2015, O’Connor appeared in two productions with the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford-Upon-Avon. In Thomas Dekker’s Elizabethan city comedy The Shoemaker’s Holiday, he played the lead role of Rowland Lacy, a young man who avoids going to war by pretending to be a Dutch shoemaker. In Tom Morton-Smith’s Oppenheimer, he played the small role of Luis Alvarez. John Heffernan led the cast as the titular physicist. The production transferred to the West End.

Romeo and Juliet (2021)

Following his rise to stardom, O’Connor was due to make his National Theatre debut as Romeo opposite Jessie Buckley’s Juliet. Unfortunately, the production was cancelled because of the pandemic. However all was not lost as the theatre made a filmed version shot on the Lyttelton Theatre stage, directed by Simon Godwin. O’Connor told the BBC that it was “the greatest experience of my career. I was having the time of my life."

Golden Boy (2025)

This autumn, O’Connor, returns to the stage to star in Clifford Odets’s 1937 American classic Golden Boy. O’Connor plays Joe Bonaparte, an Italian-American violinist living in Depression-era New York who aspires to become a professional musician but instead enters the cut-throat world of boxing in order to make money. The play was turned into a film in 1939 starring William Holden and Barbara Stanwyck.

This invigorating new production is directed by Sam Yates (VANYA), with further casting to be announced. It marks the penultimate production of Rupert Goold's tenure as artistic director of the Almeida. September 2026 is quite a long time to wait, but it's sure to be a knockout!

Check back for Golden Boy tickets on LondonTheatre.co.uk.