Paul Mescal

Born in Maynooth, he studied acting at The Lir Academy and subsequently performed in plays in Dublin theatres. Mescal rose to fame with his role in the miniseries Normal People (2020), earning a BAFTA TV Award and a nomination for a Primetime Emmy Award.

Mescal made his film debut with a supporting role in the psychological drama The Lost Daughter (2021), and he received praise for starring in the 2022 drama films God's Creatures and Aftersun. His performance as a troubled father in the latter earned him nominations for an Academy Award and BAFTA Film Award. Mescal won a Laurence Olivier Award for his portrayal of Stanley Kowalski in a 2022 revival of the play A Streetcar Named Desire.

Mescal made his feature film debut with a supporting role in The Lost Daughter, directed by Maggie Gyllenhaal in her directorial debut. Released in 2021, the psychological drama garnered favourable reviews. The following year, Mescal starred as a man accused of sexual assault in the psychological drama God's Creatures and as a troubled young father in the drama Aftersun, both of which premiered at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival. The two films received positive reviews, with Mescal's performances gaining praise. IndieWire critic Kate Erbland found Mescal's work in God's Creatures "powerful" and "quietly chilling".Reviewing Aftersun, Peter Travers of ABC News highlighted his "disarming charm and elemental power" in his portrayal of a "complex role".He received nominations for the Academy Award for Best Actor and the BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role for the latter.
Mescal starred in Carmen, a contemporary film adaptation of the opera of the same name. It premiered at the 2022 Toronto International Film Festival and was theatrically released in 2023.IndieWire's David Ehrlich stated that Mescal's role as a veteran asserts his "gravitas" and "poise".[ Mescal began portraying Stanley Kowalski in a revival of the play A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams at the Almeida Theatre in December 2022. The production garnered acclaim and transferred to the West End in March 2023. The Times's Dominic Maxwell found him "tremendous" and opined that he "makes the latent violence of Stanley Kowalski into something easy, tangible, vibrant yet unactorly".[49] Mescal won the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor for the portrayal.

In 2023, Mescal starred alongside Andrew Scott in All of Us Strangers, an adaptation of the fantasy romance novel Strangers by Taichi Yamada. It premiered at the 50th Telluride Film Festival.The Hollywood Reporter's David Rooney commended the "warm, sexy chemistry" between Mescal and Scott. He starred opposite Saoirse Ronan in Foe, an adaptation of Iain Reid's science fiction novel of the same name.

Mescal replaced Blake Jenner in the lead role of composer Franklin Shepard in Richard Linklater's Merrily We Roll Along, a film adaptation of the 1981 musical of the same name, which is set be filmed over 20 years.He is also set to star in Gladiator 2, Ridley Scott's sequel to the 2000 historical drama.