Irish actor Paul Mescal won hearts around the world as Connell in the TV adaptation of Normal People.
The BAFTA winner will feature as a guest on tonight’s episode of The Graham Norton Show alongside some of the Black Panther cast Michaela Coel and Winston Duke, The Crown star Emma Corrin, and Comedian, Richard Ayoade.
Paul, 26, was born in 1996, in Maynooth, County Kildare.
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He graduated from The Lir Academy in 2017 and subsequently performed in plays, such as The Great Gatsby, Asking for It and The Lieutenant of Inishmore, in Dublin theatres.
His parents are Dearbhla, a Garda officer, and Paul, a schoolteacher who acted semi-professionally as well.
The talented actor was the eldest of three children, and has a brother and a sister.
His GAA roots
Paul was a minor and under-21 Gaelic football player for Kildare and a member of the Maynooth GAA club.
Gaelic footballer Brian Lacey praised Mescal's skills as a defender, while physical trainer Cian O'Neill described him as "mature beyond his years, very developed and very strong".
Mescal gave up GAA after an unfortunate jaw injury.
Acting career
Mescal received praise for his starring role in the miniseries Normal People (2020), earning a British Academy Television Award as well as nominations for a Primetime Emmy Award and a Critics' Choice Television Award.
Before Normal People, his screen work consisted mainly of an advert for Denny (the popular Irish sausage and bacon brand).
In the short ad, which aired on Irish TV, he eats sausages and is then inspired to travel.
Mescal performed on stage for the first time at age 16, portraying the Phantom in the musical The Phantom of the Opera, after which he auditioned and gained admission to The Lir Academy at Trinity College Dublin.
Mescal graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Acting in 2017.
He secured agents for his acting career prior to his graduation.
Upon obtaining his Bachelor of Arts degree, Mescal was offered roles in two theatrical productions, Angela's Ashes and The Great Gatsby; he took on the latter and starred as the Jay Gatsby at the Gate Theatre in Dublin.
Mescal starred in his first television role opposite Daisy Edgar-Jones in the drama series Normal People, an adaptation of the 2018 novel of the same name by Sally Rooney.
He played student Connell Waldron; he viewed the role as different from himself in the way Waldron's traits include hesitance and emotional unavailability.
Just like Mescal did in real life, the character plays Gaelic football and attends Trinity College.
His performance was met with raving industry reviews and he attained status as a sex symbol, catching the eyes of stars such as Kourtney Kardashian.
In their respective reviews for Variety and Slate, Caroline Framke called Mescal's navigation through the character's emotional collapse "breath-taking", while Willa Paskin noted his concurrent embodiment of "intelligence, insecurity and quiet confidence".
Speaking on filming intimate scenes, Mescal said: “The idea of shooting those scenes may be far more anxious than the actual shooting process from day to day.”
“There's an awkward 10 minutes when you're like, okay, I have to be relatively naked in front of a group of strangers... from an actor's perspective you've got to treat that the same way you would a scene where you're speaking to each other.”
Since rising to fame, he has also gained huge fame through portraying the major character of Will in the 2021 drama film “The Lost Daughter”.
Released in December 2021, the psychological drama garnered favourable reviews.
Since the start of 2022, the Irish actor has attending film festivals in support of his latest feature “Aftersun” and shooting projects in England and Australia.
Paul Mescal recently swapped GAA shorts for a Matrix-inspired leather look for his latest magazine photoshoot with iD magazine.
He was styled in a black leather trench coat, tiny shorts, and thigh high black leather boots by Bottega Veneta for the spread.
The shoot brokeTwitter, with Panti Bliss sharing the photo with the caption: "Paul Mescal serving it".
Famous girlfriend
Paul is dating American singer-songwriter Phoebe Bridgers.
The American singer (28) has been dating the Normal People star (26) since 2020, but the couple only went Instagram official in December 2021.
After watching Mescal star in Normal People, Bridgers shared her thoughts on Twitter, writing: "Finished Normal People and now I'm sad and ***** oh wait." The following day, Mescal responded, saying, "I'm officially dead," to which the singer replied, "nooo don't die you’re so talented aha."
Mescal spoke about Bridgers in a 2020 interview with GQ and though he didn't explicitly name her, he said his girlfriend was "a lifesaver" during the COVID-19 lockdown.
In a collaboration that made fans go wild, Mescal starred in the music video for Bridgers' song "Savior Complex,".
The video was filmed in black-and-white and while it only features a brief interaction between Bridgers and Mescal, it was enough to fuel even more speculation from fans that the pair were dating.
Net worth
According to the internet, Paul Mescal's estimated net worth is between $1 Million to $2 Million, which is around €1.01 million and €2.02 million.
The Graham Norton Show airs on BBC One this Friday (4 November) at 10:40pm.
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