O'Connor was born to John, a teacher, and Emily, a midwife.[2] He grew up in Newbury until he was five, when his family moved to Cheltenham, Gloucestershire where he was brought up.[3] The middle son in a family of three boys, his older brother is an artist and his younger brother Seb is an ecological economist and a PhD researcher.[2]
O'Connor comes from an artistic family. His grandfather was British sculptor John Bunting, his grandmother is a ceramicist, and his maternal aunt is British writer and commentator Madeleine Bunting.[4][5] His ancestry is Irish, English, Scottish and, through his matrilineal great-grandmother, Ashkenazi and Sephardi Jewish.[6]
He wanted to be a professional artist when he was younger, but he did not think he was good enough, so he switched to rugby and then discovered acting. His first major role was at age seven as the scarecrow in a school production of The Wizard of Oz, followed by a minor role in Bugsy Malone.[7][3] O'Connor went to a private co-ed school, St Edward's School, Cheltenham, during the week and spent a lot of time on weekends at the Axiom, a local arts centre. He grew up in a Labour-supporting household, but traces his political awakening to the arts centre's closure when he was eleven, feeling the deep sense of loss in the community. He is proud to have grown up outside of London, in a town with a strong tradition of regional theatre.[2]
The production of Bugsy Malone at St Edward's also featured his classmate Tahliah Barnett, who later became an award-winning singer under the stage name FKA Twigs.[8] O'Connor has cited his school's drama programme as having helped him live with his dyslexia for many years, especially when preparing for his GCSEs.[9] He then trained at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, from which he graduated in 2011, and then moved to London.[10][2] During his third year of theatre school, he signed with an agent.[3]
Career
2012–2018: Early work and breakthrough
In 2012, O'Connor first appeared on television as Charlie Stephenson in Lewis and on film as a zombie in The Eschatrilogy: Book of the Dead. In 2013, he appeared in Doctor Who as Piotr, in The Magnificent Eleven as Andy, in Law & Order: UK as Rob Fellows, in The Wiper Times as Dodd and in London Irish as James.
In 2015, he played Leo Beresford in Father Brown, a ballroom palace guard in Cinderella and Charlie in the short film Holding on for a Good Time. He starred opposite his then-girlfriend Hannah Murray in Bridgend, Jeppe Rønde's dark, fictional portrayal of a real town in Wales with an alarmingly high teen suicide rate.[4] O'Connor played Rich in the biographical drama film The Program about the cyclist Lance Armstrong, directed by Stephen Frears.
In 2018, O'Connor starred as Peter in the segment The Colour of His Hair in Boys on film 18: Heroes, and starred alongside Laia Costa in Harry Wootliff's critically acclaimed directorial debut Only You,[19] which premiered in competition at the London Film Festival. For his performance, he received his second British Independent Film Award for Best Actor.[20] In 2019, he portrayed Marius Pontmercy in the British television adaptation of Victor Hugo's Les Misérables. He also starred as Jamie in Hope Gap, which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival, earning the Best Actor award at the Barcelona-Sant Jordi International Film Festival. It had a limited release in theaters, before dropping digitally in May 2020.[3]
He reprised the role for Season 4 of The Crown, and admitted that his character is "horrible" in that season. Still, he said he understood the source of Charles' discontent, saying that it all boils down to the fact that Charles has spent his entire life being overlooked.[7] O'Connor won many accolades in 2021, including the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series, the Golden Globe Award, the Critics' Choice Award, the Hollywood Critics Association TV Awards for Best Television Actor in a Drama Series and a nomination for the British Academy Television Award for Best Actor. The cast also won its second Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series. He described the culmination of his journey as Prince Charles as "the experience of a lifetime."[22] Originally, the fourth season was to conclude with Camillagate. However, O'Connor refused to shoot that scene.[23]
Francis Lee, director of God's Own Country, has described O'Connor as "one of those rare actors that is a real shape-shifter."[31] His performance in the movie "confirmed his place on casting agents' scouting radar as one of those subtle, humble chameleons who can disappear into parts and are dubbed 'actor's actors'."[2]
O'Connor experimented with method acting for his role in God's Own Country. He described his experience for Interview magazine:[4]
I had my own book of senses—paintings and drawings that I'd done and ideas I had. From there, I worked physically with Francis about how this guy would look. By the end of the film I was so skinny; I was gaunt. It was horrific. I was in character the whole way through. It was really lonely and hard. I don't think I'd do it again. You isolate yourself from all your friends.
The Crown creator Peter Morgan has compared O'Connor to former BarcelonamidfielderAndrés Iniesta, a footballer with massive but unobtrusive skill.[2] "I was drawn to his sensitivity and the fact that he was complex but likable," Morgan said on casting O'Connor as Prince Charles.[31]Olivia Colman praised him for the tenderness he displayed on-screen, as well as his ability to inhabit the role: "Fragility, sparkle, strength, doubt: It’s all there in a second. Every scene we had together became my favorite scene."[22]
Other ventures
O'Connor created the Waterlogged initiative to raise funds for Mind, a mental health charity working across England and Wales. Inspired by his mother who swam 60 times in her 60th year and by Roger Deakin's Waterlog, he attempted 30 swims around the UK and Ireland in his 30th year.[32][33] In January 2020, he and Olivia Colman visited the Stars Appeal, which aims to enhance the patient experience at the Salisbury District Hospital.[34] In December 2020, he and Emma Corrin offered their company for tea as part of a series of prize draws in support for War Child UK's Torn From Home appeal.[35]
In March 2021, he starred in Loewe's campaign shot in the Baja California desert for the Eye/Loewe/Nature collection made with sustainable thinking and recycling ethos. It pledged 15 euros of every sale to Fundación Global Nature, a charity for the protection of wildlife species in danger of extinction.[36]
Personal life
O'Connor lived in a Victorian house in Shoreditch and briefly relocated to New York[22] for “a spell” with his former partner before moving back to Gloucestershire in 2023,[37] where he bought a house in Woodchester, a village outside Stroud.[38] In his spare time, O'Connor enjoys reading, drawing, camping, swimming, and gardening.[3] He is a supporter of Southampton F.C.[39]
Political views
O'Connor is a supporter of the Labour Party, campaigned for Jeremy Corbyn in the 2019 general election, and has described himself as a "liberal left-winger". He said of his views on the monarchy: "I'm a republican, although not in any kind of fist-waving, campaigning way. I was always mostly uninterested in them."[2][40][41][42] In an interview with The New York Times he said, "I think the Queen is an extraordinary woman. Time after time, lots of men have failed, and this one woman in power has been consistent and remained dutiful and generally apolitical. In that sense, I have huge respect for her — and for Charles [who] is another level of someone who's literally been waiting his entire life for this moment that still hasn't come."[31]
Filmography
Key
†
Denotes productions that have not yet been released
^"Farragut North". Jude Obermüller. Archived from the original on 2 September 2021. Retrieved 2 September 2021.
^"Farragut North". Southwark Playhouse | Theatre and Bar. 4 September 2013. Archived from the original on 3 September 2021. Retrieved 2 September 2021.