Paul Mescal

Mescal was born on 2 February 1996 in Maynooth, Leinster to Dearbhla, a Garda, and Paul, a schoolteacher who also acted semi-professionally.[1][2] He has a brother and a sister.[3] He was a minor and under-21 Gaelic footballer for Kildare and a member of the Maynooth club.[4][5] Former Gaelic footballer Brian Lacey praised his skills as a defender,[6] while his former manager Brendan Hackett said he could match Glenn Ryan and physical trainer Cian O'Neill described him as "mature beyond his years [...] very developed and very strong".[7] He gave up the sport after a jaw injury.[8] Mescal graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Acting from The Lir Academy at Trinity College Dublin in 2017.[5][9]

Upon graduating from drama school, Mescal was offered roles in two theatre productions, Angela's Ashes and The Great Gatsby; he took on the latter and starred as the titular Jay Gatsby at the Gate Theatre in Dublin.[10] He also played the Prince in a contemporary retelling of Hans Christian Andersen's The Red Shoes at the same theatre that year.[11] In 2018, he landed the role of Lieutenant Langon in productions of The Plough and the Stars at the Lyric Theatre in London and the Gaiety Theatre in Dublin.[12] Mescal also played Bryan in the world premiere of the 2018 play Asking for It by Louise O'Neill.[13] He appeared in the Rough Magic Theatre Company's productions of A Midsummer Night's Dream and A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man for the Kilkenny Arts Festival and the Dublin Theatre Festival, respectively.[14] Mescal also appeared in a commercial for Denny sausages that same year.[15] In 2020, he starred in a production of The Lieutenant of Inishmore at the Gaiety Theatre.[16]

Mescal starred in his first television role alongside Daisy Edgar-Jones in the drama series Normal People, an adaptation of the 2018 novel of the same name by Sally Rooney.[17] It premiered in the UK on BBC Three on 26 April 2020, and in the US on Hulu three days later.[18][19] He garnered acclaim as well as a nomination for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited Series or Movie for his performance.[20][21] In July 2020, Mescal performed spoken word and sang with Dermot Kennedy at the London Natural History Museum.[22] He also appeared in Drifting, a short film, which premiered at the 2020 Galway Film Fleadh.[23] Mescal starred in the Channel 5 miniseries The Deceived as well as the music video for the song "Scarlet" by The Rolling Stones the following month.[24][25] He appeared in a virtual stage reading of the play This Is Our Youth by Kenneth Lonergan as part of a series to benefit the Actors Fund of America in October.[26] In December, he starred in Phoebe Bridgers' music video for the song "Savior Complex", which was directed by Phoebe Waller-Bridge.[27]

Mescal will make his feature film debut in The Lost Daughter, directed by Maggie Gyllenhaal in her directorial debut.[28] He is also set to star in Carmen, a "modern-day reimagining" of the opera of the same name.[29]

Mescal resides in London.[30] He plays the piano.[8]

• Paul Mescal at IMDb