Join us for a 90-minute Career Retrospective of actor Stephen Graham, moderated by Jenelle Riley, Variety.

BIO:

Stephen Graham was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2023 New Years Honours List for his services to Drama.

This year, Stephen, alongside his production company, Matriarch Productions released Netflix global phenomenon 'Adolescence,' with Warp Films and Plan B Entertainment. Stephen co-wrote, co-created, exec produced and stars in the 4 part series, each episode filmed using the ‘one-shot’ technique. 'Adolescence' sits as Netflix's second most watched English language series world-wide. 

For his performance in 'Adolescence,' Stephen recently won a Television Academy Emmy Award for Best Lead Actor In A Limited Series. As co-creator and writer, Stephen also won for Best Writing in a Limited Series alongside Jack Thorne, and Best Limited Series for the same title. In total, 'Adolescence' received 14 Emmy nominations, and won 8. Stephen also recently received a Gotham TV Award nomination for Outstanding Lead Performance in a Limited Series, and the series won Best New Drama at the National Television Awards. 

Stephen Graham has enjoyed continued success following his critically acclaimed performance in the 2007 BAFTA Best British Film winner  'This Is England,' directed by Shane Meadows, together with the follow up Channel 4 mini-series: 'This Is England' ‘86, ’88 & 90’, which also secured him a Best Leading Actor TV BAFTA nomination. Other notable credits include Jimmy McGovern’s 'Accused' opposite Sean Bean, for which Stephen received his first Best Supporting Actor TV BAFTA nomination. Stephen is also known for playing the iconic role of ‘Al Capone’ opposite Steve Buscemi in all 5 Seasons of Martin Scorsese’s 'Boardwalk Empire' for HBO.

 In recent years, Stephen's TV credits include 'A Thousand Blows' for Disney+ and Hulu, of which he stars in as ‘Sugar Goodson’ and was an executive producer with Matriarch Productions. The show has recently been renewed for a second season. 

Other TV credits include Jeff Pope's  'Little Boy Blue & White House Farm Murders,' as well as the highly acclaimed BBC1 series  'Line of Duty.' Stephen was nominated for his second Best Supporting Actor award at the 2019 BAFTA TV Awards for Sky's  'Save Me,' created by Lennie James. 2020 saw the return of Stephen teaming up again with Shane Meadows for C4's 'The Virtues,' which earned him the RTS TV Award for Best Actor and a second BAFTA TV nomination for Best Leading Actor.

In 2021, Stephen appeared in Andrew Haigh's  'The North Water' for BBC1, alongside Colin Farrell. In the same year, Stephen collaborated as an executive producer with Jimmy McGovern and Sean Bean in the BBC1 prison series  TIME, for which Stephen won Best Actor at the BPG Awards and was nominated for Best Supporting Actor at the 2022 BAFTA TV Awards. Stephen also executive produced and starred in 'Help' in 2021; Jack Thorne's critically acclaimed feature length C4 drama, alongside Jodie Comer, which earned Stephen nominations for Leading Actor at the 2022 BAFTA TV Awards and Best Actor at the 2022 Satellite Awards.

Stephen’s film credits include his portrayal of “Baby Face Nelson”, opposite Johnny Depp and Christian Bale in  'Public Enemies,' and  'Pirates of the Caribbean,' opposite Johnny Depp and Penelope Cruz. Other credits include ;Tinker, Tailor, Solider, Spy,' 'Modigliani: Three Days on the Wings of Madness,'  Idris Elba's directorial debut 'Yardie' and 'Journey's End' opposite Paul Bettany, Sam Claflin and Asa Butterfield. 2019 saw Stephen feature in Elton John biopic, 'Rocketman.' 

Stephen starred in Scorsese's Netflix feature 'The Irishman' as Tony “Pro” Provenzano opposite Al Pacino and Robert De Niro. 'The Irishman' received a total of 10 Academy Award nominations. In 2020, Stephen starred in  'Greyhound' alongside Tom Hanks and filmed Marvel's  'Venom: Let There Be Carnage'  alongside Tom Hardy. Last year, Stephen continued his role in 'Venom: The Last Dance.'

Other recent film credits include 'Matilda: The Musical,' Young Woman and the Sea' for Disney+, and Steve McQueen’s 'Blitz' which was nominated for Best British Film at the 2025 BAFTA Film Awards.

In 2019, Stephen set up Matriarch Productions alongside his wife, Hannah Walters. They released their first project  'Boiling Point' in 2021 which earned Stephen Leading Actor nominations for both BIFA 2021 and film BAFTAs 2022. Following the success of the film, Stephen starred in and Matriarch produced its sequel, a five-part drama for the BBC. Following Boiling Point’s success, in 2023, Stephen was awarded the BIFA Richard Harris Award for outstanding services to drama. Matriarch Productions has gone on to produce acclaimed series 'Adolescence' and 'A Thousand Blows.' 

Stephen has recently starred in the Bruce Springsteen biopic, 'Delivery Me From Nowhere,' which premiered at New York Film Festival in October 2025. Next, he will be starring in 'Good Boy,' alongside Andrea Riseborough which will be releasing this year. 

He will also reprise his role as Hayden Stagg in the upcoming 'Peaky Blinders' film, 'The Immortal Man,' coming soon to Netflix and has been announced to next star in 'Bunker' opposite Penelope Cruz and Javier Bardem. He is also set to star alongside Toni Colette and Anthony Hopkins in 'Ibelin.' 

In TV, Stephen has recently been announced to star opposite Zazie Beetz and Liev Schreiber in a new project for Apple TV+ based on the novels of Lars Kepler.