The highly anticipated adaptation of Normal People on BBC Three has taken the country by storm, introducing viewers to the complicated romance of Marianne and Connell.
The 12-episode adaptation of Irish novelist Sally Rooney’s bestseller examines an intense romance between two high schoolers, Marianne and Connell, who continue to orbit each other as they graduate and attend university.
Connell goes from being well-liked at school to struggling to fit in at university, while Marianne thrives at Trinity College, Dublin.
Here’s all you need to know about the rising star...
Who plays Connell in Normal People?
Connell is played by screen newcomer Paul Mescal.
The 24-year-old is from Maynooth, a town west of Dublin in County Kildare, Ireland.
Like Connell, he attended Trinity College in Dublin, graduating in 2017 with a Bachelor of Arts in Acting from the Lir Academy.
Mescal played Gaelic football (just like his character) throughout his school years, but gave it up after breaking his jaw while at drama school, which made him realise acting and football “don’t coexist, unfortunately,” he told Vogue.
What else has Paul Mescal been in?
While Normal People is his first major on-screen role, Mescal's CV includes extensive theatre work in Dublin and London.
He starred in The Great Gatsby at Dublin’s Gate Theatre, as well as Hans Christian Andersen’s The Red Shows in 2018.
He played Lieutenant Langon in The Plough and the Stars at the Lyric Theatre and Gaiety Theatre in London, and starred in A Midsummer Night's Dream and A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man back in Dublin.
What has Paul said about playing Sally Rooney's popular character?
While Mescal had not read the book before he auditioned for the role, he said that multiple people - including the book's author, Sally Rooney - told him he was the right fit for Connell.
“[Rooney] said that I looked like how she had imagined Connell when she was writing it four or five years ago,” he told GQ Magazine.
“When she kind of gave me her blessing, that was a major weight off my shoulders.”
Mescal also said he related to the “identity crisis” that Connell experiences after school.
“I was late to playing to drama schools, because I thought that I was going to be going to do law and arts, or something, and play football,” he said.
“In that sense, I kind of got some aspects of Connell for free, as I didn't have to overly imagine the circumstances from which he came from or where he was going.”
He continued: “The minor identity crisis that he has in terms of how he perceives himself in the world and versus what he actually wants to do is also something that I definitely related to.
“But then also there's a challenge in terms of things we don't match up with, such as he studied English. I've always said that he's a far smarter individual than I am. That's always difficult to face.”
Normal People is available to stream on BBC iPlayer.
