
Person
Billy Howle
Acting · Born 1989-11-09 · Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England, UK
Biography
Billy Howle was born in Stoke-on-Trent, England, to a schoolteacher mother and a father who teaches at Kent University, the second of four sons. His older brother, Sam, is a graphic designer. Despite his parents' academic backgrounds, Billy has said that he was not interested in further education, and worked instead at the local Stephen Joseph theater, in community-based projects involving dance and acting. After a year at drama school, he enrolled at the prestigious Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, graduating in 2013. Having appeared at Bristol in 'The Little Mermaid,' his next stage appearance was in New York at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, opposite Lesley Manville in Richard Eyre's production of Henrik Ibsen's 'Ghosts' and a year later was reunited with Bristol Old Vic, the director, and Ms. Manville in a scorching production of 'Long Day's Journey Into Night' alongside Jeremy Irons - another Bristol Old Vic alumnus - Hadley Fraser, and Jessica Regan, more than holding his own with his older, more experienced co-stars. After a couple of small roles in television drama, Billy's first substantial lead came in the youth-oriented murder mystery Glue (2014) in 2014, opening the first scene in memorable style as he rolled nude down stacks of grain in a barn. In 2016, he was in another murder mystery, The Witness for the Prosecution (2016), as the defendant accused of killing his wealthy benefactress, by which time he had filmed his first forays into cinema: On Chesil Beach (2017) and Anton Chekhov's The Seagull (2018), both with Saoirse Ronan, and The Sense of an Ending (2017).
Known for

Vera
Billy Shearwood

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker
Rey's Father

Dunkirk
Petty Officer

The Perfect Couple
Benji Winbury

The Serpent
Herman Knippenberg

Under the Banner of Heaven
Allen Lafferty

Chloe
Elliot Fairbourne

Outlaw King
Edward, Prince of Wales

New Worlds
Joseph

The Witness for the Prosecution
Leonard Vole
Filmography
- 2025Palestine 36Thomas Hopkins
- 2024Kid SnowKid Snow
- 2024The Perfect CoupleBenji Winbury
- 2024National Theatre Live: Dear OctopusNicholas
- 2023Hamlet: Bristol Old Vic LiveHamlet
- 2022Under the Banner of HeavenAllen Lafferty
- 2022Infinite StormJohn
- 2022ChloeElliot Fairbourne
- 2021The Beast Must DieNigel Strangeways
- 2021The SerpentHerman Knippenberg
- 2019Star Wars: The Rise of SkywalkerRey's Father
- 2019The InterviewCandidate
- 2019MotherFatherSonCaden Finch
- 2018Outlaw KingEdward, Prince of Wales
- 2018The SeagullKonstantin Treplyov
- 2018On Chesil BeachEdward Mayhew
- 2017DunkirkPetty Officer
- 2017The Sense of an EndingYoung Tony Webster
- 2016The Witness for the ProsecutionLeonard Vole
- 2015Cider with RosiePrivate James Harris
- 2014GlueJames Warwick
- 2014New WorldsJoseph
- 2011VeraBilly Shearwood
- —Sweet DreamsHerman
- —TurretPaul Campbell
- —Once Upon a Time in Hell’s Kitchen
- —The SpeciesGeorge Darwin
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