Spike Fearn

Watch Owen in Finding Emily (2026) say something sincere to Emily and then hear it land. Fearn does not take the line back. He lets his face register that it was too much, and that he meant it anyway, and Alicia MacDonald's camera stays long enough to catch both. It is a small thing and it is the whole performance. We forgave Owen more than we should have, given the question the film raises about him, and we forgave him because of that half-second: it is hard to hold a grudge against someone who is already embarrassed on your behalf. Opposite Angourie Rice he talks too quickly, pretends he is not nervous, and the film relaxes whenever the two of them are in the same frame.

The road to that was short parts and one long run. He began in 2021 with small film roles in Sweetheart and The Amazing Mr. Blunden, then spent three series as Louis Green in Tell Me Everything (2022–2024), the ITV2 teen drama that gave him a lead before any film did. Around it came supporting work in Aftersun (2022), where he played Olly, and a brief appearance in The Batman the same year, followed by Back to Black (2024) and Alien: Romulus (2024). He arrives at Finding Emily as a co-lead, his first proper film lead, with the habit of ensembles still on him.

Alien: Romulus shows what he looks like without a scene partner and a joke. Bjorn is one of four crew members who each get a trait and a job, and we had worked out the order in which they would be dealt with before the ship docked. That is Fede Álvarez's design rather than Fearn's failing; the film belongs to David Jonsson's Andy and everyone else is furniture with a pulse. But there is nothing of the wince in Bjorn, no moment where he hears himself, and it left us wondering whether the thing Fearn does best needs a writer who likes him.

He has said he wants to be "the kind of actor where people’s dads go, ‘Who’s that?’ or like ‘ooh, he’s a good actor’", which is a modest ambition and a sensible one. He will learn guitar or singing for a part if asked. What he has not yet been asked to do is carry a film that does not want to be charming. 4 Kids Walk Into a Bank and Sweetsick are next. The one to watch for is whichever lets him say the wrong thing and then sit in it.