Paul mescal has won the BAFTA for leading tv actor for his role as Connell in Normal People.
The Kildare native was up against John Boyega (Small Axe), Josh O’Connor (The Crown), Paapa Essiedu (I May Destroy You), Shaun Parkes (Small Axe) and Waleed Zuaiter (Baghdad Central) and nabbed the top prize.
Accepting the award at the socially distant ceremony in London, Paul said he was “incredibly nervous” when making his acceptance speech but dedicated the award to co-star Daisy Edgar Jones saying she is the “best scene partner and one of the best people [he] knows.”
He also thanked his parents at home and others who have helped him get to where he is today.
Speaking backstage after accepting Paul said, “It’s a role that totally changed my life and has given me an opportunity to continue doing the job that I love.”
Paul spoke about the experience of shooting to fame in a pandemic.
“I’ve no idea what the opposite of that would would look like. I feel like it’s probably been, like, I have no complaints with it as I got to go to work after the kind of craziness of last summer, and it’s been like a weird year.”
He continued, “I’m just excited to see people now and I just feel incredibly privileged to be sitting here talking about a show that I love a year on, now I get to go see my family go look at this mad thing that happened.”
Daisy Edgar-Jones was also nominated for an award, she took to Instagram to congratulate her co-star saying, “I am ridiculously proud of our Normal People family, our amazing director Lenny Abrahamson, all the cast and crew and my lovely friend Paul Mescal for his deserved win, as you can see I was rather overcome with pride. This is the longest overdue in person celebration ever but some day soon we shall drink and dance and laugh about how crazy the last two years have been and how lucky we are to know each other.”