British actor and film producer Stephen Graham cleaned up at the 2025 Emmys earlier this week, scoring two awards for his acting and writing in the Netflix original series Adolescence.
As he took to the stage to accept his Emmy Award for Lead Actor in a Limited or Anthology Series, he emotionally declared “this kind of thing doesn’t normally happen to a kid like me”.
“I”m just a mix-raced kid from a block of flats in a place called Kirkby, so for me to be here today in front of my peers and to be acknowledged by you is the utmost humbling thing I could ever imagine in my life and it shows you that any dream is possible,” he continued.
From those humble beginnings, Graham has navigated several high profile roles on his road to his first-ever Emmy win – doing it all alongside his wife and “soul mate,” Hannah Walters.
The 52-year-old was raised in Kirkby, a small town in Lancashire in England by his mum and step-father.
In the 1990s, he pursued acting training at Rose Bruford College of Theatre and Performance where he met the woman who would become his wife.
At the time, they were just frrends and it wasn’t until Walters was preparing to move to Spain that Graham finally confessed his love.
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“After a while we just thought: this is daft, do you know what I mean? We like each other, we should get together,” he said in an interview with Leicestershire Live in 2018.
They later welcomed their two kids, Grace in 2005 and Alfie in 2007.
Both actors, the pair continued to pursue their careers alongside each other as they navigated their relationship and their new lives as parents.
After years of small parts and some notable roles in Snatch (2000) and Gangs of New York (2002) directed by Martin Scorsese, Graham made his big break in 2006 as Andrew ‘Combo’ Gascoigne in the film This Is England.
Walters also starred in the film as a shop assistant.
The pair both went on to return for the TV sequels of the film in later years and have collaborated on several projects together.
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In 2011, Graham appeared as Scrum in the 2011 film Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides and returned to the role for the 2017 film Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales in which he starred alongside his wife who starred as Beatrice.
Graham has also starred in Rocketman, the biographical drama based on Elton John’s life, Snatch, Peaky Blinders and Matilda: The Musical.
In 2020, Graham and Walters co-founded Matriarch Productions “with the aim of providing a much-needed platform for underrepresented voices and stories in the UK”.
The production company has produced Boiling Point, A Thousand Blows and most-recently the Emmy-winning TV show Adolescence.
On stage as he accepted the Emmy for the groundbreaking drama which unpacks themes of misogyny and toxic masculinity, Graham expressed his gratitude to those closest to him before making a heartfelt tribute to the woman who has been his lifelong collaborator in career, parenting and love.
“[Thank you] to my kids Grace and Alfie and my adorable wife who I love with every ounce of my being,” he said.
“You are my rock, you are my world, you are my soulmate and you know and I know without you I would be dead,” he continued.
“So from the bottom of my heart I love you with everything I have.”
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