2019 is going to be a HUGE year for this guy and we couldn't be prouder!
There have been 19 talents in film, games and television have been named as BAFTA Breakthrough Brits of 2018.
In among the directors, producers, games creators, presenters, cinematographers, were a number of actors, and among those actors was Chris Walley, the Cork-born star of hit Irish show The Young Offenders.
When JOE chatted to the 23-year-old actor about his fantastic win (as well as
some big casting news for Season 2 of the show!), he had a fantastically Irish reaction to winning the BAFTA for Breakthrough Brit:
"The Breakthrough Brit thing is definitely my only contention! I'm definitely the Irish aspect, not the British! But I was able to be chosen because I live here [in London], this is where I live now. But I'm definitely,
definitely a proud Irish man! So let the record show!"
Despite that little hurdle, Walley was still over the moon when he found out about the win:
"Oh Jesus, I was delighted! It is just the opportunity that this affords you, because for the next year you get mentored by all these people in the industry, and I get to go to all of these BAFTA events and meet the film-makers and directors and get to go to free screenings!
"We have a launch night on Wednesday [7 November] and I get to meet the people from the industry then and they set up all the meetings for you throughout the year. So it opens up a lot of doors, so I'm very excited!"
Walley doesn't know yet who his mentors would be, and despite being initially hesitant to tell us who he'd want, we did eventually get that info out of him...
"I don't know yet, but you can kind of ask who you'd like it to be, and then they set up the meetings. I don't know who it will be, there are a lot of people I'd like to ask, and hopefully they'll say yes. I wouldn't even like to say who in case I ask and I'll be jinxing it... Obviously there'd be people like Cillian Murphy. And I think James McAvoy is another person I really admire, but there's so many people, I'd feel lucky to get anyone! So I'm looking forward to seeing who I get, but they'd be a few people I'd have on my list!"
On top of all of that, Walley was also nominated for Emerging Talent at the Evening Standard Theatre Awards for his role in Martin McDonagh's play The Lieutenant of Inishmore, in which he co-starred with Aiden Turner on the West End in London.
You can listen to JOE's full interview with Walley on that nomination, as well as all other aspects of his upcoming career, on this week's episode of
The Big Reviewski.
This interview was edited for clarity.
