Stephen Graham reflects on roots in Adolescence Emmy speech: “This doesn’t happen to a kid like me”

Adolescence is a show that stirred up big conversations around the world and made people face things that many had ignored for too long. It dropped on Netflix, and from day one, people couldn’t stop talking about it. It went to the top of the charts and stayed there for weeks. It’s no surprise it swept the Emmys. It won six Emmy awards on Sunday evening, plus two Creative Arts Emmys earlier. That’s eight trophies in total.

Stephen Graham helped create Adolescence along with Jack Thorne. The series is a four-part psychological crime drama on Netflix that was released on 13 March 2025. The plot centers on Jamie Miller. He is a 13-year-old schoolboy who is arrested for murdering a classmate.

Each episode is shot in one continuous take, which automatically increases the tension and makes everything feel raw and immediate. Themes include violence among youth, masculinity, social media, family trauma, guilt, and responsibility. All things tie closely to how young people grow up and how society shapes them.

Stephen Graham plays Eddie Miller. He is the father of Jamie Miller. He is also one of the co-creators and co-writers of Adolescence. Eddie Miller’s world breaks apart when his son is accused. And we see how he tries to hold things together even as everything he believed in is challenged.

The show doesn’t let him off easy. It looks at how parents and children share responsibility, how trauma ripples outward, and how expectations, pressures, and mistakes can come together in dangerous ways.

Adolescence: Stephen Graham’s role, the speech, and why he deserves the Emmy

Stephen Graham plays Eddie Miller. He is a father whose life is shattered when his 13-year-old son, Jamie, is accused of murdering a schoolmate. In Adolescence, Graham gives us a portrait of a dad who isn’t perfect but is very much real. He’s the kind of father who has to wrestle with what’s fair or legal. He has to struggle with guilt, regret, and what might have gone wrong.

Even though Eddie comes from a stable and loving home with no obvious abuse or crime in the background, he faces a terrifying question. Could something in how he raised Jamie, or what Jamie saw outside the home, have pushed things toward tragedy? Graham uses his character to explore how much responsibility parents really have in adolescence. It's a time when kids are shaped by home, school, neighborhood, the internet, peer pressure, and things we don’t often see.

At the 77th Primetime Emmy Awards on Sunday evening, Stephen Graham looked absolutely overwhelmed on stage as he accepted the award for outstanding lead actor in a limited series. He said:

"This kind of thing doesn't happen to a kid like me. I'm just a mixed race 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. There's too many people to thank but I am going to thank my friends and family. Without you, none of this is possible. Thank you for helping me with something that I can't do on my own. Jack, everyone, Phil, everyone. I want to bring it to my dad for taking me to the video shop when I was a kid and kick-starting my education in film - Quarry Green video shop. My kids Grace and Alfie and my adorable wife, who I love with every ounce of my being - you are my rock, you are my world, you are my soulmate and you know and I know, without you, I would be dead. So from the bottom of my heart I love you with everything I have. Namaste everyone, thanks very much."

His words about being mixed race, from a place people might not expect, and about his roots -- all of that made the speech electric. He laid bare how much past, identity, and upbringing matter. And how they shape what we believe we can and cannot be.

In Adolescence, so much depends on what people believe about you and what you believe about yourself. That’s why Stephen Graham deserves this award. He invited us into Eddie’s head, showed us his pain, his regret, and his hope. Even the moments when Eddie wonders if he could have stopped Jamie or seen something sooner move us because they force us to think about how society supports or fails teens in adolescence.

Stephen Graham’s performance shows that concepts of parenting, responsibility, and the idea of identity are all messy. And that's why these are the conversations we need to have more often.

Trending

Stay tuned to Soap Central for more updates and detailed coverage.

×

Was this article helpful?

Thank You for feedback