Who is Leo Woodall? The overnight star has acting in his blood and his girlfriend was his co-star

His mother trained to be an actress, his father is the actor Andrew Woodall and his stepfather is Alexander Morton, a regular on British television with a long theatrical career. In addition, he is a descendant of silent film star Maxine Elliott, a celebrity of the era. With these role models in his own family and the sort of pretty face that the industry loves, Leo Woodall, 27, seemed destined to continue the family legacy. However, he didn’t always want to be an actor. He changed his mind when he got hooked on Skins, the British teen show released in 2007 that turned into a cult hit. The character of James Cook, played by Jack O’Connell, captivated him and sparked his interest in acting. The same happened with the charismatic Tommy Shelby from Peaky Blinders, whom Woodall imitated whenever he could.

Inspired by these iconic British television characters, at the age of 19 he enrolled in Dramatic Art and then decided to dedicate himself to the most common profession in his family. So far, he couldn’t be doing better. His name has become well-known in recent weeks, thanks to the premiere of the romantic comedy One Day, the Netflix adaptation of David Nicholls’ novel of the same name. Woodall is debuting in his first starring role in this 14-episode series, which has become one of the streaming platform’s most watched shows since it premiered on February 8. Undoubtedly, the visibility provided by the entertainment giant, a hotbed of potential superstars, will open doors for the Londoner. Even so, the opportunity that changed his life came in 2022, when he was part of the cast of the second season of the hit series The White Lotus; he played a key supporting character on the show.

In 2021, Mike White, the creator and director of The White Lotus, was looking for an actor for one of the supporting roles for the show’s second season. Woodall sent a video with the audition — cocktail in hand and sunglasses on his head, like his character. Soon after, he received the call that launched his career: White wanted to see him. That’s how he landed the role of Jack, a seductive young man from Essex who stars in one of the most unexpected and talked-about plot twists in the HBO series. “I was with my brother when he watched it, and I videoed his reaction because he obviously had no idea what was going to happen. Some people had kind of twigged, but he hadn’t twigged. I sent it to Mike because he’d asked for it. My brother was just like, ‘Oh, God, what is happening?’” Woodall told The Hollywood Reporter of the scene. The first season of the series had already been a hit, so Woodall knew the phenomenon of The White Lotus. That added some pressure, but it didn’t detract from the fun of filming: “I fell in love with the show, and only a couple weeks later did I clock that I had an audition for the next season. Going into it, I thought some stars had aligned and I had to, regardless of the pressure, have as much fun as I can,” he explained in an interview with Vulture.

Woodall’s roles prior to The White Lotus can be counted on one hand. He debuted in 2019 with a small part in Holby City, one of the BBC’s longest-running drama series. In 2021, he played another very minor character in the Russo brothers’ Cherry, and he appeared in two episodes of the series Vampire Academy. In other words, his career had only just begun when he arrived as a virtual unknown on The White Lotus set in Sicily. “White Lotus is a star-studded show and I was not a star. I was not even someone who had been on television before,” he candidly told The Guardian. However, when the broadcast of that second season ended, he began to experience fame firsthand.

During the months of filming, Woodall grew closer with his co-star Meghann Fahy (who played Daphne Sullivan) and he became her partner. Extremely discreet about their private life, they have not been able to prevent the ever-savvy paparazzi from photographing them together. The pair only made their relationship official on social media this week, with a viral photo in which both appear with their backs turned, on which he commented, “Who is that?” Still, the Brit doesn’t feel “famous.” “I’ve experienced crumbs of what famous people experience,” he told the Guardian, describing how a photographer chased them to get the image confirming his relationship with Fahy. “[He] cycled from block to block to block, trying to remain hidden.” Of course, Woodall has ceased to be anonymous. Now, even other celebrities compliment him on his work, as when Breaking Bad actor Aaron Paul approached him in a Los Angeles restaurant to declare himself a fan of Woodall’s character; it was a “surreal” experience, he recently explained in GQ.

In addition to shoring up his acting career and meeting his current partner, the months of filming The White Lotus were quite fruitful. Woodall began auditions for One Day, a long and intense process: “They really put me to the test. Several auditions, very tough scenes. I flew back and forth from Italy, round after round.” The effort was worth it and his work on the show, as well as that of his co-star Ambika Mod, is garnering good reviews and millions of viewers worldwide. The British edition of Vogue refers to him as “TV’s new leading man,” although Woodall’s rapid rise to success does not stop there. He has two film projects pending release: the independent science fiction film Nomad and Nuremberg, an adaptation of Jack El-Hai’s book The Nazi and the Psychiatrist, where he will share the screen with Russell Crowe and Rami Malek. Woodall’s first steps as an actor resemble those of an established star. Now, it is up to him to prove that it is not just beginner’s luck.

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