THE STAR OF British Netflix drama Adolescence Owen Cooper has become the youngest male actor to win an Emmy, as Irish nominees lost out at last night’s TV awards show in Los Angeles.

The 15-year-old took home an Emmy for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie at age 15 for this year’s tragic drama about toxic masculinity.

The series examined the theme through a fictional story of a 13-year-old schoolboy arrested on suspicion of murdering a female classmate with a knife, after being radicalised online.

Adolescence was viewed over 140 million times in its first three months on Netflix. Each of its four episodes are shot in a single take.

The series won a total of eight Emmys including best limited series, as well as prizes for writing, directing, lead actor, supporting actress and supporting actor.

Speaking at the award show, Cooper said: “Honestly, when I started these drama classes a couple years back, I didn’t expect to be even in the United States, never mind here.”

Three Irish stars received Emmy nominations, but missed out on prizes.

Sharon Horgan was nominated for her role in Bad Sisters, Ruth Negga for Presumed Innocent and Colin Farrell for The Penguin.

Surprising win

The other big winners from last night included US hospital series The Pitt, Apple TV+’s Severance and comedy show The Studio.

The Pitt won best drama series – the night’s final prize, and arguably its most surprising moment.

It is a medical drama reminiscent of ER, with the twist that all 15 episodes are set consecutively during the same unbearably stressful shift at an inner-city Pittsburgh hospital.

Tackling everything from abortion rights to mass shootings, The Pitt received little fanfare on its initial release but became a word-of-mouth sensation.

ER veteran Noah Wyle won best drama actor for his performance as the emergency room’s haunted leader. Katherine LaNasa also won best supporting actress.

Sci-fi office thriller Severance was considered a shoe-in for the award, having had the most nominations of any show this year with 27.

The premise of the office show is that the “innie” employees of Lumon Industries quite literally leave their outside lives, memories and personalities at the door, thanks to a dystopian new mind-splitting technology.

Its star Britt Lower won best actress and Tramell Tillman won for best supporting actor.

Seth Rogen’s comedy show The Studio was named best comedy series.

Rogen, its co-creator, won best actor for his role as a floundering movie executive. The show also claimed writing and directing prizes.

In one of the night’s loudest moments, The Late Show with Stephen Colbert finally won best variety talk series. A staple of late-night US television, the show will end in 2026.

CBS has denied the cancellation is related to parent company Paramount’s $16 million settlement with Trump. Colbert — a regular critic of the US president — had dubbed the payment “a big fat bribe”.

Other drama from the night, include host Nate Bargatze’s announcement that he would be donating $100,000 to The Boys and Girls Club of America, but would dock $1,000 for every second winners went over their allotted 45.

“I know that’s tough. It’s hard,” he deadpanned.

“What are you going to do? I can’t change it. This is a game I made up, and these are the rules.”

He said, however, he would add $1,000 back into the pot for every second a speaker did not use.

An on-screen counter kept track and mercilessly wound down as actors and directors indulged themselves with thanking long lists of colleagues, family members, agents and the like.

While some winners kept broadly within their time — and John Oliver managed such a short speech that the total rose significantly — by the end of the night, the donation was well in the red.

Fortunately for the non-profit, which organises after-school programs for young people, Bargatze said he and CBS would donate a total of $350,000.

- With additional reporting from AFP