Name: Fionn Whitehead
Age: 20
Hails From: London
Résumé: “Him,” a 2016 three-part miniseries aired on British channel ITV; National Youth Theater’s summer course
Why We Care: The freckle-faced Brit is making his big — make that big, big — screen debut in Christopher Nolan’s WWII blockbuster “Dunkirk” out July 21. The veteran filmmaker cast the unknown actor in the movie’s starring role after a multimonth audition process, adding him to the film’s cast of marquee Brits: Tom Hardy, Harry Styles, Kenneth Branagh, Mark Rylance and Cillian Murphy. Whitehead has a chance to prove his leading-man potential, and the stakes are high — quite literally, as he plays inexperienced British Army Private Tommy, stranded on the beach battlefield of Dunkirk during Operation Dynamo in 1940. He also stars in the upcoming film “The Children Act” alongside Emma Thompson and Stanley Tucci, which is in post-production. If all goes well at the box office — and based on past Nolan films, it’s very likely — expect to see much more of Whitehead in the years to come.
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