Billy Howle

Acting

Billy Howle

Born 1989-11-09 · Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England, UK

Billy Howle was born in Stoke-on-Trent, England, to a schoolteacher mother and a father who teaches at Kent University, the second of four sons. His older brother, Sam, is a graphic designer. Despite his parents' academic backgrounds, Billy has said that he was not interested in further education, and worked instead at the local Stephen Joseph theater, in community-based projects involving dance and acting. After a year at drama school, he enrolled at the prestigious Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, graduating in 2013. Having appeared at Bristol in 'The Little Mermaid,' his next stage appearance was in New York at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, opposite Lesley Manville in Richard Eyre's production of Henrik Ibsen's 'Ghosts' and a year later was reunited with Bristol Old Vic, the director, and Ms. Manville in a scorching production of 'Long Day's Journey Into Night' alongside Jeremy Irons - another Bristol Old Vic alumnus - Hadley Fraser, and Jessica Regan, more than holding his own with his older, more experienced co-stars. After a couple of small roles in television drama, Billy's first substantial lead came in the youth-oriented murder mystery Glue (2014) in 2014, opening the first scene in memorable style as he rolled nude down stacks of grain in a barn. In 2016, he was in another murder mystery, The Witness for the Prosecution (2016), as the defendant accused of killing his wealthy benefactress, by which time he had filmed his first forays into cinema: On Chesil Beach (2017) and Anton Chekhov's The Seagull (2018), both with Saoirse Ronan, and The Sense of an Ending (2017).

Acting credits

Dunkirk poster
7.5

The story of the miraculous evacuation of Allied soldiers from Belgium, Britain, Canada and France, who were cut off and surrounded by the German army from the beaches and harbour of Dunkirk between May 26th and June 4th 1940 during World War II.

Dunkirk

2017

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker poster
6.3

The surviving Resistance faces the First Order once again as the journey of Rey, Finn and Poe Dameron continues. With the power and knowledge of generations behind them, the final battle begins.

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker

2019

Outlaw King poster
6.8

Forced into exile by the English after being crowned King of Scotland, legendary warrior Robert the Bruce fights to reclaim the throne.

Outlaw King

2018

Infinite Storm poster
5.7

One woman's journey for self-discovery and turns into a harrowing tale of survival.

Infinite Storm

2022

Palestine 36 poster
7.8

Year 1936. As villages across Palestine rise against British colonial rule, Yusuf drifts between his rural home and the restless energy of Jerusalem, longing for a future beyond the growing unrest. But history is relentless. With rising numbers of Jewish immigrants escaping antisemitism in Europe and some arriving with nefarious Zionist-colonial ambitions, and the Palestinian population uniting in the largest and longest uprising against Britain’s 30-year dominion, all sides spiral towards inevitable collision in a decisive moment for the British Empire and the future of the entire region.

Palestine 36

2025

The Sense of an Ending poster
6.3

A man becomes haunted by his past and is presented with a mysterious legacy that causes him to re-think his current situation in life.

The Sense of an Ending

2017

On Chesil Beach poster
6.1

In 1962 England, a young couple finds their idyllic romance colliding with issues of sexual freedom and societal pressure, leading to an awkward and fateful wedding night.

On Chesil Beach

2018

The Seagull poster
5.4

At a picturesque lakeside estate, a love triangle unfolds between the legendary diva Irina, her lover Boris, and the ingénue Nina.

The Seagull

2018

The Species poster
NR

Emma Darwin, widow of scientist Charles Darwin, finds herself on a late life journey of self-discovery as she faces a challenge to her faith in the form of her beloved atheist husband’s as–yet unpublished autobiography.

The Species

Cider with Rosie poster
5.4

A semi-autobiographical coming-of-age story set in the Cotswolds during and immediately after the First World War.

Cider with Rosie

2015

Kid Snow poster
6.1

A washed-up Irish boxer named Kid Snow is finally faced with a chance to redeem himself when he is offered a rematch against the man he fought a decade prior, on a night that changed his life forever. When he meets single mother Sunny, he is forced to contemplate a future beyond boxing.

Kid Snow

2024

Sweet Dreams poster
NR

In the forgotten English seaside town of Claypole, a series of serendipitous and unfortunate coincidences conspire to bring the lives and overreaching ambitions of a few misguided dreamers and petty criminals to a nasty end.

Sweet Dreams

Hamlet: Bristol Old Vic Live poster
NR

'Must I remember?' Hamlet's father is dead. His mother has remarried. He is alone with his thoughts. Then, he speaks. Haunted by grief, and with his world spinning violently out of control, Hamlet has to make some decisions: forget or remember; live or die.

Hamlet: Bristol Old Vic Live

2023

National Theatre Live: Dear Octopus poster
NR

When a golden wedding anniversary reunites the Randolph family on the eve of WWII, Dora and Charles must reckon with the adults their children have become. Their children, meanwhile, are haunted by the memory of the family they once were. As the weekend's celebrations unfold, the family walks a tightrope between intimacy and estrangement, camaraderie and rivalry, love and hate. Heartbreaking and joyful, this captivating revival of Dodie Smith's play is a moving dissection of family and what it means to grow up and return home.

National Theatre Live: Dear Octopus

2024

The Interview poster
7.0

When a candidate interviews for a new job at an "unorthodox" firm, the process quickly turns into a boundary-breaking process of social control.

The Interview

2019

No artwork available
NR

A devoted family man and B-17 turret gunner thrust into the perilous skies over WWII Europe. But the danger doesn’t end in the air—his survival sets off a chain of events that ripple far beyond the battlefield.

Turret

Once Upon a Time in Hell’s Kitchen poster
NR

Against the brutal backdrop of 1970s Hell’s Kitchen, local boxer Danny ‘Boy’ McCoy bids to land one great fight to help him escape a neighborhood being torn apart by a bloodthirsty turf-war between The Westies and the Mob. But poverty, crime, old friendships, loyalty and love threaten to drag McCoy spiraling into darker and more desperate circumstances.

Once Upon a Time in Hell’s Kitchen