Kit Sebastian Connor (born 8 March 2004) is an English actor. He has appeared in the films ''

Get Santa ''Get Santa'' is a 2014 British Christmas comedy film directed and written by Christopher Smith. The film stars Jim Broadbent, Rafe Spall, Warwick Davis, Stephen Graham, Jodie Whittaker and Kit Connor. Plot A few days before Christmas, Stev ...

'' (2014), ''

Rocketman ''RocketMan'' (also written as ''Rocket Man'') is a 1997 American comic science fiction film directed by Stuart Gillard and starring Harland Williams, Jessica Lundy, William Sadler, and Jeffrey DeMunn. A partial remake of the 1967 film, '' The ...

'' (2019) and '' Little Joe'' (2019). On television, he had a recurring role in the

CBBC CBBC (initialised as Children's BBC and also known as the CBBC Channel) is a British free-to-air Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast children's television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is also the bran ...

series '' Rocket's Island'' (2014–2015) and a voice role in the

BBC One BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's flagship network and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television bulletins, p ...

and

HBO Home Box Office (HBO) is an American premium television network, which is the flagship property of namesake parent subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is ba ...

series ''

His Dark Materials ''His Dark Materials'' is a trilogy of fantasy novels by Philip Pullman consisting of '' Northern Lights'' (1995; published as ''The Golden Compass'' in North America), ''The Subtle Knife'' (1997), and ''The Amber Spyglass'' (2000). It follows ...

''. He gained recognition for his starring role as Nick Nelson in the

Netflix Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fil ...

teen series '' Heartstopper'' (2022), for which he won the

Children's and Family Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Performance The Children's and Family Emmy Awards, or Children's and Family Emmys, are a part of the extensive range of Emmy Awards for artistic and technical merit for the American television industry. Bestowed by the National Academy of Television Arts ...

in 2022.

Early life and education

Kit Sebastian Connor was born in the South London Borough of

Croydon Croydon is a large town in south London, England, south of Charing Cross. Part of the London Borough of Croydon, a local government district of Greater London. It is one of the largest commercial districts in Greater London, with an extensi ...

on 8 March 2004. A local of Purley, he attended the Hayes Primary School in

Kenley Kenley is an area within the London Borough of Croydon. Prior to its incorporation into Greater London in 1965 it was in the historic county of Surrey. It is situated south of Purley, east of Coulsdon, north of Caterham and Whyteleafe and w ...

and then

Whitgift School ("He who perseveres, conquers") , established = , closed = , type = Independent school , religious_affiliation = Church of England , president = , head_label = Head Master , head = Christopher Ramsey , c ...

South Croydon South Croydon in south London is the area surrounding the valley south of central Croydon and running as far south as the former Red Deer public house on the Brighton Road. It is bounded by Waddon to the West and Selsdon and Sanderstead to the ...

, where he completed his

A Level The A-Level (Advanced Level) is a subject-based qualification conferred as part of the General Certificate of Education, as well as a school leaving qualification offered by the educational bodies in the United Kingdom and the educational aut ...

s in drama, English literature and history.

Career

Connor made his onscreen debut at the age of eight with minor appearances in '' Chickens'' on

Sky One Sky One was a British pay television channel operated and owned by Sky Group (a division of Comcast). Originally launched on 26 April 1982 as Satellite Television, it was Europe's first satellite and non-terrestrial channel. From 31 July 1989, ...

, the television film ''

An Adventure in Space and Time ''An Adventure in Space and Time'' is a 2013 British biographical television film, starring David Bradley, Brian Cox, Jessica Raine and Sacha Dhawan. Directed by Terry McDonough, and written by regular ''Doctor Who'' writer Mark Gatiss, it p ...

'', and the soap opera ''

Casualty Casualty may refer to: *Casualty (person), a person who is killed or rendered unfit for service in a war or natural disaster **Civilian casualty, a non-combatant killed or injured in warfare * The emergency department of a hospital, also known as ...

''. In 2014, he starred as Tom Anderson in the holiday comedy ''

'', and as a recurring character Archie Beckles in the

series '' Rocket's Island''. Connor recurred as young Petya Rostov in the miniseries '' War & Peace'' and as Bob Sheehan in the miniseries '' SS-GB''. He made his stage debut in ''Welcome Home, Captain Fox!'' at

Donmar Warehouse The Donmar Warehouse is a 251-seat, not-for-profit theatre in Covent Garden, London, England. It first opened on 18 July 1977. Sam Mendes, Michael Grandage and Josie Rourke have all served as artistic director, a post held since 2019 by Mi ...

. Connor had roles in the 2018 films ''

The Mercy ''The Mercy'' is a 2017 British biographical drama film, directed by James Marsh and written by Scott Z. Burns. It is based on the true story of the disastrous attempt by the amateur sailor Donald Crowhurst to complete the ''Sunday Times'' G ...

'', ''

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society ''The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society'' is a historical novel by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows that was published in 2008. It was adapted into a film in 2018 featuring Lily James as Juliet Ashton and Matthew Goode as Sidne ...

'', ''

Slaughterhouse Rulez ''Slaughterhouse Rulez'' is a 2018 comedy horror film directed by Crispian Mills. Written by Mills and Henry Fitzherbert, the film's cast features Asa Butterfield, Finn Cole, Hermione Corfield, Michael Sheen, with Nick Frost and Simon Pegg. ''S ...

'', as well as the BBC One television film '' Grandpa's Great Escape''. He starred as Alexander in the

Old Vic Theatre The Old Vic is a 1,000-seat, nonprofit organization, not-for-profit producing house, producing theatre in Waterloo, London, Waterloo, London, England. Established in 1818 as the Royal Coburg Theatre, and renamed in 1833 the Royal Victoria Th ...

production of ''Fanny & Alexander''. In 2019, Connor portrayed a teenaged

Elton John Sir Elton Hercules John (born Reginald Kenneth Dwight; 25 March 1947) is a British singer, pianist and composer. Commonly nicknamed the "Rocket Man" after his 1972 hit single of the same name, John has led a commercially successful career a ...

in the musical film ''

'', and played Joe Woodard in the drama '' Little Joe''. That same year, he began voicing Pantalaimon in the

and

fantasy series ''

''. In April 2021, it was announced that Connor would star opposite Joe Locke in the

series '' Heartstopper'', an adaptation of the webcomic and graphic novel of the same name by

Alice Oseman Alice May Oseman (born 16 October 1994) is an English author of young adult fiction. She secured her first publishing deal at 17, and had her first novel ''Solitaire'' published in 2014. Her novels include ''Radio Silence'', ''I Was Born for Th ...

. He originally auditioned for the role of Charlie, but ended up cast as the other lead, Nick Nelson. Connor is set to star in an upcoming film adaptation of the novel ''A Cuban Girl's Guide to Tea and Tomorrow'' by Laura Taylor Namey.

Personal life

In October 2022, Connor

came out Coming out of the closet, often shortened to coming out, is a metaphor used to describe LGBT people's self-disclosure of their sexual orientation, romantic orientation, or gender identity. Framed and debated as a privacy issue, coming out of ...

bisexual Bisexuality is a romantic or sexual attraction or behavior toward both males and females, or to more than one gender. It may also be defined to include romantic or sexual attraction to people regardless of their sex or gender identity, whi ...

in a

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

post. Connor, who had objected to speculation on his sexuality in the past, had quit Twitter the previous month due to harassment and claims of

queerbaiting Queerbaiting is a marketing technique for fiction and entertainment in which creators hint at, but then do not depict, same-sex romance or other LGBTQ+ representation. The purpose is to attract ("bait") an LGBTQ+ or straight ally audience with th ...

after he was photographed holding hands with actress Maia Reficco. In his coming out tweet, Connor criticised fans for "forcing an 18 year old to out himself" and having "missed the point of Heartstopper''.html" ;"title="' Heartstopper''">' Heartstopper''. A number of fans expressed support for Connor and condemned his treatment, as did ''Heartstopper'' creator

; co-stars Joe Locke,

Sebastian Croft Sebastian Theodore Kemble Croft (born 16 December 2001) is a British actor. He began his career as a child actor on stage before making his television debut as Young Ned Stark in ''Game of Thrones'' (2016). He earned a BAFTA Children's Award n ...

, Kizzy Edgell and

Olivia Colman Sarah Caroline Sinclair ( Colman; born 30 January 1974), known professionally as Olivia Colman, is an English actress. Known for her comedic and dramatic roles in film and television, she has received various accolades, including an Academy A ...

; journalist Mark Harris; and

Labour Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the labour ...

Nadia Whittome Nadia Edith Whittome (born 29 August 1996) is a British politician who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Nottingham East since the 2019 general election. A member of the Labour Party, she was elected at the age of 23, and became the ...

Filmography

Film

Television

Theatre

Video games

Accolades

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Connor, Kit 2004 births 21st-century English male actors 21st-century LGBT people Bisexual male actors Emmy Award winners English male child actors English male film actors English male stage actors English male television actors English male voice actors English LGBT actors Living people Male actors from London Male actors from Surrey People educated at Whitgift School People from Purley, London People from the London Borough of Croydon