Alexander Jonathan Lawther (born 4 May 1995) is an English actor. He made his professional acting debut originating the role of John Blakemore in Sir David Hare's South Downs in the West End. He made his feature film debut playing a young Alan Turing in the Academy Award-winning film The Imitation Game (2014), for which he received the London Film Critics' Circle Award for "Young British Performer of the Year" and was declared one of BAFTA's 2015 Breakthrough Brits.
He achieved more mainstream success for his role as Kenny in "Shut Up and Dance", an episode of the Netflix anthology series Black Mirror (2016), and for portraying the lead role of James in the Channel 4 series The End of the F***ing World (2017–2019). His other notable work includes his roles in Freak Show, Howards End, Goodbye Christopher Robin, Ghost Stories, The Last Duel and Star Wars: Andor. On screen, he is known for his frequent portrayals of outsiders and eccentric characters.
Lawther was born in Winchester, Hampshire and raised in Petersfield. He is of English and Irish descent. The son of two lawyers (Yvonne Lawther; Michael Terrence), Lawther has described himself as having come from a "white middle-class bubble". As the youngest of three children, he said that his aspiration to be an actor came from having to make up his own games to entertain himself as a child. Both of his siblings live and work in the United States, with his older brother, Cameron Lawther, being an award-winning Hollywood film producer, and his older sister Ellie Lawther working in public policy.

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