Owen Cooper, 15, made history at the Emmys. He joins a very select group of young winners

By Lisa Respers France, CNN

(CNN) — Owen Cooper is living a teenage dream.

On Sunday, the 15-year-old became the youngest performer to win an Emmy for outstanding supporting actor in a limited series or TV movie, thanks to his critically acclaimed performance as a troubled teen in “Adolescence.”

He joined the ranks of these other young performers who have also made history:

Roxana Zal

Zal won the Emmy for outstanding supporting actress in a limited series or special in 1984 for her performance in “Something About Amelia.”

She was 14 at the time and remains the youngest Emmy winner ever.

Zal played teen Amelia Bennett in the TV movie, which revolved around the trauma of a young woman who is molested by her father.

Ted Danson and Glenn Close starred as her parents.

Scott Jacoby

Jacoby was 16 in 1973 when he won for outstanding supporting actor in a drama for his portrayal as Nick Salter in the television movie, “That Certain Summer.”

It starred Hal Holbrook as a father who reveals to his son that he is gay. The made for television film was groundbreaking at the time and is widely viewed as one of the first nuanced portrayals of a gay parent on TV.

Anthony Murphy

That same year, 17-year-old British actor Anthony Murphy won the Emmy for outstanding single performance by an actor in a leading role for “Tom Brown’s Schooldays,” which was a Masterpiece Theater production.

The miniseries is an adaptation of the 1857 Thomas Hughes novel of the same name. Murphy portrayed the title character who is bullied at school

Kristy McNichol

“Family” was a popular ABC series in the 1970s which centered on the lives of an upper middle class family living in Pasadena, California.

One of its youngest stars, McNichol, was 15 when she won an Emmy for outstanding performance by a supporting actress in 1977.

She played daughter, Letitia “Buddy” Lawrence, on the series.

Jharrel Jerome

The emotionally charged Netflix miniseries “When They See Us” dramatized the case of the “Central Park 5,” who were five Black and Latino teenagers that were wrongfully convicted after a white female jogger was brutally attacked in Central Park in 1989.

Jerome wowed viewers and critics alike for his portrayal as one of the teens, Korey Wise. The actor was 21 when he became the youngest actor, and first Afro-Latino, to win the outstanding lead actor in a limited series or movie Emmy in 2019.

Zendaya

In 2020, Zendaya became the youngest performer to ever win for outstanding lead actress in a drama series for her role as troubled teen Ruby “Rue” Bennett in HBO’s “Euphoria.”

She was 24 at the time and repeated the win in the same category for the same role two years later.

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