Will Poulter
William Jack Poulter (born 28 January 1993) is a British actor. He first gained recognition for his role as Eustace Scrubb in the fantasy adventure film The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (2010). He received critical praise for his starring role in the comedy film We're the Millers (2013), for which he won the BAFTA Rising Star Award.
Will Poulter
Actor
2007–present
Poulter starred in the first and third film of the dystopian science fiction film trilogy The Maze Runner (2014–2018), the period epic film The Revenant (2015), the crime drama film Detroit (2017), the interactive science fiction film Black Mirror: Bandersnatch (2018), and the folk horror film Midsommar (2019). In 2021, he had a leading role in the Hulu miniseries Dopesick, for which he received an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie. In 2023, he joined the Marvel Cinematic Universe as Adam Warlock in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3.
Early life[edit]
Poulter was born on 28 January 1993[1] in Hammersmith, London, the son of Neil Poulter, a professor of Preventive Cardiovascular Medicine at Imperial College London,[2] and Caroline (née Barrah), a former nurse who was brought up in Kenya.[3][4] He was a pupil at Harrodian School, whose well-known acting graduates include George MacKay and Robert Pattinson.[5] He struggled in school due to dyslexia and developmental coordination disorder, saying in 2013, "It felt like it didn't matter how hard I tried, I wasn't getting anywhere. That's the most demoralising thing, as a kid. And to find something like drama, which I loved so much... it gave me a sense of purpose."[6]
Poulter began studying drama at the University of Bristol in 2012, before dropping out after a year.[7][8] In 2023 Poulter stated, "The dropping out part is 100% true. I always had an ambition to go to university and study drama. I was not certain of whether acting could be my long-term guaranteed career path and then I got offered The Maze Runner and that's ultimately why I left. Thankfully I've been able to call myself a full-time actor since."[9]
Career[edit]
2007–2012: Early work[edit]
Poulter played the role of Lee Carter in the 2007 movie Son of Rambow, alongside his co-star Bill Milner. He performed with other young comedic actors in School of Comedy,[10] which aired its pilot on Channel 4's Comedy Lab on 21 August 2008, before being commissioned for a full series in 2009.[11]
In 2010, he played the role of Eustace Scrubb in the film The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, which was filmed in Queensland, Australia, and was accompanied by some members of his family.[12][13] In 2010, he appeared in the BBC Three pilot The Fades, a 60-minute supernatural thriller written by Jack Thorne. The pilot was picked up as a six-part series in 2011, of which Poulter was not included.[14]
In 2011, Poulter starred alongside Charlie Creed-Miles as Bill's son Dean, in the British independent film Wild Bill, directed by Dexter Fletcher.[15] The cast included a host of British talent with Leo Gregory, Neil Maskell, Liz White, Iwan Rheon, Olivia Williams, Jaime Winstone, Andy Serkis, and Sean Pertwee, and scored a perfect 100% on Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer.[16] In 2012, Poulter began studying drama at the University of Bristol where he lived in Badock Hall, however dropped out after a year in order to pursue acting full time.[17]
