Paul Mescal: The Movies That Made Him, and Where to Watch Them

Paul Mescal is trending in the United States and Canada, and his presence on a search chart is becoming a familiar sight. In the space of a few short years, the Irish actor has gone from a breakout television role to an Oscar nomination to a major blockbuster, and his next move is one of the most ambitious projects in Hollywood.

If you keep seeing his name and want to understand the work behind it, this is a guide to the performances that built Paul Mescal's reputation, what is coming next, and where to watch his films.

Who is Paul Mescal?

Paul Mescal is an Irish actor, born in 1996 in County Kildare. He trained at a drama school in Dublin and began his career on the stage, building a foundation in theatre before the screen role that changed everything.

What has defined his career since is a specific kind of choice. Mescal has repeatedly used the profile won by big projects to take on smaller, riskier, more demanding ones. He is a genuine movie star who keeps behaving like a character actor, and that tension is what makes his filmography worth following.

Normal People: the role that started it all

Mescal's breakthrough came in 2020 with Normal People, the television adaptation of Sally Rooney's novel. He played Connell Waldron, one half of a tender, painful, on and off romance traced from school into university.

The series was a phenomenon, and Mescal's performance was its centre. He earned an Emmy nomination for it, a rare feat for an actor in a first major screen role. Normal People is a quiet, deeply felt drama, and it remains the essential starting point for understanding why Mescal was taken so seriously so quickly. In the United States it streams on Hulu.

Aftersun: the performance that made him a contender

If Normal People made Mescal known, Aftersun made him an awards contender. The 2022 film, the debut feature from director Charlotte Wells, is a delicate, devastating memory piece about a father and his young daughter on a modest holiday.

Mescal plays the father, and the performance is a masterclass in restraint, a portrait of a man gently hiding his own struggle from a child too young to see it. The role earned him a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actor. Aftersun is not a loud film, but it is one of the most quietly powerful dramas of its decade, and it is the clearest evidence of how good Mescal can be.

Gladiator II: the blockbuster turn

In 2024, Mescal stepped onto the largest stage of his career so far. He took the lead in Gladiator II, Ridley Scott's long awaited sequel to the Best Picture winner, playing Lucius, a man drawn into the brutal spectacle of the Roman arena.

Carrying a Ridley Scott epic is a different test from a small Scottish drama, and it confirmed that Mescal could anchor a major studio tentpole as well as an intimate indie. Gladiator II streams on Paramount+. It is the most accessible entry point for anyone who knows Mescal only by reputation and wants to see him at full blockbuster scale.

Hamnet and The History of Sound: his 2026 films

2026 has been a major year for Mescal, with two very different films. In Hamnet, directed by the Oscar winning Chloé Zhao and based on Maggie O'Farrell's acclaimed novel, Mescal plays William Shakespeare, opposite Jessie Buckley. The story is built around grief and family rather than the writing of the plays, and it has been one of the most closely watched dramas of the year.

He also appears in The History of Sound, a tender period romance alongside Josh O'Connor. Two films, one an intimate literary drama, one a quiet love story, in the same year is exactly the pattern Mescal's career keeps repeating. He follows scale with subtlety.

What is next: the Beatles biopics and beyond

The most ambitious project on Mescal's slate, and one of the most ambitious in Hollywood, is the upcoming set of Beatles biopics. Director Sam Mendes is making a connected series of four films, one focused on each member of the band, and Mescal is set to play Paul McCartney.

The casting of the other three roles is just as starry. Reports have Harris Dickinson as John Lennon, Joseph Quinn as George Harrison, and Barry Keoghan as Ringo Starr. The four film event is aimed at a theatrical release in 2028, and Mescal has said the production will occupy a large stretch of his working time. He has even spoken about deliberately rationing his other work to prepare for it.

Before that, he has further projects in the pipeline, including a role in Richard Linklater's long gestating adaptation of the musical Merrily We Roll Along, a film being shot in stages across many years. The pattern holds. Mescal keeps choosing directors with strong, distinct visions.

Beyond the headline roles: more Mescal worth watching

The films above are the milestones, but a few more titles round out the picture of why Mescal is so respected.

All of Us Strangers (2023), directed by Andrew Haigh, is a haunting, tender supernatural drama in which Mescal stars opposite Andrew Scott. It is one of the most emotionally praised films of his career. He has also taken on smaller, darker work, including the Irish drama God's Creatures and the science fiction film Foe, choices that show an actor unafraid of difficult, unglamorous material.

It is also worth remembering where he started. Mescal is a stage actor at heart, and he has returned to theatre even at the height of his film fame, including an acclaimed run as Stanley in a London production of A Streetcar Named Desire. That theatre discipline is visible in his screen work. He is comfortable in long, unbroken emotional scenes, and it shows.

Part of a wave of Irish talent

Mescal's rise has not happened in isolation. He is one of the most prominent figures in a remarkable wave of Irish acting talent that has reshaped film and television in recent years. Names like Barry Keoghan, Jessie Buckley, Andrew Scott, and Cillian Murphy have all reached new heights in the same window, and the connections between them are real. Mescal has worked alongside several of them, and the Beatles project will reunite him with Keoghan.

This matters for a viewer because it makes Mescal a useful entry point into a whole cluster of excellent work. If you follow him from film to film, you naturally cross paths with his frequent collaborators, and the result is a self assembling watch list of some of the strongest performers working today.

Why Paul Mescal is trending now

An actor does not usually trend across multiple countries without a reason. In Mescal's case, the reason is momentum. He is in the middle of an unusually visible stretch, with major 2026 films in release and awards conversation, and with the casting of the Beatles biopics keeping his name in entertainment headlines.

When an actor reaches the point where a new project, an awards nomination, a festival appearance, or a casting confirmation can each independently push them into the search charts, that is a sign they have crossed into a different tier of fame. Mescal is clearly there. For viewers discovering him through the headlines, the films covered here are the way to understand what the attention is actually about.

Frequently asked questions about Paul Mescal

What is Paul Mescal best known for?

He first became known for the television series Normal People, broke through with the film Aftersun, and reached his widest audience with Gladiator II. Each marks a different stage of his rise.

Did Paul Mescal win an Oscar?

He has not won an Academy Award, but he was nominated for Best Actor for Aftersun, a major recognition for a performance in a small independent film.

Is Paul Mescal playing Paul McCartney?

Yes. He is set to play Paul McCartney in director Sam Mendes' ambitious set of four interconnected Beatles biopics, currently aimed at a 2028 release.

What should I watch first to get into Paul Mescal?

Normal People is the ideal starting point, since it is the role that launched him. If you prefer film, Aftersun shows his range at its finest, and Gladiator II shows him at full blockbuster scale.

Where to watch Paul Mescal's movies

Here is a practical roundup for building your own Mescal watch list. Normal People is on Hulu in the United States. Gladiator II is on Paramount+. His other films, including Aftersun, All of Us Strangers, and his various dramas, rotate across subscription services and digital rental, and availability depends on your region.

Because his catalogue is spread across several platforms, the simplest approach is to use Discover to see which of his films are streaming on your own subscriptions tonight, rather than checking each service by hand.

Why he is one of the actors to follow

Plenty of actors have a strong year. What makes Paul Mescal worth following is the shape of his choices. He alternates, on purpose, between the intimate and the enormous, between a first time director's small film and a Ridley Scott epic, between a quiet two hander and a four film Beatles saga.

That balance is rare, and it is a sign of an actor building a career rather than just taking jobs. For anyone who likes to watch a performer grow, Mescal is one of the most rewarding names in film right now. For more on the actors and films worth your time, browse our movie news and guides, or head to The Movies Finder to find your next watch.