by Fiona Underhill, Staff Writer

Irish actors are all the rage at the moment—with young pups Paul Mescal and Barry Keoghan joining the likes of Andrew Scott and Cillian Murphy in splashy interviews and magazines, and at fashion shows, Hollywood events, and awards ceremonies. But as 2024 draws to a close, there’s one Irish actor who I want to highlight as equally talented and exciting as those four, but who has so far slipped mostly under the radar. That will hopefully be about to change, as he’s appeared in no less than four TV shows this year, demonstrating his incredible range—from a Tudor investigator to an Irish rebel leader, and from an American war hero to America’s most notorious villain. For me, more than any film actor, he’s delivered the most impressive performances of the year. He’s a young actor from West Belfast who turned 30 in June of this year, and his name is Anthony Boyle.

Highlights of Boyle’s Career Pre-2024:

You’d be forgiven for thinking that Anthony Boyle emerged from nowhere, and was suddenly everywhere, in 2024. But he does have around twelve notable credits across theater, TV, and film from 2023 and before. Boyle first came to attention in 2016, originating the role of Scorpius in Harry Potter and The Cursed Child in the West End, which then transferred to Broadway in 2018. I was fortunate enough to see the original production in London in June 2016, and Boyle clearly stood out in the cast, as an exciting and emerging young talent. He deservedly won an Olivier Award and was nominated for a Tony, and his presence and charisma were immediately apparent—commanding attention amongst a large ensemble cast (and in the midst of a big-budget production that had a lot of bells and whistles).

In 2018, Boyle took on his best pre-2024 role—in the Agatha Christie adaptation Ordeal by Innocence, a four-part TV miniseries. The adaptation was by Sarah Phelps, who did a whole series of Christies across a number of years—and this was the best of an excellent bunch. Ordeal by Innocence has a stellar ensemble cast, including a very young Ella Purnell, as well as Crystal Clarke, Matthew Goode, Morven Christie, and Luke Treadaway. Anna Chancellor and Bill Nighy play the exceedingly rich, but unhappy, Argylls who live in a large stately manor and adopt five children (including Jack, played by Boyle). Rachel, the mother, is extremely strict and attempts to mold all five children according to her stringent moral code, with disastrous consequences. Jack is a young tearaway, who gets into trouble with the law, and one day he apparently snaps, killing Rachel. Jack is then extremely violently killed in prison, in what seems like a brawl with a fellow inmate—with his backstory then being revealed in flashback across the subsequent episodes.

As he did when playing Scorpius, Boyle flawlessly adopts an “upper crust” English RP accent for this role. This is the kind of character he excels at—charming, but dangerous (something he would certainly employ for Brendan Hughes in Say Nothing). There’s clearly a dark and troubled side to Jack, but he also has a twisted sense of humor and a twinkle in his eye. In the third episode, Jack is escorted home—completely stark naked—by the police, while Rachel is hosting a party. He then scandalously puts his hand up the dress of the chief constable’s wife, prompting her to call him a “nasty boy.” The chief constable then confronts Jack in front of his parents, and Jack turns the tables by implying that this upstanding member of society abuses young boys. Boyle is extraordinary in pushing Jack’s provocation of these stiff-upper-lipped hypocrites and moving him through seduction to disgust to a damning accusation—which will tragically end up sealing his own fate. In the final episode, Boyle again gets to display his range—from reeling at a devastating revelation, to still pushing buttons provocatively while behind bars in jail, literally spitting, “I am your plague and I’m coming for you,” at his father.

In The Plot Against America (HBO, 2020)—Boyle plays a young man from Brooklyn, who is part of a Jewish family (played by Morgan Spector, Zoe Kazan, David Krumholtz, and Winona Ryder). It’s based on a speculative historical fiction book, which imagines what would happen if a Nazi-sympathizing celebrity became president (fortunately, we can only speculate at such a scenario). Crucially, it’s set during WWII and the celebrity in question is famed and beloved aviator Charles Lindbergh. This leads to the US not joining the allies in the fight against Hitler. Boyle’s character Alvin refuses to accept this reality and provokes the now proud and blatant anti-Semites in his neighborhood. He then flees to Canada, to join the army and go to Europe, where he is badly injured. Again, Boyle excels at playing a character who is bold and defiant, one constantly challenging others and not backing down from fighting for what he believes is right. The Plot Against America was, unfortunately, underseen, but the right people saw it (according to Boyle himself) because it led to him being cast in Masters of the Air.

Masters of the Air (Apple TV+, 2024)

Masters of the Air is a big-budget Apple TV+ series, which is a continuation of Band of Brothers and The Pacific—this time focusing on the “Bloody Hundredth” bomber boys stationed in Norfolk, England. It was filmed several years ago, but many of the cast became stars during the delay before its release—including Austin Butler, Barry Keoghan, and Ncuti Gatwa. Boyle actually plays the narrator of the series: navigator Harry Crosby, with a Midwest (Iowa) accent. The role is something of a departure for him. Crosby is a mostly optimistic, happy-go-lucky character who doesn’t have the darker side that we usually see from Boyle. He is something of a comic relief, due to his constant air sickness – which is specifically what attracted Boyle to the role.

Masters of the Air is not a perfect series, and does have flaws, especially towards the end. Despite this, I ended up watching it all the way through three times this year. The standout episode is six—which sees Crosby being sent to the University of Oxford, ostensibly on official business, but really to give him some respite after his best friend is killed. Elsewhere in the same episode, ace pilot Rosie Rosenthal (sensitively portrayed by newcomer Nate Mann) is also reluctantly sent for R&R, and cocky pilot Bucky Egan (Callum Turner, who leads the series admirably) arrives at the Stalag where he’ll remain until the end of the war.

In episode six, Crosby meets Sandra (Bel Powley), a mysterious officer who can’t reveal the true nature of her war work. Crosby can open up to her in a way he can’t with the men in his unit, and they share fireside whiskey, and crash a party where they dance to a lovely rendition of “Tear the Fascists Down.” Powley and Boyle have crackling chemistry in their (all too brief) scenes together, and Boyle does some great longing gazes. Boyle also gets a chance to shine in episode eight, which covers D-Day, leading Crosby to work for three straight days with no sleep, sending him delirious. I also highly recommend the real Harry Crosby’s book, A Wing and a Prayer, which is vividly written and a rattling read. 

Manhunt (Apple TV+, 2024)

For Boyle’s second Apple TV+ series of the year, he took on one of the most notorious villains in American history: Abraham Lincoln’s assassin, John Wilkes Booth. Boyle tackles a Maryland accent this time and his darkest character yet, who doesn’t have his usual twinkling charm to undercut the vitriol. Manhunt is probably the weakest of Boyle’s four shows from 2024 but is still definitely worth watching for fans of historical dramas.

Tobias Menzies plays Edwin Stanton, the lawyer who pursed Booth after he went on the run, and perhaps the best casting and acting of the show is Hamish Linklater as Lincoln himself—who unfortunately doesn’t get enough screentime, for obvious reasons. It is clear that the assassination was a continuation of Booth’s desire for attention and to perform. All he really wants is notoriety, and to be hero-worshipped by the worst of men. Boyle performs Booth’s delusion brilliantly of course, and he’s at his best in Booth’s final desperate hours, as he realizes that the walls are closing in, and he is fatally doomed.

Shardlake (Hulu, 2024)

Shardlake is a Tudor murder mystery set during the time of Henry VIII and Thomas Cromwell’s dissolution of the monasteries. It stars Arthur Hughes as Matthew Shardlake, a lawyer sent by Cromwell to the windswept and remote monastery at Scarnsea, where a commissioner sent by the king has been murdered. He is reluctantly accompanied by the “preening peacock” Jack Barak (Boyle), who works for Cromwell, as a kind of bodyguard. Boyle gets to don several ridiculous outfits here—codpieces, balloon-like breeches, and brandish swords, the whole nine yards.

Shardlake, unfortunately, only has four episodes, but is a gripping story with affecting acting from Hughes and Ruby Ashbourne Serkis as Alice, a maid at the monastery. Jack Barak is actually the performance that has the most impressive accent work from Boyle, in my opinion. As another character tells Barak, “Cromwell found you in the gutter... plucked you from a cesspit... now look at you—peacock proud, scented and washed.” Boyle does not play Barak with a cockney street urchin accent straight out of Oliver Twist, but he doesn’t fully commit to a middle or upper-class RP accent either. He has to do something in between, which is much harder. He has to act as if he is part of the establishment, but his accent sometimes betrays his roots.

Boyle is so good when revealing vulnerabilities underneath a character who must appear confident and tough on the outside. In episode three, he admits to Alice, “The truth? I’m an imposter. I call myself an emissary of the king. Cromwell’s man. I dress in what I consider to be fine clothes, but I’m always a breath away from rags.” His chemistry with both Hughes and Ashbourne Serkis crackles, with initial thorniness melting into warmth. Boyle is, once again, so charismatic and charming, that it’s easy to overlook the fact that Barak does actually straight-up murder a dude in Shardlake. This little overlooked gem is based on a series of books, and I hope we see more of it.

Say Nothing (Hulu, 2024)

The best of Boyle’s TV shows from 2024 was saved until last, with Say Nothing being released in November. This searing mini-series, expertly adapted from Patrick Radden Keefe’s non-fiction book, finally saw Boyle playing someone from his native West Belfast—and using his own accent. Say Nothing follows Dolours Price (Boyle’s childhood friend Lola Petticrew), her sister Marian, Gerry Adams himself, and Brendan Hughes (Boyle)—who were all members of the IRA in the early 1970s.

Hughes was known as “The Dark,” which is fitting for Boyle, with his shock of black hair, black mustache, and almost-black eyes. Hughes is introduced lobbing bottles and bricks at the police, and shortly after, we see him “liberating funds” from a bank—all whilst flirting with the teller, of course. Hughes is fiercely and unflinchingly loyal to “The Big Lad,” Gerry (Josh Finan), but has this loyalty tested severely throughout. Boyle gets to have his big moments in the second and fourth episodes of the series (with the fourth being particularly outstanding)—which are highlighted in our review of Say Nothing for MovieJawn.

We only briefly see Hughes again for one scene after episode four, when he is in prison watching Gerry on a caged TV after Adams becomes a parliamentary candidate. Like everything in the series, it’s creatively shot, with Boyle’s reactions viewed from the TV’s point-of-view, in its protective cage. When Adams declares that he’s never been a member of the IRA, you can see Hughes’ heart shatter in real time through Boyle’s eyes and just the slightest flicker of his nostrils. This is the ultimate betrayal of everything that Hughes has dedicated his life to and is painful to watch.

After these four supporting roles in four excellent TV shows in 2024, Boyle will next be seen playing Arthur Guinness in Netflix series House of Guinness, from Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight. It’s exciting to think about where Boyle will go next, and which accent he’ll take on, but it will probably be something unexpected—and hopefully, a main role which is worthy of his talents.