According to Kizzy Edgell, he’s “always been a drama queen.”
“Even outside of acting, I have been a very intense person forever,” says the 22-year-old actor. Since 2022, he’s played the beloved character Darcy Olsson on Netflix’s hit young adult series Heartstopper. After three heartwarming, tear-jerking seasons all about queer romance, community, and identity, the Heartstopper universe has nearly come to an end — and Edgell’s beyond grateful to have been along for the ride.
Edgell grew up in London, where drama classes and educational theater helped ignite his passion for acting. He recalls a school production of Grease where played Jan: “I had big, bulky glasses and silly, really tiny microbangs. It was great,” he says.
“I always enjoyed working with other people,” Edgell adds. “I think that’s the thing I like most about drama, is it’s not just you by yourself, it’s you with other people. It’s collaboration.”
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Edgell’s enthusiasm for acting led him to audition for the open call for Heartstopper. He’d already read the webcomic after discovering it on Tumblr, a site he loved in his younger years. “I remember very clearly that one Halsey post that’s like, ‘He was red and he liked me because I was blue.’ I definitely reblogged that,” Edgell recalls. “Lots of vaporwave and aesthetic, that sort of thing.”
Auditioning for Heartstopper was a whim for Edgell, partly born out of boredom during the pandemic and partly out of his latent love for acting. The initial audition involved self-taping a monologue as Darcy, one that never appeared in the actual show. Edgell remembers recording “about a million takes” in a single night.
“I really didn’t want to let myself want it so much,” Edgell says. “I’d never auditioned for anything before. I definitely didn’t consider myself an actor. I was getting ready to study psychology, and it’s such a crazy butterfly effect to me that if I hadn’t sat and done those million takes of this monologue, how different my life would be. I’d probably be a registered psychologist and not an actor.”
Of course, Edgell did land the part, and three seasons later, Heartstopper is a cultural phenomenon. The show’s candid portrayal of queer teenage love and friendship made it an instant hit, and its optimistic yet grounded takes on difficult topics make the series a breath of fresh air — particularly in a global political climate that’s less than kind to LGBTQ+ folks.
“It’s honestly really overwhelming in a good and amazing way. I think it’s made me realize how much I care about young people,” Edgell says of the show’s place in Gen Z queer culture. “The show has made me have these conversations with young people that are really smart, that have really good ideas and are really intelligent and shouldn’t be underestimated. So I think the fact that it’s allowed me to have these conversations, especially with young trans people, about the way that they are navigating the world — it’s been intense. […] I’m proud of it.”
“I also think that young people now are really brave and really driven to talk about what’s important to them and to resist things that they find uncomfortable or wrong,” he continues. “I spoke to some 16-year-olds recently who were really passionate activists doing really incredible activism. And like, at 16, all I wanted, all I did was go to school and go home. And I think that more and more young people are politically conscious and socially conscious, and that’s a nice feeling.”
On Heartstopper’s latest season, Edgell’s character Darcy made an announcement: they’re exploring their gender, and they’re using they/them pronouns moving forward. (They even got a very gay on-screen haircut to match.) Edgell’s and Darcy’s relationships to gender aren’t quite the same — Darcy uses they/them pronouns, while Edgell is transmasculine and uses both he and they pronouns — but Darcy’s transition in the show was partially inspired by Edgell’s own.
“It was a mutual discussion that we had,” Edgell explains. “I think when it was first proposed, the time wasn’t right, and I was too insecure in my own transition at that point to be like, ‘Let’s introduce this into the show.’ And as a couple years have gone by, I felt more comfortable as myself. It then became, ‘Yeah, that’s something that I’m okay exploring on the show, and I think it would be good to explore on the show.’”
Darcy’s nonbinary identity has since become canon in the webcomic as well, a fact that makes Edgell marvel at series creator Alice Oseman’s capacity for keeping the twin timelines straight.
“The interplay of the comics and the TV show at different points in time, I feel like I could draw a really complicated graph about where the show deviates, where the show changes — I’m doing hand gestures,” he says for the folks at home. “You can’t see them, but I’m pointing.”
But just as the Heartstopper graphic novels are in their final volume, Netflix’s Heartstopper adaptations are coming to an imminent end. The TV series itself is technically already over, with only a yet-untitled Heartstopper film left to bring the stories of Nick, Charlie, and all their friends — Darcy included — to a close. Edgell, for one, isn’t quite ready to let go.
“I sometimes feel like Darcy is my friend — like, my best friend — so I only want the best for them. And I am really happy that I get to be Darcy. That is crazy to me,” he reflects. “I don’t know, like, I’m not a method actor, but also growing up — I was 18 when we started; I’m 22 now — with this character, it feels like we’re joined at the hip somehow. And I personally never want to let Darcy go. I would want to play Darcy forever if I could.”
“Playing Darcy reminds me of — I think people have said this about the show in general. It’s like an alternate universe where you had friends in secondary school, or where you know life wasn’t so tough in secondary school, and playing Darcy lets me get to experience that. So I really never want to let that go,” Edgell adds.
“It feels like we’re joined at the hip somehow. And I personally never want to let Darcy go. I would want to play Darcy forever if I could.”
– Kizzy Edgell
Just as Heartstopper was Edgell’s first-ever TV show, the upcoming movie — which is officially in production as of June 9 — will serve as his feature film debut. Edgell is staying tight-lipped on the details (though anyone curious what the plot might entail should get caught up on the webcomic). What he can share, though, are his complex feelings about what will come after the movie wraps filming this summer.
“I don’t know what I’m gonna do. I don’t know my life outside of Heartstopper,” Edgell says. “I obviously have a life: I study, I garden, I have cats, I read — and obviously I want to work. But after putting so much energy into Darcy, it is going to be difficult to say goodbye. I don’t know. I think maybe I’m overly sentimental about it, because I’ve spoken to my castmates and they’re like, they don’t all feel completely the same way. But I think it’ll be hard to say bye to my character.”
Still, there’s plenty Edgell is excited about beyond the world of Heartstopper. That includes getting their degree in design (one recent assignment was crafting a “little pinky-plunky kalimba-type instrument” from a Diet Coke can) and, when the time is right, working on more movies and TV shows — especially if other trans people are involved.
“I’d love to work on a project made by trans people, because there are trans people in every sector of everything, and I feel like it’s easier to put a trans person on the screen than it is to have trans people in the crew for some companies,” Edgell says.
“I also think that trans people are, by default, really creatively interesting,” he continues. “Their view on the way that stories should be told is interesting. I just would love to work with other trans people; I think it would make me really happy. I think it would make so much of it so much more rich, so much more interesting.”
“I like having those conversations with other trans people,” Edgell adds. “Every time I’m at a party, I’m like, ‘Let’s make a show!’”
“I’d love to work on a project made by trans people, because there are trans people in every sector of everything.”
– Kizzy Edgell
And while Edgell’s career so far has kept him in front of the camera, he’d be equally happy to step into a creative role behind the scenes.
“I would love to work in the art department. I would love to work in props,” he says, a passion inspired by Heartstopper’s talented artistic team. “I remember in Season 2, I went into the prop room and they had this big table laid out of everyone’s backpacks, everyone’s pencil cases. A lot of Darcy’s stuff was scuffed intentionally, and not handled very well because Darcy doesn’t take care of her belongings — we know this — but also bedazzled with some crystals and gems and stuff. And it was so nice to walk through and look at the consideration in the care put into these small items that you’re probably not even going to see. I just thought that was so cool. There’s so much that goes [into it], so much thought, so much planning.”
Meanwhile, Edgell has nothing but praise for his Heartstopper co-stars, who are — to put it mildly — absolutely taking over the world. From Yasmin Finney’s role in Doctor Who, to Kit Connor starring on Broadway in Romeo + Juliet and in blockbusters like Warfare, to Joe Locke staking his claim in the Marvel Universe with Agatha All Along, the entire Heartstopper cast is shaping up to be the future of the entertainment industry.
“I’m just so beyond proud,” Edgell says. “They’re such a talented bunch, and I’m so lucky to know them. I’m so lucky that I get to watch them do things that they’ve talked about. Like Rhea [Norwood] has talked about Cabaret for ages and ages, and she was in Cabaret! I’m so lucky to know them.”
The success of Edgell’s Heartstopper family feels a bit surreal at times, he says, with familiar faces like Locke’s popping up where he least expects them. “I was on a date once, and on the big screen at this bar, they started showing Agatha,” he recalls. “It was a first date, and I was like, ‘That’s my friend!’”
“I’m so proud of them, and I hope that they continue to get to the top of their game,” Edgell adds. “Kit and Joe are superstars, and I want them to get all their applause.” ♦
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