Irish and British acting schools chase Hollywood back to America
Bow Street, Identity and LAMDA are expanding U.S. programs as American students seek screen-focused British and Irish training.
By Poppy Nakagawa · Culture Writer
4 min read
Bow Street Academy, the Dublin screen acting school linked to Barry Keoghan and other fast-rising Irish talent, is opening its first overseas campus in Los Angeles this September, Variety reports.
The move lands at a curious moment: major film and TV productions have increasingly headed from the U.S. to growing hubs in Britain and Ireland, while acting schools from those same places are now making the trip in the opposite direction.
Bow Street artistic director Shimmy Marcus told Variety the idea gathered steam around 2023, after the school saw more applications from Americans, including would-be students in Los Angeles. He said applicants told the school they were willing to travel to Dublin because they felt they could not find the same kind of training at home.
The new Bow Street Academy LA will be based at The Lot at Formosa, the historic studio site where Charlie Chaplin helped establish United Artists Studios. On the ground, the campus will be overseen by Oscar-nominated writer, director and producer Kirsten Sheridan, who recently wrote on FX’s “Say Nothing.”
The British-Irish acting boom gets a classroom
Marcus told Variety he was struck while watching “Wake Up Dead Man,” the latest “Knives Out” film, by the number of British and Irish actors playing Americans in major roles. He pointed to Andrew Craig, Josh O’Connor, Andrew Scott and Daryl McCormick as examples.
Variety also cited Steven Spielberg’s sci-fi film “Disclosure Day,” which features British and Irish names using U.S. accents, including O’Connor, Emily Blunt, Colin Firth, Eve Hewson and Henry Lloyd-Hughes.
The trend has fed a long-running debate in Hollywood over British and Irish actors taking prominent American roles, including historical parts such as Daniel Day-Lewis as Abraham Lincoln and David Oyelowo as Martin Luther King Jr.
Marcus said Bow Street’s pitch is a screen-first approach focused on what actors do between “action” and “cut.” He told Variety the school’s training aims to give performers more control over their reading of a scene, rather than asking them to display emotion from the outside.
A key figure in Bow Street’s curriculum is Gerry Grennell, the Dublin coach who helped shape the school’s first course when it began as The Factory in 2010. Variety reports Grennell has worked with Johnny Depp, Meryl Streep, Natalie Portman, Tom Cruise, Matt Damon and Anne Hathaway, and helped Heath Ledger develop his Joker performance in “The Dark Knight.”
New U.S. tutors are being trained in what Bow Street calls the “Gerry Grennell Method,” and Grennell is expected to work on the longer courses in Los Angeles.
London schools are already in the U.S.
Bow Street is not alone. London’s Identity School of Acting, founded by Femi Oguns in 2003, opened an LA branch in 2018 at East Hollywood’s Thymele Arts Center with about 300 students, according to Variety.
Oguns, who also runs Identity Agency Group, told Variety the school is built around the realities of acting work and uses tutors who are active professionals. He said the emphasis is on preparing actors for jobs, not only graduation.
Identity recently had to leave its LA location after a change in building ownership, Variety reports. Oguns said the school is looking for a new site before term begins again in September, while its online school is doing well.
LAMDA, the London drama school founded in 1861, opened office and studio space in Midtown Manhattan in early 2025. Nicholas Holden, LAMDA’s vice principal of academic, research and student affairs, told Variety that about one in three students across its degree and semester programs come from the U.S.
LAMDA now uses the New York space for auditions, networking, workshops and masterclasses, and plans to bring over short courses covering acting, playwriting and other subjects. Holden said the school’s British training is especially rooted in ensemble work.
RADA does not have a permanent U.S. base, according to Variety, but it does run short courses in New York, including a five-day actor’s workout.
For Marcus, the U.S. also has something to teach. He told Variety he has been impressed by a culture where actors keep training throughout their careers, unlike the European model where many consider themselves ready after a three-year course.
This story draws on original reporting from Variety.