Dominic Cooper

Dominic Edward Cooper is an English actor who has established a career across stage, film, and television. He is widely recognized for his portrayals of comic book characters Jesse Custer on the AMC television series Preacher and young Howard Stark in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, as well as his performance as Sky in the musical film Mamma Mia! and its 2018 sequel, Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again.

Cooper was born on 2 June 1978 and brought up in Greenwich, London. He is the son of Julie, a nursery school teacher, and Brian Cooper, an auctioneer. He grew up with two brothers, a half-brother, and a half-sister. Cooper attended John Ball Primary School in Blackheath and Thomas Tallis School in Kidbrooke before undergoing professional acting training at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, graduating in 2000.

After beginning his career in television and film, Cooper made his stage debut in Mother Clap's Molly House at the National Theatre in 2001. He performed in significant productions with the Royal National Theatre and the Royal Shakespeare Company, including playing the lead character Will Parry in an adaptation of His Dark Materials. Cooper gained widespread recognition for originating the role of Dakin in Alan Bennett's 2004 play The History Boys. He subsequently performed the role in the West End, on Broadway, and in international tour stops, as well as in the play's radio and feature film adaptations.

In 2008, Cooper starred as Sky in Mamma Mia!, in which he performed several songs, and played Charles Grey in The Duchess. His film work continued with roles in An Education, Freefall, Tamara Drewe, and the 2011 biographical drama The Devil's Double, in which he played dual leading roles as Latif Yahia and Uday Hussein. In 2009, he returned to the National Theatre to play Hippolytus in Phèdre alongside Helen Mirren. In 2011, he portrayed Milton H. Greene in My Week with Marilyn and debuted as Howard Stark in Captain America: The First Avenger, a role he reprised in the Marvel One-Shot Agent Carter and the television series of the same name.

Cooper's subsequent feature film credits include the action and fantasy projects Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, Need for Speed, Dracula Untold, and Warcraft, alongside appearances in Miss You Already and The Lady in the Van. On television, he portrayed James Bond author Ian Fleming in the 2014 mini-series Fleming: The Man Who Would Be Bond, and starred as Jesse Custer in Preacher from 2016 to 2019. Additionally, in late 2016, he returned to London's West End to star as John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester, in a revival of Stephen Jeffreys' play The Libertine at the Haymarket Theatre.