Joe Locke

Joseph William Locke, born 24 September 2003, is a Manx and British actor. He is best known for his lead role as high school student Charlie Spring in the Netflix coming-of-age teen series Heartstopper (2022–2024) and its upcoming series finale feature film Heartstopper Forever (2026). His performance earned him two nominations for the Children's and Family Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Performance, winning the award in 2025. Beyond his breakthrough television work, Locke has performed in high-profile stage productions and major screen miniseries.

Locke grew up in Douglas on the Isle of Man, where he attended Ballakermeen High School. While preparing for his A-level examinations in politics, history, and English, he engaged in community activism. During his high school years, Locke and three fellow students submitted a petition to local government officials requesting an investigation into the feasibility of welcoming Syrian refugees to the Isle of Man.

Locke began building his acting background through participation in the 2020 National Theatre Connections, productions at the Gaiety Theatre, and performances with the Kensington Art Centre's youth group. In 2022, he landed his debut television role after competing against 10,000 other prospective actors in an open casting call for Heartstopper, an adaptation of Alice Oseman's webcomic and graphic novel. Aged 17 at the time of filming, Locke played a teenage pupil attending an English boys' grammar school.

In 2024, Locke expanded into major screen and theatrical projects. He starred as a goth character initially referred to as "Teen"—later revealed to be Billy Maximoff / William Kaplan—in the Disney+ Marvel Cinematic Universe miniseries Agatha All Along, a spin-off of WandaVision. That same year, he made his Broadway debut playing Tobias Ragg in a revival of the musical Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.

Locke's career continued to develop with prominent additions in 2025 and 2026. In April 2025, it was announced that he would both star in and serve as an executive producer on Heartstopper Forever. Later that year, on 17 September 2025, he made his London West End debut as Jake in the U.K. premiere of Samuel D. Hunter's play Clarkston alongside Ruaridh Mollica. In January 2026, Locke was announced to join Andrew Scott and Olivia Colman in Simon Stone's Ian Charleson biopic, Elsinore.

Outside of his acting roles, Locke has discussed his personal experiences as a young gay man from the Isle of Man and how they parallel his character's journey in Heartstopper. In 2022, after Locke called for an end to a blanket ban on gay men donating blood during a video message for the island's annual pride celebration, Isle of Man Health Minister Lawrie Hooper announced in August 2022 that the government would change the policy.