Joe Alwyn

Alwyn was in a relationship with American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift from 2016 to 2023. Their relationship was kept largely private, and Alwyn said he preferred to discuss his work rather than his personal life.

Alwyn has been in a relationship with American actress Sarah Pidgeon since 2026.

Alwyn was raised in North London and developed an interest in acting during his teenage years. He joined the National Youth Theatre in his late teens and acted in two student productions at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe while studying at the University of Bristol.

He graduated from the University of Bristol in 2012 with a BA in English literature and drama, then completed a BA in acting at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama in 2015. While at drama school, he signed with an agent who had seen him perform in a student showcase.

Alwyn made his feature-film debut as Billy Lynn in Ang Lee's 2016 war drama Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk. Lee selected him for the lead role after auditions, praising his ability to express the character's conflicted feelings through facial expressions. Alwyn's naturalistic performance was widely described as the film's breakout performance.

He followed the debut with a supporting role as Adrian Finn in The Sense of an Ending in 2017. His American accent in Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk was so convincing that co-star Steve Martin did not realise he was English until several weeks into production.

In 2018, Alwyn appeared as Samuel Masham in Yorgos Lanthimos's period black comedy The Favourite, Klaus Eichmann in Operation Finale, Henry Wallace in Boy Erased and Robert Dudley in Mary Queen of Scots. The ensemble of The Favourite won the Critics' Choice Movie Award for Best Acting Ensemble, and Alwyn received the Trophée Chopard at the 2018 Cannes Film Festival alongside Elizabeth Debicki.

He played Gideon Brodess in Harriet and Bob Cratchit in the 2019 miniseries A Christmas Carol. His later screen work included The Souvenir Part II, The Last Letter from Your Lover, Stars at Noon, Catherine Called Birdy, Kinds of Kindness and The Brutalist. In television, he played Nick Conway in the 2022 Hulu series Conversations with Friends.

Alwyn played Harry Lee Van Buren in The Brutalist and Bartholomew in Hamnet. He also portrayed Laertes in the modern adaptation of Shakespeare's Hamlet.

While he was in a relationship with Taylor Swift, Alwyn contributed to ten of her songs released between 2020 and 2022. He used the pseudonym William Bowery for songwriting credits and his own name for co-production credits.

For Folklore, he co-wrote "Exile" and "Betty" and co-produced several songs, including "My Tears Ricochet", "August", "This Is Me Trying" and "Illicit Affairs". He also co-wrote "Champagne Problems", "Coney Island" and "Evermore" for Evermore, and co-wrote "Sweet Nothing" for Midnights.

His producing credit on Folklore earned him a Grammy Award for Album of the Year in 2021. Alwyn explained that the pseudonym combined the first name of his great-grandfather, composer William Alwyn, with Bowery, a New York neighbourhood where he had spent time.

Alwyn made his professional stage debut in 2025 as Heath in a modern adaptation of Henrik Ibsen's The Lady from the Sea at London's Bridge Theatre. He appeared opposite Alicia Vikander and Andrew Lincoln and received a WhatsOnStage Awards nomination for Best Supporting Performer in a Play.