Standing before Hollywood's elite in a stunning Louis Vuitton gown, Erin Doherty accepted a Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actress, a moment that capped a remarkable journey from an ordinary West Sussex town to the pinnacle of Tinseltown.
A Comprehensive School Star Among Hollywood's Elite
As legends like Leonardo DiCaprio and Julia Roberts applauded, Doherty's Estuary accent marked her out from many privately-educated peers. At 33, her origins are firmly in Crawley, where she attended the local comprehensive, Hazelwick School. This contrasts sharply with contemporaries like Lily James (Tring Park) or Josh O'Connor (St Edward's, Cheltenham).
Her Adolescence co-star Stephen Graham also attended a comprehensive, Kirkby High in Merseyside, while young co-star Owen Cooper is studying for his GCSEs in Warrington. In a charming twist, Doherty recently revealed that comedian Romesh Ranganathan was her head of sixth form at Hazelwick, before he found fame.
The Modest Beginnings That Forged a Star
Doherty grew up in a modest two-bedroom house on Princess Road, Crawley, with her mother Nichola, a receptionist, and sister Grace. "The house in this street is the first house that we were in: me, my mum, and sister," she recalled in a Netflix video. Her parents were divorced, and weekends were spent with her father, a Gatwick Airport worker who drove her to football practice and acting classes.
A talented footballer scouted by Chelsea Women, Doherty faced a pivotal choice at age 13: sport or drama. She chose acting, a path her sister Grace also followed into Casualty and West End shows. Her commitment was cemented after a transformative 2010 trip to Bosnia's Mostar Youth Theatre Festival with drama teacher Guy Williams. "The trip kind of fed my soul in a way that you can't unlearn," she said.
Overcoming Rejection Without Privilege
Lacking the financial cushion of many peers, Doherty's path was hard-won. To fund auditions and drama school, she took a job at her old school washing PE kits and pumping up balls. Her mother Nichola recalled paying £200 per audition and facing regular rejections: "It was horrible. I cried because I thought, 'Where do we go from here?'"
Doherty believes her accent and background were sometimes "picked up on," but this only hardened her resolve. "I probably leaned in even harder, because I was like, 'This is who I am,'" she told the Evening Standard. After a course at Guilford School of Acting, she won a place at Bristol Old Vic Theatre School in 2012.
Her big break came as Princess Anne in The Crown in 2019, a role for which she taught herself the royal's speech via YouTube. This led to film roles like Firebrand with Jude Law and theatre at the National. Her performance in Netflix's Adolescence has now earned her a Golden Globe, a 2025 Emmy, and a Critics Choice Award.
Now living with her NHS radiographer girlfriend Sinead Donnelly and set to star in the BBC's California Avenue with Bill Nighy, Doherty's journey is complete. From washing PE kits in Crawley to holding a Golden Globe, she has definitively earned her place among the A-list.
