Normal People star Paul Mescal has risen from unknown Irish actor to household name in a matter of months.

Most recently, the 24-year-old was chosen by The Rolling Stones to star in the music video for their new song Scarlet.

Mescal was born in the town of Maynooth, Co Kildare.

Like Connell Waldron, his character in BBC Three drama Normal People, Mescal was a sportsman at school.

Edinburgh TV Festival
Normal People co-star Daisy Edgar-Jones (Ian West/PA)

He played under-21 Gaelic football but gave up after suffering a jaw injury.

Mescal graduated in acting from The Lir Academy at Trinity College Dublin in 2017.

Normal People was his first TV role but previous to that he appeared in a number of plays between Dublin and London.

Immediately after graduation, he was offered parts in two high-profile theatre productions – Angela’s Ashes and The Great Gatsby.

He chose the latter and starred as Jay Gatsy at The Gate Theatre in Dublin

In London he played Lieutenant Langon in The Plough And The Stars at the Lyric Theatre.

Prior to Normal People, his most high-profile TV role was in an advert for Denny sausages, playing a teenager inspired to travel the world after eating one of their products.

Following Normal People’s success after airing in April during the first weeks of lockdown, Mescal appeared on numerous talk shows remotely, including The Graham Norton Show.

In July Mescal performed a spoken word piece and sang with Irish singer-songwriter Dermot Kennedy to create an online performance at the Natural History Museum in London.

Later that month he was nominated for outstanding lead actor at the Emmys, while Normal People picked up a total of four nominations.

He will soon appear in The Deceived, a four-part thriller from Derry Girls creator Lisa McGee and Tobias Beer.