Finding Emily Star Spike Fearn's Best Roles So Far (And 2 to Look Out For)

Early in his career, Fearn got his first big break when he landed the role of Louis in Tell Me Everything. The show is raw comedy about a group of teenagers dealing with all the thrills, spills and challenges of young adulthood and the first year of college — namely romantic relationships, friendships, and mental health.

First released in 2022, it's a show that's often been described as a Gen Z update on the iconic E4 series Skins — which, we should note, also helped to launch the careers of up and coming British actors like Dev Patel and Jack O’Connell.

To be completely honest, I had no idea Spike Fearn was even in Matt Reeves’ The Batman until this week. I also needed this Reddit thread to point me towards this slightly blurry screengrab just to find out which scene he's in — but hey, credit where credit’s due. 

The actor appears in Robert Pattinson’s first take on the Caped Crusader as “Vandal”, who is apparently one of the kids spray painting the bank in the opening sequence. No word yet on whether "Vandal" is set to return in the upcoming sequel.

If one performance cemented Fearn’s screen persona as a cool but affable lad, at least in my mind, it was his short but memorable turn as Olly in Charlotte Wells’ transcendental debut, Aftersun: an autobiographical heartbreaker starring Paul Mescal and Frankie Corio as a disparate father and daughter who take a trip to Turkey in the early ‘00s — a fraught and emotional holiday that you soon suspect might be their last.

Much of the movie takes place in a small resort hotel, where the young girl goes through the motions of life at that age — including an awkward first kiss and the anxious rush of hanging out with older kids. That group is effectively led by Olly — who we don’t see a huge amount of but still get the sense that he's not a threat thanks to Fearn’s charming performance.

In 2024, Fearn actually got to act alongside Jack O’Connell when he landed a role in Back to Black — a biopic about Amy Winehouse starring Industry breakout Marisa Abela as the Essex soul singer who died tragically in 2011. 

For this one, Fearn plays Tyler James (who you might remember for his appearances in Amy, Asif Kapadia’s great documentary on the singer), a musician who grew up with Winehouse and shared the infamous Camden flat with her in the late ‘00s. As biopics go, it’s nothing special, but the three central performances make it more than worth a watch.

For the franchise-relaunching Alien: Romulus, director Fede Álvarez decided to forgo big name stars, filling his cast with rising stars instead. This meant that audiences got to see Beef star Cailee Spaeny’s impressive action chops for the first time, as well as David Johnson’s remarkable range. 

We also got to see Spike Fearn appearing in a named role in a proper IP franchise for the first time — he plays Bjorn, one of the rag-tag gang who travel to a Weyland Yutani Space Station but don’t exactly find what they were looking for.

Fearn fans will be happy to hear that Bjorn is not the first to go, but he’s not far behind.

Fans of ‘90s rom coms allowed themselves to be a little hopeful about Ella McCay, a political satire romance starring Emma Mackey and directed by the great James L. Brooks. Sadly, the Simpsons creator's first movie in 15 years turned out to be a bit of a hot mess — but it wasn’t the fault of Spike Fearn, who most critics agreed is one of the movie’s saving graces. 

Either way, the net result was a let down, especially as Brooks had landed a $35M budget (unheard of these days for a romantic comedy) and rounded up a cast featuring Jamie Lee Curtis, Jack Lowden, Ayo Edebiri, Albert Brooks and Woody Harrelson. Our guy Spike plays the brother of Mackey’s rising politician and he might be the best thing about it.

No genre in the last ten years has seen a resurgence quite like the one that heist movies have had. In 2026 alone we’ve already enjoyed the Heat-lite thrills of Crime 101 and can look forward to seeing How to Rob a Bank and 4 Kids Walk into a Bank (no relation) before the leaves have fallen from the trees. 

Fearn appears in the latter, which is also the debut feature of comedy actor Frankie Shaw (SMILF). 4 Kids Walk into a Bank stars Talia Ryder (and yes, Winona is her mom) as the leader of a gang of teens (Fearn's character Wally is a member) who decide to rob a bank in order to keep her dad (an ex-con played by Liam Neeson) out of trouble. Sounds fun.

Sweetsick already looks like one of the most intriguing movies of next year. It's the directorial debut of Alice Birch, who made her name as a writer on celebrated TV shows like Normal People and Succession as well as movies like Lady Macbeth. For her first as director, Birch has written a story about a woman with a supernatural gift to see what people “intimately need” and has landed the great Cate Blanchett to play the role.

At time of writing, there isn’t really any information on who Fearn is playing, but he has been listed as Blanchett’s co-star and seems to be in the background of the first released image.

If one of Fearn's upcoming movies has the potential to lift him into the big leagues, this is surely it.