Dylan Llewellyn: From Derry Girls’ Wee English Fella to Big Boys Leading Man

For millions of viewers, Dylan Llewellyn will always be James Maguire, the bewildered English cousin in Derry Girls.

But that one role only tells part of the story. He has since carried a critically praised comedy-drama as its lead, joined one of the BBC’s most popular detective franchises, voiced animated characters, played a member of the Sex Pistols’ inner circle, and raced across Central America on television with his mum.

This profile covers who he is, how old he is, where he comes from, how he got into acting almost by accident, and the work that turned a near-quit into one of British TV’s most likeable careers.

Dylan Llewellyn at a Glance

• Full name: Dylan John Llewellyn
• Born: 10 September 1992, in Reigate, Surrey, England
• Age: 34 years old (he turned 34 in September 2026)
• Nationality: English / British
• Occupation: Actor
• Known for: James Maguire in Derry Girls, Jack in Big Boys, PC Kelby Hartford in Beyond Paradise
• Earlier role: Martin “Jono” Johnson in Hollyoaks
• Training: Foundation course in acting at RADA
• Years active: 2009–present

A quick clarification that often causes confusion online: Llewellyn himself is English, not Northern Irish. His most famous character is an English boy living in Derry, Northern Ireland — and that outsider status is exactly what makes the character work.

Early Life and Education in Surrey

Dylan John Llewellyn was born and raised in Reigate, Surrey, in the south-east of England. He is the youngest of three boys born to English parents.

School was not straightforward for him. Llewellyn has dyslexia, and he attended More House School in Farnham, a specialist school that supports children with developmental and learning differences, including dyslexia and developmental language disorder.

He has spoken about how much that support helped him, and treats dyslexia as a practical part of his working life: he gives himself extra time to learn lines and asks productions to bear with him if material arrives at the last minute.

At school he studied media, photography and drama. Photography was closer to his original ambition; drama was a subject he fell into — and a school drama performance, seen through a national schools programme at the National Theatre, helped him get noticed by an agency.

After school, he completed a foundation course in acting at RADA, the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London. As he has recalled, students were warned bluntly that only a handful from any year group would build lasting careers.

How Dylan Llewellyn Got His First Roles

Llewellyn’s screen career began while he was still a teenager.

His earliest credits include the short film Travel Bag in 2009 and an appearance in the long-running police drama The Bill in 2010, playing Adam Wilcock.

Then came the job that put him on television every week.

Hollyoaks: Martin “Jono” Johnson

In 2011, Llewellyn joined the Channel 4 soap Hollyoaks as Martin “Jono” Johnson. He played the role across 94 episodes, and also appeared in the late-night spin-off Hollyoaks Later.

Jono gave him training no classroom can replicate: fast turnaround, large volumes of dialogue, and a loyal young audience. The character was then killed off, and Llewellyn’s final appearance came in November 2012.

The Lean Years After Hollyoaks

After Hollyoaks, work slowed down. He appeared as Seb Channing in Holby City in 2013, in the science-fiction film Frequencies (2013), and in the comedy film Down Dog (2014).

Auditions became scarcer. To support himself, he worked part-time in a deli and coffee shop, making sandwiches and washing dishes between opportunities.

In interviews, including with The Guardian in 2024, he has been candid that he was close to giving up acting altogether. His cafe manager, he says, was rooting for him — and let him step out to take the phone call that changed everything. That call was for Derry Girls.

Llewellyn’s slow-burn rise is a familiar story among British TV favourites — read our profile of Bob Mortimer, another much-loved comedy performer whose career was built over decades.

Derry Girls: The Role That Changed Everything

Who Is James Maguire?

Derry Girls, created by Lisa McGee, is set in Derry in the 1990s, during the final years of the Troubles. It follows a group of teenage friends at an all-girls Catholic secondary school — plus one boy.

James Maguire is that boy.

James is Erin Quinn’s English cousin. His mother had left Derry for England, and James is sent back to live with the Quinn family. Because his parents judge the local boys’ school to be unsafe for an English pupil, he is enrolled at the girls’ school instead — making him, in the show’s running joke, an honorary Derry Girl.

The comedy comes from the contrast. James is earnest, anxious and deeply English in a room full of sharp-tongued Derry teenagers who tease him relentlessly, especially Michelle, his cousin’s best friend, who christened him “the wee English fella.”

Llewellyn played James across all three series of Derry Girls, from 2018 to 2022, including the extended finale that brought the story to the Good Friday Agreement referendum of 1998.

Why the Show Mattered So Much

Derry Girls became one of Channel 4’s biggest comedy successes in decades and found a second, global audience through streaming, balancing very local jokes and universal teenage embarrassment against a serious political backdrop it never trivialised.

For Llewellyn, the timing was personal. He has described getting the role as emotional — the job that saved his career. A part landed while working in a deli turned him into a recognisable face across the UK and Ireland, even if strangers were most likely to call him James.

Big Boys: Dylan Llewellyn as a Leading Man

If Derry Girls made Llewellyn famous as part of an ensemble, Big Boys proved he could carry a series.

What Is Big Boys About?

Big Boys is a Channel 4 comedy-drama created and written by Jack Rooke, based on Rooke’s own experiences at university. Llewellyn plays Jack — a younger version of Rooke himself.

The series begins as Jack starts university shortly after the death of his father. Shy, grieving and still working out his sexuality, Jack is placed in unusual campus accommodation with Danny, played by Jon Pointing. Danny appears to be Jack’s opposite: louder, more confident and more conventionally laddish.

The heart of the show is their friendship. Over three series, Jack and Danny support each other through grief, coming out, family pressure, and Danny’s mental health difficulties. Around them is a wider group of friends and family, including Jack’s mother, played by Camille Coduri.

Channel 4 describes the story in Llewellyn’s own interview for the broadcaster as being about growing up, dealing with grief and the loss of a parent, going to university, making friends and discovering who you are.

How the Role Came to Him

Llewellyn has explained that the connection came through friendship as much as casting. His Derry Girls co-star Nicola Coughlan knew Rooke and mentioned the project while a pilot was being cast. Llewellyn auditioned, did a chemistry read with Coduri, and filming followed soon afterwards.

To prepare, he listened to the audiobook of Rooke’s memoir — a choice he has linked, matter-of-factly, to being dyslexic and finding listening easier than reading a full book quickly.

The Final Series

Big Boys ran from 2022 to 2025. Its third series was announced as the final series, and it was received as an emotional ending rather than a cancellation.

Speaking later to Radio Times magazine, Llewellyn said he sensed the story was finished, while hoping Rooke might one day write something new for the same group of actors. It was a graceful way to close a show that had grown well beyond a campus sitcom.

For viewers who only knew him as James, Jack was a revelation: a quieter, more vulnerable performance that still used Llewellyn’s gift for awkward, very human comedy.

Beyond Paradise: PC Kelby Hartford

In February 2023, Llewellyn joined BBC One’s Beyond Paradise as PC Kelby Hartford — a role he continues to play.

Beyond Paradise is a spin-off from Death in Paradise. It follows DI Humphrey Goodman, played by Kris Marshall, after he returns to England and joins the police force in the fictional Devon town of Shipton Abbott, alongside his partner Martha, played by Sally Bretton.

Kelby is the local constable: enthusiastic, kind-hearted and eager to impress, but inexperienced.

Llewellyn has described Kelby as having “golden retriever energy” — a people-pleaser who sees police work as the closest real life gets to being a superhero. That warmth is why the character fits the show. Beyond Paradise is cosy crime, but Kelby gives its investigations a sincere, comic pulse, learning on the job under Humphrey and DS Esther Williams, played by Zahra Ahmadi.

The role also marked a shift in his career pattern. After two defining Channel 4 comedies, he became a regular face in a prime-time BBC One drama watched by a broad family audience — and stayed with it across multiple series.

Other Notable Work: Pistol, Dodo and Film Roles

Llewellyn’s career between and alongside his three best-known shows is broader than many viewers realise.

• Pistol (2022): He played Wally Nightingale in Danny Boyle’s limited series about the Sex Pistols, made for FX and released on Disney+ in the UK. Nightingale was an early member and associate in the band’s story.
• Dodo (2021): He voiced Joe Connolly, the lead character in the animated school comedy series Dodo, across 20 episodes.
• Call the Midwife (2020): A guest appearance as Stewart Irmsby in the BBC period drama.
• 10 Lives (2024): Voice work as Larry in the animated family film.
• Short and independent films: Including Finger Prick and A Grand Romantic Gesture (2022), which kept his film work going alongside television.

That mix — live-action comedy, drama, prestige limited series and voice work — explains his durability. He has not been typecast as only the funny best friend, even though comedy remains his signature.

Selected Filmography

• 2009 — Travel Bag (short) — Ricky
• 2010 — The Bill — Adam Wilcock
• 2011–2012 — Hollyoaks — Martin “Jono” Johnson
• 2013 — Holby City — Seb Channing
• 2013 — Frequencies — Teen Zak
• 2014 — Down Dog — Sam
• 2018–2022 — Derry Girls — James Maguire
• 2020 — Call the Midwife — Stewart Irmsby
• 2021 — Dodo (voice) — Joe Connolly
• 2022 — Pistol — Wally Nightingale
• 2022–2025 — Big Boys — Jack
• 2023–present — Beyond Paradise — PC Kelby Hartford
• 2024 — 10 Lives (voice) — Larry
• 2025 — Celebrity Race Across the World — Contestant, with his mother Jackie

Celebrity Race Across the World With His Mum, Jackie

In 2025, audiences saw a very different side of Llewellyn — as himself.

He competed in series 3 of BBC One’s Celebrity Race Across the World with his mother, Jackie, who is retired and lives in the Reigate area. Llewellyn described himself, cheerfully, as a bit of a mummy’s boy, and said he had always wanted a big adventure with a family member.

The race covered about 5,900 kilometres across Central America, starting on Isla Mujeres off the coast of Mexico and heading through Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Costa Rica and Panama towards the finish in Colombia’s Península de La Guajira. Teams travel without flights or phones, on a limited budget.

Calling themselves “Team Tortoise” because of their slow start, Dylan and Jackie charmed viewers precisely because they did not pretend to be natural racers. Both described themselves as quiet and self-conscious, who had to learn to ask strangers for help.

They reached the final leg before withdrawing when their remaining budget made finishing impossible, placing fourth overall. During the series, mother and son also spoke openly about a family bereavement they had experienced when Dylan was a teenager — a conversation handled on the programme itself, and one reason many viewers found their partnership so moving.

Personal Life, as Publicly Reported

Llewellyn keeps his private life notably private, and there is no reliable public record to support the speculation that fills many low-quality profile pages.

What he has chosen to share in interviews is this:

• He lives near his hometown of Reigate, in Surrey, and remains close to his family.
• He is the youngest of three brothers.
• He has dyslexia and speaks about it openly, including how gaming helped him socialise and relax as a young person who sometimes felt isolated, and why he encourages young people to find an activity that gives them confidence.
• He has spoken about falling into acting by accident after initially leaning towards photography.

No reputable outlet has published a verified figure for his earnings, and this article does not present the unsourced net-worth estimates that circulate online as fact.

His relationships have not been a subject he discusses in major interviews, so they are not detailed here.

Why Dylan Llewellyn Connects With Audiences

Three qualities run through almost every interview and review of his work.

First, relatability. James, Jack and Kelby are very different, but all three are trying hard in situations that feel slightly beyond them — and audiences recognise themselves in that.

Second, honesty about struggle. A successful actor talking plainly about dyslexia, about nearly quitting, and about washing dishes when the breakthrough call came makes the success story credible rather than glib.

Third, range within warmth. He can be the comic outsider, the grieving lead and the eager young constable without losing the likeability casting directors first saw in Hollyoaks.

From a Surrey deli counter to leading a Channel 4 drama and a BBC prime-time institution, his career is a reminder that in British television, the slow start — the tortoise start — can win in the end.

Frequently Asked Questions About Dylan Llewellyn