Jack O'Connell wins Bafta EE Rising Star Award

The former Skins star beat Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Margot Robbie, Miles Teller and Shailene Woodley

British actor Jack O'Connell poses in the press room after winning the EE Rising Star award (EPA/ANDY RAIN)

Jack O’Connell has been awarded the EE Rising Star Award at this year’s Baftas.

Voted for by the public, the award seeks to recognise up and coming young actors who have won acclaim for their roles in the past year.

Winners list in full

O’Connell, who began his career in Channel 4’s drama Skins, starred in Angelina Jolie’s Japanese prisoner of war drama Unbroken last year as former Olympian Louis Zamperini.

In 2013, he played the lead in British indie film Starred Up, in which he played a violent reprobate prematurely transferred to an adult prison.

O’Connell beat Gugu Mbatha-Raw (Belle), Margot Robbie (The Wolf of Wall Street), Miles Teller (Whiplash) and Shailene Woodley (The Fault in Our Stars) to win the award.

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Previous recipients include Will Poultner, Juno Temple, Tom Hardy and Kristen Stewart.

James McAvoy, the first winner of the EE Rising Star Award ten years ago, returned to present O’Connell with his Bafta.

The five nominees for the award were selected from hundred suggested by a jury of leading figures from across the film industry.