Adolescence Star Stephen Graham Reveals He Lost His Golden Globe Award Just Hours After Ceremony

Stephen Graham became a Golden Globe winner after his work on Adolescence. But then he lost the trophy!

The series co-creator and star, 52, revealed in an interview with U.K. radio show Capital Breakfast, shared to YouTube on Monday, Jan. 19, that his Golden Globe award was misplaced after he left Los Angeles, following this month’s ceremony.

The actor scored the award for Best Performance by a Male Actor in a Limited Series, Anthology Series, or a Motion Picture Made for Television — as well as the trophy for Best Television Limited Series, Anthology Series, or Motion Picture Made for Television as a co-creator of the series — during the 83rd annual Golden Globe Awards on Sunday, Jan. 11. But a series of travel slip-ups nearly cost him the priceless accolade.

“I had to go straight from L.A. the day after to Madrid because I had to be on set the next day… It was weird, I had like three minutes to catch the plane,” Graham recalled. “It’s a next-level kind of thing. As I come off, a woman stood there with my name and she took me down the stairs, threw me in a car and drove me across the airport [on the runway].”

“Alls I’m thinking is, my case isn’t gonna make it. I went, ‘Excuse me, love? There’s no way you’re getting my suitcase on this plane if I’m in a car now,’ and she’s like, ‘Oh no, don’t worry, we’ll take care of it,’ ” Graham added of his travel day, which apparently included a layover in Atlanta. “And I was like, ‘No, no, no, no, you don’t understand,’ and she went, ‘I promise you, I promise you.’ Anyway, it didn’t land.”

As for what was inside the suitcase, which was ultimately “left in Atlanta,” Graham slowly revealed its contents on air: “My socks, my pants, my suit, shoes and all that… a Golden Globe.”

After being told he “left it” behind, Graham jokingly got on the defense. “No, I never left it! I put it in my case. That’s heavy, I wasn’t carrying that on me.”

He added, “But thankfully, thankfully, it turns up the day after. Two days after.”

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Graham then revealed that, while in L.A., he stayed with “proper pal” Leonardo DiCaprio for a “couple days.” Graham and DiCaprio, 51, previously worked together in 2002’s Gangs of New York. When he won his trophy for Best Performance, Graham also got a big hug from DiCaprio on his way to the stage on Jan. 11.

During his acceptance speech, Graham gave a nod to his wife Hannah Walters, who served as executive producer and appeared in one episode, as “one of the most best producers ever and a woman I’m very, very lucky to be married to.”

“I’ve said it before, but you saved my life. You saved my life,” he told Walters. “And to my two beautiful children, Grace and Alfie, I love you to the moon and back forever. My dad, my pops, my hero, and I would just like to dedicate this particular award to my mom and all my friends and family, you all know exactly who you are. Without you, none of this is possible.”

Graham also won the trophy for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited Series, Anthology or Movie at the 77th annual Primetime Emmy Awards back in September 2025, which he called the “kind of thing doesn’t normally happen to a kid like me.”

“I’m just a mixed-race kid from a block of flats in a place called Kirkby. So for me to be here today in front of my peers and be acknowledged by you is the utmost humbling thing I could ever imagine in my life,” he said. “And it shows you that any dream is possible.”

The actor has most recently marked his appearance in season 2 of A Thousand Blows on Disney+. The series, also featuring Adolescence co-star Erin Doherty, premiered on the streamer on Jan. 9.