Joseph Quinn has been enjoying a successful 2022 following his role as the lovable Eddie Munson in the fourth season of Netflix’s paranormal series Stranger Things. While this marks his international breakthrough, the English actor has starred in a couple of notable projects in his native country.
For his role as Eddie Munson, Quinn was nominated for a Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actor in a Streaming Series. His newfound fame, coupled with his signing to Los Angeles’ Creative Arts Agency, spells more high-profile roles in store for the actor.
From a minor role in HBO’s hit Game of Thrones, to starring in BBC’s Les Miserables, here is a ranking of the best films and television shows Joseph Quinn has appeared in.
10. Overlord
Quinn’s film debut came in 2018 with J. J. Abrams’ action horror, Overlord. The actor portrayed Grunauer, an American soldier who is killed in a plane crash at the beginning of the film. Overlord was a moderate success at the box office and received a favorable response from critics. While Quinn had gained recognition in England for starring in British television shows, this film marked the actor’s first appearance in a major American project.
9. Dickensian
Dickensian is a BBC One series that aired for one season between 2015 and 2016. The drama brought to life many characters from several Charles Dickens novels and placed them in a singular time frame — 19th-century London. Quinn starred as an alternate version of Arthur Havisham, who appeared in Dickens’ 13th novel, Great Expectations. While his novel counterpart was an extremely minor character, Dickensian fleshed out the character, giving him the plot of a scorned gay man who tries to score his father’s leftover inheritance in place of his sister Amelia. While fans enjoyed the series and Quinn’s performance, it was ultimately canceled after just one season.
8. Catherine the Great
This Emmy-winning four-part miniseries starred Helen Mirren as the titular empress in the years of her life between 1764 and her death in 1796. Quinn played the role of Tsarevich Pavel, the only son of Catherine, and while this was a minor role, his performance was brilliant and packed with a ton of emotion, proving that the actor could hold his own beside one of the biggest names in film history.
7. Timewasters
Timewasters follows a South London jazz band that’s flung back in time to the 1920s. While they find themselves in the Jazz Age and the Roaring Twenties, they must navigate being black in a discriminatory time period, as well as try to find their way home. Quinn appeared in the first two episodes of the British sci-fi comedy, Timewasters as Ralph, a wealthy aristocrat who hires the band to play at his birthday party and falls in love with one of its members. Quinn provides a charming, albeit quirky portrayal in the series, one that fans of Eddie Munson will no doubt enjoy.
6. Howards End
Based on the 1910 novel of the same name, Howards End intertwines the lives of families from different socioeconomic backgrounds. Quinn starred in the miniseries as the struggling Leonard Bast. The drama received positive reviews from critics, and Quinn’s acting was solid and convincing, proving him to be one of the English actors to watch out for at the time.
5. Les Misérables
In yet another adaptation of the famous French novel, Quinn was cast in the BBC’s 2019 production of Les Misérables as the patriotic Enjolras. The character has been portrayed at different times on stage and on screen, and Quinn’s performance is particularly striking and believable. The revolutionary leader Enjolras believed in his cause so much that he died for it.
4. Game of Thrones
While the record-breaking Game of Thrones was met with an overwhelmingly positive reception from critics and fans alike, Quinn’s appearance in the epic fantasy was an extremely minute one, which automatically sends it lower down the list. After breaking through in native England with the 2016 BBC One series Dickensian, Quinn appeared in Game of Thrones a year later playing the role of Koner, one of the Stark soldiers who welcomed Arya Stark in the fourth episode of the series’ penultimate season.
3. KIN (Short Film)
Quinn’s appearances in British film and television have done well to showcase the actor’s incredible versatility and strength as a performer, and KIN, a short film directed by Helena Middleton is added proof of this. While the film did not impact mainstream audiences, the emotionally charged story highlights Quinn’s talents brilliantly. KIN is set in Bristol and follows two brothers, the older of which applies for custody of his younger brother as the two have spent much of their lives in a care home.
2. Strike
Strike is a popular British crime drama that has run four series (seasons) and 11 episodes. It stars Tom Burke as Cormoran Strike, a private detective who uses his mental skills and insight to solve seemingly impossible cases. Quinn appears in series four, titled Lethal White, as Billy Knight, a tormented man who pleads that Strike helps him investigate a crime he witnessed when he was a child. Quinn’s performance in the miniseries is a truly captivating one, and his new slew of fans has been shown to bring newfound attention to his performance following his Stranger Things success.
1. Stranger Things
Quinn’s character Eddie Munson may have been introduced in the series’ fourth season, but he instantly became a fan-favorite and many were crushed at his heartbreaking sacrifice to help his new friends defeat Vecna. The role successfully shot Quinn to mainstream fame and the actor has received widespread attention and praise for his solid acting chops.
With Eddie’s death, fans are still finding it hard to believe the Metallica-loving leader of the Hellfire Club will not return for the fifth and final season of Stranger Things, but Quinn is sure to book a host of interesting performances in the future.
