DEAN-CHARLES CHAPMAN

“1917,” “GAME OF THRONES”

Barely into his second decade and Essex-born Chapman has already conquered roles on stage, television and film. He spent much of his formative years in the cast, and then starring in, the West End’s theatrical adaptation of “Billy Elliot” before earning memorable television roles including the boy king Tommen Baratheon on HBO’S “Game of Thrones” and warrior Castor on AMC’S drama “Into the Badlands.”

Now, he toplines as one of the two young soldiers tasked with a difficult mission in director and co-writer Sam Mendes’ World War I epic “1917.”

“It’s a very human story,” Chapman says regarding what compelled him to sign on to star opposite George Mackay in the film. “You’re not just following soldiers, you are following two human beings.”

Like a lot of performers who start as children, Chapman got involved in local theater at a young age after his older sister caught the acting bug. She gave it up after two months, but he began to book TV commercials before graduating to more high-profile parts that would eventually also include appearing in this year’s “The King,” based on Shakespeare’s plays, and starring in the upcoming Irish drama “Here Are the Young Men,” based on the Rob Doyle novel.

“Every role I play, I think of it as a time in my life and I look back on it like that,” he says. “Every job I do, I always learn a big lesson about my job and me.”

Chapman says he doesn’t favor one medium of storytelling over another. Although, he admits to being “a bit obsessed with Westerns at the minute. Maybe I’ll be a cowboy one day. That would be nice.”

— Whitney Friedlander

REPRESENTATION: Agency: WME (U.S.), Troika (U.K.) INFLUENCES: Leonardo Dicaprio, Robert De Niro