Additional reporting: Sam Davies
2018 is set to be a bumper year for UK creatives in the US. Culturally, our cross-Atlantic ties grow closer, and far from a few decades ago, where it perhaps felt like a one-way conversation, the creative dialogue between the two nations grows richer each year.
Our most well-known export are actors, with La La Land providing a warm welcome for a huge numbers of British thesps since the Golden Age of Hollywood. Musicians too, have an illustrious history Stateside. In the world of celebrity, it’s a marker of pop-cultural success: if you can “break America” then you’ve become a global champion.
So who are the next big names from the UK poised to break America? To find out, I headed to L.A to see who's the talk of the town, eat many burritos, drink too much tequila (in the name of journalism!), and nearly miss my connection falling asleep in Dublin.
(Incidentally, if you’re thinking of travelling to L.A for work, business or pleasure, you really should consider travelling by Aer Lingus like I did. Aside from the millennial-friendly prices — the Dublin to LA leg starts from 210 EUR - and top notch in-flight film selection, they offer this really cool service where you can clear US security and customs at Dublin airport. So when you get off the plane in the States you can just leave the airport immediately, sauntering past all the queues just like when you’re on the guestlist and your frenemies aren’t.)
Here are some of the UK’s next gen of household name stars.