Meet Alison Oliver, who’s dating The Crown’s Josh O’Connor: the actress landed her Conversations with Friends role just after graduation and was in Saltburn with Barry Keoghan and Jacob Elordi

Dec 12 , 2024

Actress Alison Oliver is dating The Crown’s Josh O’Connor. Photos: @alisonjoliverInstagram, AFP

Oliver auditioned for Conversations with Friends despite having no professional experience; her career’s taken off since, with appearances in 2023’s Saltburn and the upcoming Wuthering Heights

Most aspiring actresses have to hustle for years before landing an on-screen role. And getting a breakthrough role your first time out? That requires a rather extraordinary stroke of luck. But the stars have obviously aligned for up-and-coming actress Alison Oliver, appeared in Hulu series Conversations with Friends alongside Jemima Kirke, Sasha Lane and Joe Alwyn (yes, Taylor Swift’s British ex).

The kicker? Oliver found out that she’d landed the role just after graduating from drama school.

In the months leading up to her graduation from Ireland’s Lir National Academy of Dramatic Art in 2022, Alison discovered that Conversations with Friends, the adaptation of Sally Rooney’s bestselling novel, was casting and she had the chance to send in an audition tape. The rest was history.

But who is Alison Oliver, Hulu’s dynamic new star?

Conversations with Friends was Alison Oliver’s first professional role

Alison Oliver stars with Joe Alwyn in Conversations with Friends. Photo: @alisonjoliver/Instagram

Born on June 3, 1997, in Ballintemple, Ireland, Alison Oliver’s rise to fame has been faster and more surreal than she ever imagined.

After hearing that Conversations with Friends was casting, she decided to audition for a role despite having no professional acting experience at the time and being just months away from graduating from drama school.

Oliver was already a huge fan of Rooney’s work, per Elle – her then-boyfriend, Éanna Hardwicke, had starred in the adaptation of Rooney’s Normal People. So she knew she wanted to be part of Rooney’s latest adaptation, which revolves around a quiet, intelligent college student and her best friend, who form a complex and emotionally charged relationship with a married couple.

“So when I heard they were doing this, it was something I would dream to be a part of,” she told Elle in mid-2022. “It’s really nice to feel like you’re coming into the industry being a part of a world you feel like you understand, and a character I felt like I understood.”