Skins stars now – racy Netflix romp scenes, ditching fame to teach and Hollywood

Skins sparked a lot of controversy when it burst onto TV screens just over 16 years ago.

The British teen comedy-drama ran for a successful seven seasons on Channel 4 back in 2007 and tackled some scandalous storylines such as depression, dysfunctional families, bipolar and eating disorders.

Following a sixth form students from Bristol, Skins broke barriers with its ground-breaking take on teens exploring taking drugs and their sexualities.

READ MORE: Skins' Emily and Katie Fitch stars now – bodybuilder, OnlyFans fame and horror accident

With a number of young stars appearing on the series, plenty of them went on to find fame and fortune in Hollywood off the back of their TV alter-egos.

Daily Star takes a look at what happened to the cast of the show since they moved on to pastures news.

Nicholas Hoult

Remember the film About a Boy based on Nick Hornby’s novel? Remember the cute kid who stars alongside Hugh Grant? Well, this is Nicholas, who would later go to play the controversial lead character Tony Stonem in first and second series of Skins.

He famously dated fellow Hollywood star Jennifer Lawrence, but the 32-year-old actor has nevertheless established himself as a force to be reckoned with on the big screen.

Back in 2002, the budding 12-year-old actor made his big film debut with Hollywood heartthrob Grant.

But his major breakthrough role came when he was cast as big blue mutant Hank in the Marvel franchise.

He starred in X-Men: First Class in 2011 and went on to star in two further films X-Men: Days of Future Past, X-Men: Apocalypse and X-Men: Dark Phoenix.

He also played Nux in the 2015 action film Mad Max: Fury Road.

More recently, Wokingham-born Nicholas was commended for his role as Harley in Oscar-nominated and BAFTA award-winning The Favourite that grossed nearly $100million at the box office.

And he was also nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Television Series Musical or Comedy in 2021 for his portrayal of Emperor Peter in hit comedy The Great.

Kaya Scodelario

Kaya was instantly-recognisable in Skins as Tony’s enigmatic sister Effy Stonem.

The eye-catching English-Brazilian actress was just 14 when she made his first serious TV breakthrough in the show.

She starred for four seasons and graduated into one of the show’s leading characters.

But, respectively, there were bigger projects around the corner as she went on to make her big film breakthrough in the Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales move in 2017.

Appearing alongside Hollywood icon Johnny Deep, Kaya played the character Carina Smyth.

Prior to that box office success, Kaya twice starred as Teresa in Maze Runner and follow-up Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials.

Most recently, Scodelario appeared as Kat Baker on the Netflix TV series "Spinning Out."

On her official Instagram account, which has 2.6million followers, she says she is always “obsessing over Dogs, fart jokes, pub beer gardens and the Obama scene in Fleabag”.

Kaya lives in New Zealand with her husband and son.

Joe Dempsie

The Liverpool-born actor played Chris Miles in the hit show before finding fantasy fame in the award-winning Game of Thrones.

Joe played Gendry Baratheon the HBO hit from 2011-2019 and admitted it was an emotional wrench when he left the show, especially after the cast effectively became his family over those fun years.

When filming wrapped after the fifth series Joe posted to his 448k Instagram followers: “Being a part of this show has given me experiences I’ll never ever forget.

“But it’s the people I’ll miss the most. I’d just moved to London when we started season 1, didn’t have many mates there – and Game of Thrones changed all that.

“To the friends I’ve made in this amazing cast and crew, thank you.

“Playing Gendry over 5 seasons has been a joy, and I can’t thank you lot enough for taking him to your hearts – and being patient while he took 3 years to find his way round a set of oars.”

Prior to his role on Skins, 35-year-old Joe played Ben Campbell in Sweet Medicine, Humphrey ‘Bogie’ Locke on the series Born and Bred, and Danny on BBC medical series Doctors between 2001-2004.

Most recently he’s starred in the Netflix show Pieces of Her.

Hannah Murray

Hannah played the troubled Cassie Ainsworth – and she too went to find fame in Game of Thrones.

The actress played Gilly from 2012 to 2019 and was nominated alongside her cast mates for three Screen Actors Guild Awards.

But arguably the Bristol-born 31-year-old’s greatest success to date is winning a Best Actress Award at the Tribeca Film Festival for her role as Julie Ann Hysell in Kathryn Bigelow’s critically-acclaimed American period crime drama Detroit in 2017.

Hannah is set to appear on the TV show Emma later this year and also starred alongside Johnny Depp in the film Dark Shadows.

Now 32, Hannah starred alongside an at-the-time unknown actor, Olly Alexander, when she returned to her role of Cassie Ainsworth in Skins Pure in 2013.

Olly went on to become the frontman of pop band Years and Years, while also getting cast as the lead in Channel 4's It's A Sin, which aired last year.

Mike Bailey

He played the likeable Sid Jenkins, Tony Stonem’s best mate in the show.

Mike appeared in the first two series of Skins but the 34-year-old quit acting in 2017 – stepped away from the spotlight – and is now a drama teacher.

He was in the show between 2007-2008 but his next assignment was as a character called Tofi in an historical drama called 1066 The Battle for Middle Earth.

Later roles would follow in Three Moments in Heaven, We Are The Freaks, Faulty and Reunion in Hell.

But Mike’s last acting was four years ago when he played Luke in a web series called Her and History.

However, last year Mike was trending when a TikTok user posted a video of Mike teaching at a school in Bristol.

The text caption on the video said: “Sid from Skins (Mike Bailey) teaches in my school."

Mike admitted in an interview with the Radio Times: "I kind of thought 'what the f*** am I doing with my life?' and ended up getting in a conversation with the wife a couple of years ago and decided that those who can’t act teach."

April Pearson

April played Michelle Richardson, Tony Stonem’s long-suffering girlfriend.

The 33-year-old Bristolian didn’t go on to find Hollywood fame and fortune like many of her co-stars, but she is still an actor, as well as now being a producer and podcaster.

Ironically she works on a podcast called Are You Michelle from Skins and is often promoting her podcasts and productions to her Twitter followers.

Last year April starred in a digital and on-demand rom-com flick called Making Tracks alongside co-star Chris Willoughby.

Back in 2018 she played Lily in an independent film, Tucked, alongside Jade Thirlwall's future boyfriend.

The movie was directed by Jamie Patterson, who April had first started working with in 2014.

The duo eventually started a relationship after meeting on the set of Home for Christmas, and tied the knot in 2017.

Mitch Hewer

Mitch played the larger-than-life Maxwell "Maxxie" Oliver in the teen drama.

Mitch was the lead role for 19 episodes before going on to star as the main character Danny Miller in Britannia High.

And he’ll be widely-remembered for twice appearing as the cover star of gay magazine Attitude.

He also bared all in a naked show in aid of testicular cancer for Cosmopolitan and went on to find recognition in established medical drama Casualty.

Mitch is still an actor and has played roles as Robin Hood and other well-known characters in live productions over the past few years.

He has attracted 114k Instagram followers and often posts thought-provoking

“Use your smile to change the world, don’t let the world change your smile,” he said in one of his many posts.

Another one simply read: “Be fearless in the pursuit of your dreams.”

And then there are some of the famous alumni from the later generation of Skins.

Dev Patel

Dev played a baby-faced Anwar in the series, but he has since gone on to achieve meteoric success after he left the show.

He most famously starred as Jamal Malik in the highly-acclaimed hit Slumdog Millionaire.

Dev won the BAFTA Award for Best Actor and has never looked back since having taken Hollywood by storm.

He also won a Critics' Choice Award and a SAG Award for his role in Slumdog Millionaire.

His other film credits include The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, the tear-jerker Lion and The Personal History of David Copperfield, the latter which saw him scoop the award for Best Actor in a Comedy/Musical at the Golden Globes.

Away from his screen career, Dev dated his Slumdog co-star Frieda Pinto for almost six years after meeting on set.

He is now dating Australian actress Tilda Cobham-Hervey, after they met on the set of Hotel Mumbai in 2016.

Jack O'Connell

Starred as the rebellious James Cook in Skins, often referred to as Cook.

Jack was part of the second generation of the series, but had appeared in the acclaimed This Is England before landing the role.

And, like Dev, the 31-year-old has gone to crack Hollywood.

The Derby-born actor won a BAFTA Rising Star Award for his heart-wrenching role in the film Unbroken in 2014, directed by Angelina Jolie.

He went on to star in movies Money Monster, The Man with the Iron Heart, Jungleland and Little Fish. And he also won plaudits for a prisoner in the harrowing crime drama Starred Up.

Jack also had cameos in well-known shows Doctors, The Bill, Waterloo Road and Holby City before the bright lights of Hollywood beckoned.

The actor is also a regular face on stage productions, though the audience saw more than just his face in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof as he was required to strip completely naked.

He also starred in a Netflix remake of Lady Chatterley's Lover alongside Emma Corrin, which saw the pair engage in a number of seriously raunchy sex scenes.

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