![\"Actor](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/\/fa610007-e11b-43dc-ad0d-04b246580849.jpg\")
<\/p>\nRobert Aramayo\u2019s mother knew her son could \u201ccommand an audience\u201d at his very first primary school assembly.<\/p>\n
It was still \u201cbonkers\u201d though that her son, from a \u201chumble little family in Hull\u201d, was now competing against Leonardo DiCaprio and Timoth\u00e9e Chalamet to be crowned this year\u2019s best actor by the British film academy.<\/p>\n
Lisa Dawson and Robert\u2019s father, Mike Aramayo, spoke to The Times this week after his Bafta leading actor nomination elevated their son, 33, to the top tier of the film world.<\/p>\n
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Robert Aramayo with his mother Lisa Dawson and father Mike<\/p>\n
Both made sacrifices to help him progress from Hull Truck Theatre to a life-changing audition as a teenager with New York\u2019s prestigious Juilliard School.<\/p>\n
In that year, 2011, he was the only British student accepted. After graduating, Aramayo began carving out a career with roles in the television series Game of Thrones and The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power.<\/p>\n
![\"Robert](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/\/985b90eb-ee9d-4878-af29-d3c906fd12c7.jpg\")
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Robert Aramayo and Morfydd Clark in Lord of the Rings<\/p>\n
BEN ROTHSTEIN\/AMAZON\/SHUTTERSTOCK EDITORIAL<\/p>\n
His role in last year\u2019s low-budget British film I Swear playing a Tourette\u2019s syndrome sufferer<\/a> catapulted him into the leading actor category alongside DiCaprio and Chalamet, as well as fellow screen giants, Ethan Hawke, Michael B Jordan and Jessie Plemons.<\/p>\n Mike Aramayo, 60, said he had been \u201cflabbergasted\u201d watching the Bafta shortlist<\/a> announcement on Tuesday.<\/p>\n Robert Aramayo in I Swear<\/p>\n SONY PICTURES CLASSICS \/COURTESY EVERETT COLLECTION\/ALAMY<\/p>\n \u201cYou get lost in the names of DiCaprio, Chalamet, Jordan and all of that,\u201d he said. \u201cYou realise just how talented you need to be to get there.<\/p>\n \u201cBut Robert has worked his socks off all his life. Whether it\u2019s a small part or a big part he [has] still put the same research in, the same effort and [given] it his best shot.\u201d<\/p>\n Mike was born in Hull after his father escaped Spain\u2019s Basque region during the country\u2019s civil war, and began working on fishing boats in Milford Haven and then Humberside.<\/p>\n \u201cThere is no more grounded, humble person than Robert,\u201d Mike said. \u201cHe is just from a normal, working-class family from Hull.\u201d<\/p>\n Robert has two sisters, Laura, 35, who is a midwife, and Charleigh, 27, who is doing a degree in social work.<\/p>\n His double Bafta nomination \u2014 he is also in contention for its Rising Star award, which members of the public can vote for until February 12 \u2014 comes amid continuing concern that success in the performing arts is increasingly the preserve of the privately educated<\/a> given the downgrading of arts within state schools.<\/p>\n![\"Robert](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/\/02b36c0b-338f-4626-b28d-b4cb953c9ac0.jpg\")
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