Flight Path: Harry Trevaldwyn Is About to Soar

With How to Train Your Dragon, a Netflix rom-com, and and a debut novel being developed for TV, Harry Trevaldwyn is reshaping stardom with wit, warmth and wide-legged trousers.

Words - Taj Hayer

Photography - David Reiss

Styling - Michael Miller

Grooming - Charlie Cullen

There’s something satisfyingly impossible to pin down about Harry Trevaldwyn. He’s not just a scene-stealer — though he does that, easily — he’s also a writer, a breakout comedic voice, a fashion original and, as of this month, a dragon-slayer. Or, at least, someone who plays one with considerable flair. In How to Train Your Dragon, Universal’s live-action take on the beloved DreamWorks franchise, Trevaldwyn stars as Tuffnut, a cocky, wannabe-warrior recruit who is equal parts swagger and sibling rivalry. For Trevaldwyn, it’s a headfirst leap into cinematic spectacle, and exactly the kind of larger-than-life world he’s longed to inhabit. “I’ve always wanted to do a big epic fantasy,” he says, flashing that dry, wry delivery that has become something of a signature. “Tuffnut is very full of himself and very much thinks of himself as the rock-star of the group.”

Fans of the original animated films will already know the character’s loveable chaos. But in the live-action reboot, there’s room to reimagine. “We were lucky to be trusted a lot by Dean [DeBlois, the director] to really make the characters our own,” he says. “He would always allow us to play around during the shoot and do bits of improv.” A lot of what grounded the role, he adds, was the off-screen connection with co-star Bronwyn James, who plays Tuffnut’s twin. “They exist entirely in competition with each other so having someone as remarkable as Bronwyn with me on the journey made it so much easier.”

The emotional legacy of How to Train Your Dragon — a franchise adored for its sweeping animation, tender storytelling and the bond between boy and beast — wasn’t lost on Trevaldwyn. “Absolutely, there were nerves,” he admits. “We were working in a world that people already had such a connection with. But I think every tiny part of the film has been made with such love of that world, that it always felt like we were honouring the original but also doing something new.” Asked what kind of dragon he’d train in real life, he doesn’t miss a beat: “The Terrible Terror. I’d walk around with it in my bag — like Elle Woods in Legally Blonde, but with a dragon.”

Trevaldwyn’s own ascent — from breakout comedic sketches on Instagram and TikTok during lockdown, to standout roles in Ten Percent (the UK’s answer to Call My Agent!) and Judd Apatow’s The Bubble — has never followed a conventional arc. That’s partly why it feels so refreshing. He’s a Screen International Star of Tomorrow with a cult following, a keen fashion sense, and now, a published novelist. The Romantic Tragedies of a Drama King, his debut YA book, has just hit shelves and is already in TV development with See-Saw Films, the powerhouse behind Heartstopperand Slow Horses. The book, which Trevaldwyn calls “cathartic,” is rooted in his own experience growing up without seeing many funny, messy, lovable queer leads. “I’ve always been obsessed with romance and comedy,” he says. “But there weren’t many queer love stories — especially funny queer love stories — around when I was growing up, so it was almost like I was writing for little me.”

Writing, like acting, is instinctive to Trevaldwyn — but with prose, there’s an additional layer of freedom. “The phrase ‘control-freak’ has been bandied around meeting rooms,” he jokes. “But it’s been a wonderful process. The team at See-Saw are absolute angels.” That said, there are drawbacks. “With acting you get a set lunch. When I’m writing in my flat I do not, and I think that’s awful.”

YA fiction, for him, is a space of possibility — not just for escapism, but for emotional truth. “I think stories are such a brilliant way of learning and building compassion,” he says, “and for that reason I think we need as many stories from as many different groups, especially under-represented ones, as possible.”

For all the gravity of his messaging, Trevaldwyn’s work remains stylishly light on its feet. Whether it’s the gentle satire of his character in Ten Percent, the meta-comedy of The Bubble, or the lockdown-era skits that made him a digital cult figure, there’s an undercurrent of intelligence and absurdity that feels uniquely his. “Gosh, love the term ‘sly wit’; I’m taking that and adding it to my CV,” he laughs. “Humour’s just how I’ve always navigated life. It’s a vehicle for every emotion. There’s humour in heartbreak, there’s humour in anger.”

Even as he moves into bigger-budget territory, Trevaldwyn says he still draws on the immediacy of sketch comedy. “With sketches and writing, you have more control over the final product,” he says. “You have to surrender a bit more when you are on a big studio project, there are so many moving parts and you are one of them. In the case of HTTYD, a moving part in a lovely ginger wig.”

He speaks often of balance. Between acting and writing. Between fun and normal. Between the slightly fabulous and the totally grounded. “I’m a sucker for a routine so I always try and put energy into getting some sort of structure in my life.” The anchor for that, he adds, is surprisingly practical: “Swimming and therapy. And wide-legged trousers.” There’s also a grooming tip: “Sometimes I paint my nails with clear nail varnish to make it look like I’m brimming with health and take lots of cod-liver oil. That’s a little hack from me to you.”

When asked how he defines where to place his creative energy, he answers with typical candour. “With this job, you can’t always decide where you put your energy — you are always somewhat responding to other things.” But it’s clear he sees all his creative outputs — from big-screen dragon taming to writing hilarious, heartfelt queer fiction — as part of a larger, evolving identity. “I do know that I need a nice balance of fun and normal,” he says. “And somewhere in all of that, the stories come.”

With My Oxford Year arriving in August on Netflix, and The Romantic Tragedies of a Drama King heading to screen in the future, there’s a sense that Harry Trevaldwyn is just getting started. But if the world is trying to fit him into a box, it’s going to need a bigger box — preferably one that can fly, spark joy, and maybe breathe a little fire.

How to Train Your Dragon is out in cinemas now.

Follow Harry Trevaldwyn on Instagram.