Sinners star Miles Caton: I didn't know how much I would be in the film it might have scared me'

"That morning, the 20-year-old star of Sinners set his alarm for 8.30am so he could watch the Oscar nominations live. As soon as I woke up, I went straight to YouTube, he says, where he learned Sinners had been nominated for 16 Academy Awards, more than any other film in Oscars history. Unsurprisingly, his phone has been blowing up: he's been so busy responding to messages, he's yet to get out of bed."

"A southern gothic horror musical set in the 1930s, about the bloodsucking of Black culture, Sinners was the unexpected box office smash of 2025, earning $368m in ticket sales globally. The film co-stars Michael B Jordan and comes from the imagination of Ryan Coogler, the writer-director behind Marvel's Black Panther franchise and the Rocky reboot, Creed. I watched Black Panther for the first time when I was 12 years old, says Caton, who remembers going to the cinema to see the director's Afrofuturist superhero movie with his whole family."

"Since his breakout role in Sinners as Sammie, a preternaturally talented blues singer pulled further and further from the church, Caton has been moving in new, increasingly glamorous circles. Last summer, he sat front-row at Paris fashion week alongside Spike Lee, Idris Elba and Beyonce. He spent the autumn working the awards circuit, and in the UK has been nominated for the Bafta Rising Star award, whose previous recipients include Kristen Stewart, Daniel Kaluuya and Industry's David Jonsson. A few weeks after our conversation, he attended the Grammys where he wore a very fly Louis Vuitton jacket as Sinners won best score soundtrack."

Miles Caton is a 20-year-old actor who stars as Sammie in Sinners, a 1930s southern gothic horror musical about the bloodsucking of Black culture. Sinners became an unexpected box-office smash in 2025, earning $368m globally and receiving 16 Academy Award nominations, the most in Oscars history. Caton experienced sudden celebrity, attending Paris fashion week and award seasons, and received a Bafta Rising Star nomination in the UK. The film co-stars Michael B Jordan and was created by Ryan Coogler. Caton recalls seeing Black Panther at age 12 and describes Coogler's films as cultural touchstones for his family.

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