Fez from Euphoria is Irish (kinda)

We love an Irish connection, particularly where a celebrity is involved. I don’t know what it is, but the thought of someone famous having relatives out in Mayo thrills us to no end. Doesn’t matter if they’ve ever even been to Ireland or not… the promise that they could come to rediscover their roots is there, and that’s enough for us. 

Many big names have revealed that they have some Irish heritage over the years. Mel Gibson was named after the cathedral in Longford. Emily Ratajkowski basically grew up in Bantry and her clothing brand sponsors the local U15/16 basketball team. Even Olivia Wilde has an Irish passport and spent her summers in Ardmore, Co Waterford. (Please, oh please, can she bring Harry next time she visits?!)

As it turns out, the list doesn’t end there either and Euphoria star Angus Cloud, who plays Fezco on the show, also has ties to the Emerald Isle. Angus himself was born and raised in California, but his entire family hails from our humble shores and many of them still live here too. 

In fact, Angus was seriously considering moving here to join them. Already leaving Cali for NYC, he was busy working at a local chicken-and-waffles restaurant near the Barclays Centre in Brooklyn. Quickly tiring of the constant hustle, he contemplated heading across the water to Ireland where the plan would be to just “live out there, be working”. “I just kinda went out to the east coast on a one-way type thing. I was going to move to Ireland. All my family live out there,” he told The Wall Street Journal in an interview back in 2019. That never happened though as he was randomly scouted while walking down the street and asked to audition for the show, landing the role opposite Zendaya soon after. And well, the rest is history. 

We’re still claiming him as one of our own though. I mean his full name is Conor Angus Cloud Hickey, for God’s sake. Naturally, Twitter was thoroughly amused by the discovery with many questioning how we hadn’t guessed it before – you know, given that he “has a big Irish head on him” and all. It’s only made fans love him even more though. 

I don’t watch Euphoria but idk how people didn’t realize that the actor that plays Fez is clearly very obviously Irish. Honestly the most Irish looking American I’ve ever seen. There’s about 17 of him in every village. How is this news.

— Amy Louise (shop back open!) (@Amylouioc) January 18, 2022

https://twitter.com/ellabellamoya/status/1481059087618031619

Back on our screens for season two of Euphoria, Angus had virtually no acting experience prior to being cast as Fez the hit show. His character was actually supposed to be killed off in the first season, but show-writer Sam Levinson changed his mind after seeing how much of a natural Cloud was. “I was supposed to die in season 1, bro,” he told GQ last month. “Apparently cus they cast me off the street, I guess the character of Fezco was [never meant to stick around]. I don’t even know how. I never saw that script. No one ever told me. It was one day when we were filming the pilot that I think Jacob [Elordi] told me, he was like, ‘Oh yeah, you didn’t know? Your character gets [imitates brains getting blown out].’ And yeah, it never ended up happening. I think that they liked what I did and so they decided to keep me alive and let me rock.

Admitting that he still doesn’t “understand it”, Angus said that he’s not immune to imposter syndrome and often questions how he got the job in the first place. “I still get up and I’m like, ‘What the heck? What am I doing here? Why did they not hire a professional actor?’ I just had to come to terms because during the filming of the pilot everyone would compliment me and say, ‘Oh you’re killing it, man.’ And I was like, ‘No, I’m not, but thank you for trying to make me feel better.’ Because I just felt like I had no idea what I was doing. I felt like I was doing a terrible job,” he continued. Having his character’s storyline extended kind of confirmed that he was doing something right though. He’s a professional actor now. 

Careful not to give too many specific details about upcoming episodes away, Cloud just said that he’s excited for fans to see how Fez “kind of comes out of his hard shell a little bit”. According to him, he “exposes his softer side” this season and viewers get to see a little bit of his innocence and how he’s been forced into the life he leads. “He’s still a kid like everyone else. He might be a year older, but he had to act like an adult from such a young age. But his inner kid is still in there and you get to see it come out slightly.”