On tour
Every date the ticketer lists, worldwide · venue time
The profile · researched 2 October 2026
Ten years of Nick and Charlie, and the town-hall tour that closes the book
Alice Oseman spent a decade drawing Heartstopper, from a Tumblr webcomic to a Netflix finale; in 2026 they published the last volume, watched the last film land, and took the ending on the road through Britain, the Americas and Australasia.
Rochester, then a deal at nineteen
Alice May Oseman was born on 16 October 1994 in Chatham, Kent, and grew up in a village outside Rochester, where they attended Rochester Grammar School. The writing came before anything else: the manuscript that became the debut novel Solitaire was drafted at seventeen, picked up in a bidding war, and sold to HarperCollins when Oseman was nineteen. It was published in 2014, while they were still an undergraduate.
A BA in English Literature from Durham University followed in 2016, by which point the publishing career was already two books deep. Radio Silence appeared in 2016, I Was Born for This in 2018 and Loveless in 2020 — prose novels about internet friendship, fandom and, in the case of Loveless, a student working out that she is aromantic and asexual. Oseman is aromantic and asexual, and answers to both she/her and they/them.
None of that is why the town halls sell out. But it explains the shape of the work that did: Oseman has never written for an adult readership looking in on teenagers, and the drawing arrived as an extension of the writing rather than a separate trade. The University of Kent awarded an honorary doctorate in July 2024; the BBC had put Oseman on its 100 Women list in 2023, and Time named them to the Time100 Next list in October 2024.
A webcomic that outgrew its format
Heartstopper began online in September 2016 as a webcomic about Charlie Spring and Nick Nelson, two boys at a British grammar school. Oseman drew it in instalments and posted it, and the audience assembled itself: the strip has drawn more than 124 million views online, and the print series that grew out of it has sold over ten million copies worldwide. Brisbane Writers Festival's billing for its October 2026 session calls Oseman the third bestselling graphic novelist of all time.
The graphic novels were the engine. Volumes one to five accumulated around 1.8 million print copies, and the series has been described by its publisher as the fastest-selling graphic novel in the UK. Alongside them came The Heartstopper Yearbook, which Oseman toured in October 2022 with an in-conversation night at Alexandra Palace Theatre — the same room they would return to four years later for the ending.
The pace was not costless. Oseman announced a mental-health hiatus from Heartstopper in 2022 and did not resume drawing it until April 2023. The gap is part of the public record of the series rather than a footnote to it; the work and the breaks from it have been documented in the same place, by the same person, in the same tone.
Netflix, three Emmys, and a film instead of a fourth season
Netflix adapted Heartstopper into a television series that ran from 2022 to 2024, with Oseman writing the scripts. The show took three Children's and Family Emmy Awards for its writing, and Oseman's wider shelf includes a British Book Award and three Goodreads Choice Awards.
After viewing figures fell for the third season, Netflix commissioned a feature film rather than a fourth run. Heartstopper Forever was written by Oseman from the sixth graphic novel and the Nick and Charlie novella, directed by Wash Westmoreland, and shot in England across June and July 2025, with Kit Connor and Joe Locke executive producing alongside Brett Thomas. It premiered at Cineworld Leicester Square on 14 July 2026 and went up globally on Netflix on 17 July.
Reviews were warm without being uncritical: 93 per cent approval across 44 counted notices, and a Metacritic score of 67 from ten critics. Variety called it a mature and elevated swan song; the Guardian thought its version of teenage life remained sanitised. The plot closes the loop the books set up — Charlie's run at head boy, Nick leaving for university, a break-up, a reconciliation — and ends with an epilogue that follows the characters past school.
The last page, and what it did to the charts
Oseman trailed the ending in public and in sequence. In December 2025 they wrote that they were nervous and scared about how the final volume would be received, adding that 2026 would be a big year for Heartstopper. In March 2026 came the announcement that the drawing was finished: "I drew the first page of Heartstopper in April 2016. Today I drew the last page."
Heartstopper Volume 6 was published on 2 July 2026, two weeks ahead of the film, and went straight to number one on the overall UK chart for the week to 7 July 2026. It carries the series' eighth chapter and an epilogue. The marketing line — fastest-ever-selling graphic novel — is the publisher's, but the chart position and the sell-out pattern of the tour are not in dispute.
That double release is what the current run of live dates exists to mark. The tour was announced on 19 June 2026 and runs from July into late November, which makes it the longest sustained period Oseman has spent in front of audiences in a decade of mostly working alone at a desk.
A tour built around the ending
The run opened in London on 1 July 2026 at Alexandra Palace Theatre, a Waterstones event with Oseman in conversation with the YouTuber and author Jack Edwards, plus a live drawalong and a Heartstopper quiz. The room sold out and a livestream ticket was added; attendees took away pre-signed copies of Volume 6 before general publication the following day.
Britain and Ireland got bookshop signings rather than theatres: Plymouth on 2 July, Penarth on 3 July, York on 8 July, Edinburgh on 9 July and Dublin on 10 July. North America followed with Huntington Beach on 27 July, Mexico City on 30 July, Aurora, Illinois on 1 August, a sold-out Canadian date on 2 August and Barnes & Noble Union Square in New York on 5 August. Rio de Janeiro came on 9 September.
The Australasian leg is the part still running. Perth on 8 October is an in-store signing at Dymocks on Hay Street and the only date where Oseman signs in person; Brisbane has two sessions, an Art with Heart(stopper) drawing session with Phoebe Paradise at the Powerhouse Theatre on 10 October and a City Hall conversation on 11 October; then Melbourne Town Hall on 13 October, Sydney Town Hall on 14 October, the Dorothy Winstone Centre in Auckland on 20 October and Christ's College Auditorium in Christchurch on 22 October. France closes it out with Lille on 25 November and Paris on 29 November.
The show, now
The current show is a seated, single-guest conversation in a large civic room, running roughly an hour to 75 minutes with no support act and no band: Melbourne Town Hall on 13 October 2026 is scheduled 7.00–8.15pm with the arts writer Richard Watts chairing, Sydney Town Hall on 14 October runs 6.30–7.30pm with Benjamin Law, Brisbane City Hall on 11 October is a 60-minute session at 1pm with Claire Christian, and Christchurch on 22 October is chaired by Ray Shipley at 7pm. The through-line is the same at each: how a Tumblr webcomic became a New York Times bestseller, how Nick and Charlie changed over ten years, the decision to end the series, and the Netflix film. Audience questions are taken at most dates, and the London opener on 1 July 2026 added a live drawalong and a Heartstopper quiz to the interview with Jack Edwards. Staging is minimal — two chairs, a screen for artwork. Oseman does not sign at the theatre dates; pre-signed copies of Volume 6 are sold at the venue instead, with the Perth in-store on 8 October the one exception on the Australasian leg. Prices run from NZ$20 concession in Christchurch and NZ$20–31 in Auckland up to A$25–59.50 in Melbourne. Demand has been the story rather than the reviews: London sold out and needed a livestream, the Canadian date is marked sold out, Sydney is listed as selling fast and Christchurch has released extra tickets.
Researched from en.wikipedia.org · en.wikipedia.org · attitude.co.uk · thepinknews.com · hachette.co.nz · wheelercentre.com · swf.org.au · bwf.org.au
Pictures
Photographs from Wikimedia Commons, credited
PhilipRomanoPhoto · CC BY-SA 4.0
