Not everyone grows up to live out their childhood dream, but Nicholas Pinnock did just that.
The British actor, who has starred in U.K. series such as Top Boy and Marcella, is set to make his official debut across the pond in the upcoming sci-fi spy thriller Counterpart, starring Academy Award-winning actor J.K. Simmons. Ahead of the Jan. 21 premiere, PEOPLE caught up with Pinnock, 44, to discuss the much-anticipated series, created by Justin Marks and ordered straight-to-series for two seasons by Starz way back in the spring of 2015.
"I knew from the age of 4 exactly what it was I wanted to do," Pinnock says. "I had this dream of what my life would be like. I mean, we all have an idea of what we want our life to be like, and years later, that's my life. It's just f-ing awesome."
The espionage series follows Simmons' Howard Silk (a lowly cog in the bureaucratic machinery of a Berlin-based United Nations spy agency), who discovers that his organization safeguards the secret of a crossing into a parallel dimension. Pinnock plays Ian Shaw, the love interest of Silk's wife, Emily, played by Olivia Williams.
"It's a really exciting, fun, thriller of a show," Pinnock says. "J.K. is a master at what he does, and he makes everything look so effortless. His presence on set - sometimes you wouldn't even know he was there. He's also really generous. There's no ego at all."
"Everybody, in fact, was just so happy to be there and wanted it to be the best show that it could possibly be," he adds. "So egos went right out the window - we all just got on and did it. And whoever had a great idea, we went with that one."