Rupert Grint has revealed he became a father during a break in filming caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

The actor, best known for playing Ron Weasley in the Harry Potter films, and his partner Georgia Groome welcomed daughter Wednesday in May last year.

He said the birth came during a forced break in production of the second season of psychological horror Servant.

Double Date Premiere – BFI London Film Festival 2017
Grint’s partner Georgia Groome gave birth in May (Ian West/PA)

Grint, 32, and Groome, 28, have been together since 2011. They announced she was pregnant last April.

He told the PA news agency: “I think we were six episodes in and then we had to shut down and we had a break. How long was the break? A month? I had a baby in the break.

“And then we came back and it was very different. We had to rethink every element of shooting this show.

“We were all separated into zones, we were all living in bubbles and there were masks, visors, we were tested three times a week.

“Full on. But I think rightly so, the main priority is keeping everyone safe.”

Grint is the first of the Harry Potter series’ central characters – also including Daniel Radcliffe and Emma Watson – to become a parent.

He shot to worldwide fame after starring in Harry Potter And The Philosopher’s Stone in 2001 as Ron, Harry’s loyal but accident-prone best friend.

Servant, executive-produced by Oscar-nominated director M Night Shyamalan, follows a Philadelphia couple – Dorothy and Sean Turner – who have a rift in their marriage after an unspeakable tragedy.

Speaking about the show’s sinister setting of the family home, Grint said: “It’s a set that’s got challenges, definitely. It’s such a small stage, you can’t really hide. It’s quite exposing in that way. But I do really enjoy it, it’s kind of like theatre in a way.

“It’s always a relief stepping off because it can get a bit too much. But also, in this season there’s so many more elements to the house that we didn’t know, we didn’t see in season one.

“So it is this kind of growing organism and it’s… a little bit different.”

Servant season two arrives on Apple TV+ on January 15.