Jonathan Bailey

Jonathan Stuart Bailey (born 25 April 1988) is an English actor. Known for his comedic, dramatic, and musical roles on stage and screen, he is the recipient of a Laurence Olivier Award and a nomination for an Evening Standard Theatre Award. Bailey began his career as a child actor in Royal Shakespeare Company productions and by eight was performing as Gavroche in a West End production of Les Misérables. He has since starred in contemporary plays such as South Downs in 2012, The York Realist in 2018, and Cock in 2022; in classical plays like the Royal National Theatre's Othello in 2013 and Chichester Festival Theatre's King Lear in 2017; as well as in musicals, namely the London revival of The Last Five Years in 2016 and the West End gender-swapped revival of Company for which he won the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role in a Musical in 2019. On screen, Bailey starred in the CBBC action-adventure series Leonardo (2011–2012) and the Disney Channel musical-comedy Groove High (2012–2013) before becoming known for his roles in the ITV crime drama Broadchurch (2013–2015), the BBC satire W1A (2014–2017), and the Channel 4 comedy Crashing (2016). He gained international recognition for his critically acclaimed portrayal of Anthony, Viscount Bridgerton, in the Netflix Regency romance series Bridgerton (2020–present). Early life Jonathan Stuart Bailey was born on 25 April 1988 in the Oxfordshire town of Wallingford, to an audiologist mother and Rowse Honey managing director father. He grew up in the neighbouring Benson and Brightwell-cum-Sotwell, and is the youngest of four siblings and the only son. He described being brought up by "a co-operative of four brilliant women and a dad who has an incredible work ethic." Bailey decided that he wanted to be an actor at the age of five after his grandmother took him to see a production of Lionel Bart's Oliver! in London. His first ever appearance on stage was in a primary school production of Noah's Ark playing a raindrop.